Skills-Based Health Education
Standards-Based Physical Education
Heart Healthy Activities
Early Childhood Activities
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All children from birth to age 5 should engage in daily physical activity that promotes movement skillfulness and foundations of health-related fitness.
SHAPE America has updated and revised this national guidelines document to address the physical activity needs of children from birth to age 5. This new edition complements other current national consensus documents addressing physical activity recommendations for children birth to age 5, and it incorporates new information found in research studies. The document also offers the reader an expanded list of activities to implement with a particular age level. It is SHAPE America’s goal to give all children from birth to age 5 an active and healthy start to developing lifelong habits of daily physical activity. The 2020 recommendations in this document are intended to highlight the responsibility of adults who interact with infants, toddlers and/or preschoolers to promote movement and motor competency and establish healthy patterns of physical activity and exploration of the physical environment. In turn, those experiences can enhance children’s overall physical, cognitive, and social development.
The book provides five national guidelines for each age category: infants (birth to age 12 months), toddlers (age 12 to 36 months), and preschoolers (ages 3 to 5). The guidelines answer questions about kinds of physical activity, the activity’s environment and the people responsible for facilitating the physical activity.
Explanations and discussion of typical activities accompany the listing of the guidelines. Also included: a Frequently Asked Questions section, a glossary of terms and an expanded, comprehensive list of background resources.
Head Start Early Learning Framework A set of standards Head Start centers can use to guide their curriculum planning and teaching. It is research-based, focused on what young children should know and be able to do during their early years.
Give Kids an Active Start-Building Healthy Habits Through Daily Physical Activity Offers some highlights from the Active Start e-book that support social and emotional learning and benefits of early physical activity.
At home early childhood activities from SHAPE America SHAPE America early childhood activities include a series of free activities for parents, caregivers and teachers to use in creating early physical activity opportunities for young childrenbirth to five. Also available in Spanish.
Acknowledgements SHAPE America extends its appreciation to members of its Active Start Committee and the Active Start Revision Task Force for contributing their time and effort to developing and expanding upon the content of this document. Revision Task Force (authors of the 3rd Edition, 2020) Stephen J. Virgilio, Rhonda Clements Revision Task Force (authors of the 2nd Edition, 2009) Jackie Goodway and Nancy Getchell Active Start Committee (authors of the 1st Edition, 2002) Jane E. Clark (Chair), Rhonda L. Clements, Marci Guddemi, Don W. Morgan, Rae Pica, James M. Pivarnik, Mary Rudisill, Eric Small, Stephen J. Virgilio © 2020, SHAPE America All rights reserved. Reproducing this work in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means – including photocopying or storage in any information-retrieval system – is expressly forbidden without written permission from the publisher. To request permission to reprint or copy portions of this work, visit www.shapeamerica.org/permissions.
