Short days and cold weather can make it even harder to fit in the recommended 60 minutes of energetic play for your toddlers. Luckily, there are free programs close by where your child can burn off that extra energy and develop gross motor skills!
Shake, Rattle, and Roll classes are filled with running, jumping, singing, and playing. Each class starts with a warmup song, followed by gross motor skill development and ball work, and finishes with games, a cooldown, and a story.
A love for movement starts at a very young age as babies learn to roll, crawl, and eventually walk. Physical activity programs like Shake, Rattle, and Roll help develop a child’s motor skillset, or “physical literacy,” in a fun and safe environment. Preschoolers who know how to move in a variety of ways will become children who are confident in many sports and activities—and this leads to a lifetime of staying active.
Not only does Shake, Rattle, and Roll develop physical literacy in toddlers, it’s also an opportunity for children and their parents and guardians to be active together. The program is designed to have parents participate alongside their toddlers. Truth be told, if parents do everything their kids do, they’ll be squeezing in a workout for themselves.
To try out Shake, Rattle, and Roll, you can drop in for the St. Adolphe program on Wednesdays from 5:45–6:45 p.m. at the École St. Adolphe School gym until March 7 (note that there’s no class on February 28). The Île-des-Chênes program runs on Mondays from 5:45–6:45 p.m. at the TransCanada Centre until March 19.
Funding for Shake, Rattle, and Roll in the region has been generously provided by the South East Healthy Child Coalition.
Other physical literacy development classes for toddlers include the Niverville Tot Gymnastics program, for those up to the age of five. The cost is $4 per week, with classes taking place at the south end of the Niverville Arena. Drop-in classes are available February 7 and February 21, from 12:30–1:00 p.m.
Also, Ste. Agathe’s “Bouger en famille” is a one-hour French program offering parents and preschool-age children the opportunity to play educational games and be active. The program was created to combat low levels of physical activity and to encourage a healthy, active lifestyle. The main goal of the program is to develop gross motor skills through running, jumping, skipping, catching, and rolling in a playful environment. The program also includes songs and rhymes to encourage activity. “Bouger en famille” runs at the École Ste. Agathe School gym on Wednesdays from 6:00–7:00 p.m.
