10 Reasons Why Winter Wellderness is Great for Building Physical Literacy

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10 Reasons Why Winter Wellderness is Great for Building Physical Literacy

January 21, 2019

It gets us outdoors! Winter Wellderness currently consists of 3 annual winter events happening at Provincial Parks across New Brunswick. This opportunity to be outdoors in the winter is important because we want to build physical literacy skills in all environments! That means on snow, ground, in water or in the air.
It provides the opportunity for New Brunswickers to try new types of outdoor physical activity! The various events across the province will expose NBers to: cross-country and downhill skiing and snowboarding, snowshoeing, snow art, sledding, ice skating, snow yoga, sleigh rides, sledge hockey and fat biking. Mount Carleton will specially offer dog sledding, bush craft skills, and ice fishing. Sugarloaf will also be doing hiking, geocaching and snow skates!
It’s accessible! At Mactaquac and Sugar Loaf Provincial Parks, Para NB brings in their sledge hockey and downhill skiing supplies for people who may have a physical disability to try! For the Mactaquac event, there are some amazing partnerships with the Wellness department to provide buses to the park for those who don’t have access to a car.
We have awesome volunteer leaders and provincial organizations teaching you how to use the equipment! Good Mentors when engaging in new activities is so important, whether it be a parent, coach, older siblings or volunteers! Come meet some great people who are passionate about getting New Brunswickers outside and having fun!
The event is FREE! Yes, we said that right! All the fun activities are FREE day of the event!
Many of the activities being offered in the Parks are available locally to borrow or rent for low cost after the event is over. If your family or group of friends finds something fun they want to do again, then you can talk to the volunteers to find out how to do it again! A great example is that many libraries across New Brunswick offer a snowshoe borrowing program.
It makes us more comfortable and confident to try more new activities. The Definition of physical literacy explains it well! Physical literacy is the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activities for life! Building competence or fundamental movement skills provides building blocks for further engagement and interest.
It allows us to be active and outdoors which leads to a healthy lifestyle! Getting active and outdoors has been shown to help with not only our physical health, but also our mental health, community connections, problem solving and academic performance. Many Canadians currently don’t get enough activity for all these benefits!
We don’t only learn new activities to become more physically literate, but also get to build health literacy by creating healthy snacks at the free trail mix station and trying the delicious and healthy soup and hot drink options for only $2! Our amazing partnership with the Horizon Health Public Health Dieticians for the Mactaquac event means we have experts on nutrition helping you customize your healthy snacks.
It’s for Everyone! We would love to see people of all ages at our event! Physical Literacy is a Journey! It is something that we start to develop as children, but continue to learn through the aging process, exposure to new environments and activities. We may take a special interest in one area at a younger age, but refer back to our skills we learned when we were younger to then try something new as an adult or older adult. You may also be teaching and exploring with children and grandchildren. It really is fun for the whole family!