Perfect for KIDDO, Play Active, Munch & Move and Kids at Play Active Play (KAPAP)
By BEST Childcare Consulting
We all know children need to move. Running, climbing, balancing, jumping, throwing, catching, dancing and energetic play are fundamental parts of childhood. But when an early childhood service decides it wants to strengthen physical activity within its program, a surprisingly difficult question can arise: where do we start?
A search for physical activity programs can lead services to KIDDO, Play Active, Munch & Move, Kids at Play Active Play and numerous commercial sport and movement programs. They can all sound similar, but they are not necessarily designed to achieve the same thing.
Some focus on children’s fundamental movement skills. Others focus on how much energetic physical activity children experience throughout their day. Some take a broader healthy lifestyle approach, incorporating nutrition and sedentary behaviour.
The important question, therefore, may not be “Which program is best?” A much more useful question is: “What does our service need to improve, and which program or resource best addresses that need?”
Why Physical Activity Matters in Early Childhood Education and Care
Physical activity is not simply an optional addition to an early childhood program.
Under the National Quality Standard, Quality Area 2 – Children’s Health and Safety specifically addresses children’s physical activity.
Standard 2.1 – Health requires that each child’s health and physical activity is supported and promoted.
More specifically:
Element 2.1.3 – Healthy Lifestyle:
Healthy eating and physical activity are promoted and appropriate for each child.
ACECQA identifies a range of practices that may demonstrate this element, including providing frequent opportunities for active play, implementing physical games and activities, supporting children to participate according to their abilities, providing structured and unstructured physical activity, and helping children develop increasingly complex movement patterns.
This means physical activity should be much more than putting children outside and assuming they will move.
High-quality practice requires educators to consider the opportunities, environments, experiences and intentional teaching that support every child’s physical development.
Start With the Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines
Before choosing a particular program, services should understand the national recommendations that sit behind much of this work.
Australia’s 24-Hour Movement Guidelines consider physical activity alongside sedentary behaviour, screen time and sleep. For children aged 1–2 years, the Australian Government recommends at least three hours of physical activity spread throughout the day. For children aged 3–5 years, at least three hours of physical activity is also recommended, with at least one hour involving energetic play. Recommendations are different for babies and include interactive floor-based play and tummy time for infants who are not yet mobile.
These guidelines provide an important benchmark. However, knowing how much movement children need and knowing how to embed this effectively within an ECEC service are two different things. This is where programs such as KIDDO and Play Active can be particularly useful.
KIDDO
What is KIDDO?
KIDDO is an Australian physical literacy program developed through The University of Western Australia.
Its focus is not simply on getting children moving more. KIDDO places particular emphasis on developing physical literacy – helping children develop the skills, confidence and motivation that enable them to participate in physical activity.
Fundamental movement skills include skills such as:
- running
- jumping
- hopping
- balancing
- throwing
- catching
- kicking.
KIDDO provides ECEC services with intentional teaching programs, planning and observation tools, educator training, activities for families and tools for assessing children’s physical development. Its NQS guidance describes planned teaching of fundamental movement skills alongside child-led active play and opportunities to integrate movement across learning areas.
KIDDO may particularly suit a service where:
Educators recognise that children are active but are not necessarily developing strong fundamental movement skills.
It may also be useful where educators lack confidence in teaching movement skills intentionally, or where the service wants physical development to become a more visible component of its educational program.
Think KIDDO when your question is: “Are we helping children develop the skills and confidence they need to move?”
For WA services, KIDDO also has the advantage of having strong Western Australian origins and experience within WA early childhood settings.
Play Active
What is Play Active?
Play Active takes a somewhat different approach.
Play Active is an evidence-based Australian ECEC physical activity program co-developed with early childhood educators and researchers, including researchers from The Kids Research Institute Australia and The University of Western Australia. It focuses strongly on ensuring children have sufficient opportunities for physical activity and energetic play throughout their day in care.
A particularly useful feature is its whole-service approach.
At the centre of Play Active is a service-tailored physical activity policy. Services complete a self-assessment and use this to develop their policy and identify opportunities to increase physical activity and energetic play. Professional development, practical resources and implementation support are also provided.
This makes Play Active particularly interesting from a Quality Improvement Plan perspective.
Play Active may particularly suit a service where:
Children have opportunities to play outside, but educators are unsure whether children are actually experiencing enough energetic activity.
It may also suit services wanting to review their physical activity policy, sedentary practices, routines, environments and educator practices across the whole service, rather than introducing another isolated activity.
Think Play Active when your question is: “Have we created a service where children have enough opportunities to be physically active throughout the entire day?”
Play Active currently offers service membership, including online professional development and resources. Its website lists two-year E-membership and full-membership options.
KIDDO or Play Active?
This is where the comparison becomes interesting. At first glance, KIDDO and Play Active could appear to be competing programs. In practice, they address different parts of the physical activity picture.
KIDDO asks: Can the child move confidently and competently?
Its strength is physical literacy, movement competence and the intentional development of fundamental movement skills.
Play Active asks: Does the service provide the conditions and opportunities that enable the child to move enough?
Its strength is energetic play, whole-service practice, policy and creating physical activity opportunities throughout the day.
A service could therefore reasonably use elements of both approaches. KIDDO helps develop children’s capacity and confidence to move. Play Active helps create an environment and service culture in which children have opportunities to move. For some services, this combination may provide a more comprehensive approach than selecting either program in isolation.
Munch & Move
What is Munch & Move?
Munch & Move is a NSW Government health-promotion program for early childhood education and care services.
Unlike programs focused primarily on physical activity, Munch & Move combines healthy eating and physical activity within a broader healthy-lifestyle approach.
It supports services to develop healthy menus, model healthy eating and physical activity, create supportive environments, build educator knowledge and involve families. Its resources also address active play, movement skills and reducing sedentary and screen time.
Munch & Move may particularly suit a service where: The identified improvement area is broader than physical activity alone. For example, a service might be reviewing:
healthy eating + physical activity + sedentary behaviour + family health promotion.
An important point for WA services
Munch & Move is a NSW Health program and the supported program is available free to NSW ECEC services. WA services therefore should not assume they can participate in the program in the same way as a NSW service. However, the publicly available information provides a useful model for considering a whole-service approach to healthy lifestyles.
Think Munch & Move when your question is:
“How can we strengthen our broader healthy eating and active-living approach?”
Kids at Play Active Play
Another program worth knowing about is the ACT Government’s Kids at Play Active Play (KAPAP).
Kids at Play Active Play resources
KAPAP provides free online professional learning and practical resources designed to increase educator confidence in promoting active play and teaching fundamental movement skills.
The resources are particularly practical. Activity plans cover children from babies onwards, while its fundamental movement skill resources include balancing, catching, jumping, kicking, throwing, hopping and running activities.
The online educator course is free and takes a minimum of approximately two hours.
KAPAP also provides an Active Play Audit Tool that ECEC services can use to assess their environment, identify gaps and develop an action plan that can then inform their Quality Improvement Plan.
Although it is an ACT Government initiative, its publicly available resources may be useful to educators elsewhere in Australia looking for practical physical activity ideas.
Think KAPAP when your question is: “Can we access practical resources and educator learning to improve the way we teach active play and movement skills?”
So Which Program Is Right for Your Service?
There isn’t necessarily one correct answer.
The starting point should be the need you have identified within your service.
| If your service is saying… | Consider looking at… |
| “Our children need stronger fundamental movement skills.” | KIDDO |
| “Educators aren’t confident teaching running, jumping, throwing, catching and other movement skills.” | KIDDO / KAPAP |
| “Children go outside, but we’re not sure they’re actually getting enough energetic play.” | Play Active |
| “We need to review our physical activity policy and whole-service practice.” | Play Active |
| “We want something we can connect clearly with our QIP.” | Play Active / KIDDO / KAPAP audit resources |
| “We want to address nutrition as well as physical activity.” | Munch & Move as a useful model |
| “We need practical activity ideas for educators.” | KIDDO / KAPAP |
| “We want a comprehensive approach to physical literacy AND opportunities for energetic play.” | Consider KIDDO + Play Active |
| “We don’t know what our problem is yet.” | Audit current practice first |
Don’t Forget Babies and Toddlers
Physical activity programming should not become something that happens only in the kindergarten room. ACECQA specifically identifies opportunities for babies to practise skills such as rolling, sitting, crawling, standing, walking and climbing, while toddlers should have frequent opportunities for movement and increasingly complex physical experiences.
For babies, physical activity may look very different from a structured movement session. It may involve: floor time, reaching, rolling, crawling, pulling to stand, cruising, climbing, pushing, carrying and exploring different surfaces and environments. The question should therefore remain: What meaningful opportunities does every child have to develop physically throughout their day?
What About Soccer, Gymnastics and Other External Programs?
External sport, dance, yoga, gymnastics and movement incursions can provide enjoyable experiences for children. But services should be cautious about assuming that having a visiting instructor once a week means their physical activity responsibilities have been addressed. A weekly 30-minute activity cannot replace an environment where children experience meaningful opportunities for movement throughout every day.
ACECQA expects physical activity to be promoted through everyday educational practice, with frequent opportunities for active play and both structured and unstructured physical experiences. An external program can therefore complement good practice. It should not become the service’s entire physical activity strategy.
Before Choosing a Program: Complete a Physical Activity Check
Before spending money or committing staff time to a new initiative, services may benefit from critically reflecting on what is already happening.
Ask your team:
- Do our children have frequent opportunities for energetic play throughout the day?
- Do educators intentionally support fundamental movement skills such as running, jumping, balancing, throwing, catching and kicking?
- Are babies and toddlers receiving meaningful movement opportunities, or is our physical activity focus mostly on preschool-aged children?
- Do indoor environments encourage movement as well as outdoor environments?
- Are long periods of sedentary activity being unintentionally created through routines, group times or transitions?
- Do educators understand Australia’s 24-Hour Movement Guidelines?
- Can educators explain how physical activity is reflected in our educational program?
- Does our physical activity practice genuinely include children with different abilities, confidence levels and support needs?
- Do families understand how we promote physical activity and why it matters?
- Does our policy reflect what actually happens in practice?
- Could children tell us where, when and how they like to move?
- What evidence could we show an Authorised Officer to demonstrate that physical activity is genuinely embedded across our service?
That last question can be particularly revealing.
Linking Physical Activity to Your QIP
Physical activity can provide meaningful evidence across more than one Quality Area.
The most obvious connection is QA2, particularly Element 2.1.3, but physical activity can also connect with:
QA1 – Educational Program and Practice
Intentional teaching, child-led learning, observation, planning, assessment and responsiveness to children’s interests and abilities.
QA3 – Physical Environment
How indoor and outdoor environments, equipment and spaces encourage movement, challenge and exploration.
QA5 – Relationships with Children
Educators supporting hesitant children, encouraging participation without pressure and helping children develop confidence.
QA6 – Collaborative Partnerships with Families and Communities
Sharing movement ideas with families and involving families in healthy lifestyle initiatives.
QA7 – Governance and Leadership
Policies, professional development, critical reflection and continuous improvement.
The goal should not be to artificially create evidence for every Quality Area. Instead, services can recognise the genuine connections already occurring through thoughtful physical activity practice.
Moving Beyond “We Have a Great Outdoor Area”
A large playground does not automatically mean children are sufficiently active. Nor does having bikes, climbing equipment and balls available demonstrate that children are developing physical literacy.
The more useful questions are:
Who is moving?
Who isn’t?
What kinds of movement are occurring?
Which children repeatedly choose sedentary experiences?
Which movement skills are children developing?
How are educators extending those skills?
Are children experiencing energetic play?
What barriers are preventing participation?
What are children telling us about the way they want to move?
This shifts physical activity from simply being something children can do to something educators actively observe, understand, support and extend.
BEST Program Selector
Start here:
Our children are active, but their movement skills need development.
→ Explore KIDDO.
Our educators need confidence intentionally teaching movement skills.
→ Explore KIDDO and KAPAP.
We have great outdoor spaces, but don’t know whether children are actually active enough.
→ Explore Play Active.
Our physical activity policy is generic and doesn’t really reflect our practice.
→ Explore Play Active.
We need to improve healthy eating and physical activity together.
→ Examine the Munch & Move model and relevant resources.
We want free practical activities and educator resources.
→ Explore KAPAP and the Australian Government movement resources.
We want to strengthen both physical literacy and the amount of energetic play children experience.
→ Consider how KIDDO and Play Active could complement one another.
We’re not actually sure where our gaps are.
→ Don’t choose a program yet. Audit and critically reflect on your current practice first.
The BEST Perspective: Start With the Gap, Not the Program
It can be tempting to find a great-looking program and then work out how to fit it into your service. Consider doing the reverse. Start with your children. Observe what is actually happening. Talk with your educators. Listen to children’s perspectives. Review your environments, routines, policies and educational program. Compare current practice with the Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines and the expectations of the National Quality Standard. Then identify the gap.
Your service may discover that it needs stronger educator knowledge of fundamental movement skills. Another service may discover that children spend surprisingly little time in energetic play. Another may have excellent outdoor opportunities but unintentionally exclude some children from physical experiences. Another may simply need to document and articulate the good practice already occurring.
Only then ask: Which program, training or resource will help us address that particular need?
The best physical activity program is not necessarily the one with the most resources, the best-known name or the most activities. It is the approach that helps your service create meaningful, inclusive and sustainable improvements for the children actually attending your service.
Useful Resources
ACECQA – Element 2.1.3 Healthy Lifestyle
Read ACECQA’s guidance on Element 2.1.3
Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines
Australian Government movement guidelines
KIDDO
Explore KIDDO
Play Active
Explore Play Active
Munch & Move
Explore Munch & Move
Kids at Play Active Play
Access KAPAP educator training and resources
BEST Childcare Consulting
Supporting early childhood services to critically reflect on practice, identify areas for improvement and turn Quality Improvement into meaningful change for children. There is no single physical activity program that will suit every early childhood service. KIDDO, Play Active, Munch & Move and other resources each offer different strengths. The key is to first understand what your children, educators and service actually need, then choose the approach that best addresses those gaps. By combining intentional teaching, energetic play, supportive environments and critical reflection, services can move beyond simply providing opportunities to be active and create a culture where every child is supported to move, develop confidence and enjoy being physically active.
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