The mission of the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie
The mission of the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie is to encourage young (and not-so-young) people to adopt healthy lifestyle habits. To achieve this goal, the Grand défi works to mobilize the early childhood community to encourage young people to choose a healthy lifestyle on a regular basis, so that these habits become the norm for tomorrow’s generations.
Get moving, for fun!
By taking part in the Energy Cubes Challenge, you will be mobilizing change. You’ll be supporting and motivating young people to get moving for the fun of it!
Who knows, maybe you’ll introduce a child to a new way of moving that will become his or her favorite?
In your community, you have the opportunity to provide children with an environment conducive to the development of healthy lifestyle habits, including physical activity.
Why not join forces? Combine the Cubes Challenge with the learning you do at your daycare center!
Discover their creativity
Using paint, pastels, crayons or other materials, create an Energy Cube to decorate your daycare center during the Challenge!
| 1. | Cubes earned at home are entered by the children and their parents in the child’s Logbook, while Cubes earned at the childcare facility are calculated by the group leader. |
|---|---|
| 2. |
Chaque semaine, la personne responsable du groupe compile les Cubes énergie amassés par son groupe.* Pour ce faire, elle compile les Cubes faits à la maison inscrits dans le Carnet de l'enfant et ceux faits à l'établissement de services à l'enfance dans la Fiche de la personne responsable de groupe. La personne responsable de groupe a ensuite le choix : utiliser le Calcul-o-Cube pour transmettre automatiquement son total de Cubes au responsable du défi des Cubes de l'établissement de services à l'enfance ou lui transmettre à l'oral. * Total of active breaks, time spent outdoors, daycare and special activities. |
| 3. | Each week, the person in charge of the childcare center’s Energy Cubes Challenge compiles the Cubes accumulated by all groups via Calcul-o-Cube or using the group leader’s sheets. She ensures that each group leader has submitted his or her results. The person in charge then manually enters the number of Cubes accumulated by the facility on the Planet Cube site. |
Using our Calcul-o-Cube, you can keep track of the number of Energy Cubes you’ve accumulated directly online. In short, it’s a dynamic digital spreadsheet. Here’s how to use it:
The person responsible for the Energy Cubes Challenge must register his or her establishment for the Challenge and enter the number of Energy Cubes accumulated during the Challenge directly on the Planet Cube website. They must also inform other educators, children and their parents about how the Energy Cubes Challenge works. The person in charge encourages physical activity throughout the Challenge. It's also a good idea to initiate sports activities at your school to increase the number of Energy Cubes collected.
When it comes to calculating Cubes, please refer to the question How are Cubes compiled? Who compiles the cubes?
This person encourages the children to get moving and takes part in calculating the Cubes for his or her group. Here's a suggested technique for making Cubes easier to count.
1- Cubes accumulated at home
The person in charge of the group must total up the Energy Cubes earned at home by each child each week. To do this, the children must be asked to bring their Logbooks to the daycare center.
2- Cubes accumulated as a group
The person in charge must total up the Energy Cubes earned in his/her establishment by his/her children.
For example, her group dances during a 15-minute active video capsule in the morning.
3- The group leader then goes to his or her Calcul-o-Cube to enter the one Cube earned in the system.
Need an organized sheet to compile the Energy Cubes in your group? Check out our Group Leader worksheet in our toolbox.
Any group or individual activity that requires physical exertion or raises the heart rate counts toward the accumulation of energy cubes. Examples include tricycle, ball games, walking, obstacle courses, hoop games, skill games, soccer, hockey, seesaw, mini-basketball, jump rope, pool games, snowshoeing, dancing, aerobics, gymnastics, active video games such as Wii Fit and Kinect.
Group and individual activities requiring little physical exertion are not counted toward the accumulation of energy cubes. These include passive video games, card games, board games, water games, playing with dolls, playing with trucks, static games in the sandbox, etc.
The activity must be done with the participating child in order to count as an Energy Cube collecting activity. Each immediate family member earns 1 energy cube for every 15 minutes of physical activity performed with the child.
Please note: Trainers, sports team members, extended family members (uncles, aunts, godfathers, godmothers, etc.), pets (!) and others cannot accumulate energy cubes. They are, however, welcome to move to encourage children in their challenge.
The Grand défi Pierre Lavoie provides compiling tools for childcare centres: the Child’s logbook and the Group leader’s tally sheet. These tools are recommended by the Grand défi, and each childcare centre can modify them as needed. These tools can be downloaded from the Toolbox section. The Group leader’s tally sheet must be printed and distributed to each educator in charge of a group. For more information on recording energy cubes, consult the contest rules.
Here is a suggested technique to make Cubes calculation easier.
1- Cubes accumulated at home
The person in charge of the group must total up the Energy Cubes earned at home for each of his or her children each week. To do this, the children must be asked to bring their Logbooks to the daycare center.
2- Cubes accumulated as a group
The person in charge must total up the Energy Cubes earned in his/her establishment by his/her children.
For example, her group dances during a 15-minute active video capsule in the morning.
3- The group leader then goes to his or her Calcul-o-Cube to enter the one Cube earned in the system.
*If you don't use Calcul-o-Cube, you can give your Cube totals orally to the person in charge of the Cube Challenge.
4- Then, the person responsible for the school's Challenge manually enters the total number of Cubes accumulated by their school on Planet Cube before May 26th, 2025.
Need an organized spreadsheet to compile the Energy Cubes in your group? Check out our spreadsheet for group leaders in our toolbox.
Note that an Energy Cube should never be compiled more than once.
Calculating the average number of Cubes per child enables us to compare the results of registered institutions fairly, regardless of the number of children in the institution.
Calculation of the average number of Cubes per child :
Total number of Cubes accumulated by your CPE or SGÉE ÷ total number of children in your CPE or SGÉE.
Winning CPEs or SGÉEs are chosen through a random draw based on the average number of Energy Cubes accumulated by the children. The childcare center receives 1, 2 or 3 chances. The draw is automatically made from among all establishments that have entered their total number of Energy Cubes on the planetecube.com platform by May 26th, 2025.
*As soon as children get active, they have a chance to win the prize. And don't forget the essence of the challenge: the aim is not to create a competition to reach the highest number of Cubes, but rather to promote physical activity in a healthy and FUN way!
| Average Energy Cubes per child | Entries |
| 50 to 99 Energy Cubes | 1 chance |
| 100 to 199 energy Cubes | 2 chances |
| Over 200 Energy Cubes | 3 chances |
The winning childcare centres will receive a set of active equipment to encourage physical activity and motor skills in children.
We rely on the honesty of those in charge at each childcare centre to communicate their results in a fair and impartial way. Should there be any doubt, the organizers of the Grand défi could ask for a verification in due form.
Calcul-o-Cube is a digital tool created to facilitate communication between the person responsible for the group and the person responsible for the facility's Challenge.
Each group leader is responsible for entering the total number of Cubes accumulated for his/her group in his/her section at the end of each week. This is an efficient way for the person in charge of the Challenge to get the figures for all the groups quickly. It's a numerical spreadsheet only.
Calcul-o-Cube is NOT linked to the Planet Cube website.
The Planète Cube website is a Web platform that allows the person responsible for the school's Challenge to send the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie the total number of cubes collected by his or her CPE or SGÉE.
The person responsible for the center’s Challenge must manually enter the final total number of Cubes (calculated with Calcul-o-Cube) on the Planète Cube website at the end of the challenge (precisely before May 26th, 2025).
As we all know, when we're forced to do something, it's rare that we have the pleasure and motivation to do it. Some children may be less motivated to get moving. Physical activity doesn't take the same place in everyone's daily life.
Instead of encouraging our children to simply do as many Energy Cubes as possible, why not adopt the PLEASURE technique?
When it's fun, it's more motivating!
Introduce children to different physical activities on a special field day or during outdoor activities.
Create an evening or weekend gathering of parents and children in a park near your establishment to get moving in good company.