Play and Move

Play & Move (Leiki ja liiku) are activities for 5–6-year-olds carried out by Espoo’s Sports and Exercise Unit, early childhood education and care in Finnish and Swedish, and sport clubs.

Activities now and in the future

The Leiki ja liiku activities began in 2023 in the Kameleonten multi-sport hall in Leppävaara.

In autumn 2024, the activities have been expanded to Targa Arena in central Espoo and Esport Center in Tapiola.

Activities began at Hybridiarena Hype at the Espoonlahti area in January 2025.

Activities began in Matinkylä at the Ilmatar Areena in autumn 2025.

Photo: Kerttu Penttilä

Play and Move in a nutshell

Espoo’s Sports and Exercise Unit enables the activities, and early childhood education and care (ECEC) brings groups of children along. Clubs’ instructors plan the content of the exercise sessions and guide the children together with ECEC staff.
Children aged 5 to 6 participate in the activities in the course of their regular early childhood education and care programme.
Groups will regularly participate in the activities either once a week or every two weeks. They commit to the activities for one year at a time.
One exercise session lasts for one hour and consists of a warmup, a course with different activities, leisure time and a game or a moment of relaxation at the end.
Two sport clubs’ instructors are present, and they provide instructions on what to do and help children along the four points on the track.
Child groups move between the points with their own staff, and when a bell rings, the group moves from one point to the next. ECEC staff play an active role in guiding their group at the points.

Objectives of the activities

The objective of the Play and Move activities is to promote the well-being and physical activity of children in early childhood education and care and to develop their physical and motor skills.
The activities encourage children to adopt a physically active lifestyle.
In addition, children learn important social skills, such as cooperation, interaction and taking others into account.

Facts about Play and Move activities

In autumn 2025, 123 ECEC units, 229 groups of children and 3 100 children are involved.

The Play and Move model was inspired by Köge, Denmark, where similar activities have been carried out for ten years already.

The Play and Move year is divided into five modules of six weeks. The programme and the exercises will remain the same throughout one module.

The complexity of the exercises gradually increases between the modules as the children’s skills develop.

Children will practise, for example, different ways of moving around, rotational jumps, logrolling, forward rolls as well as throwing, catching and throwing back and forth.

Before each module begins, ECEC teachers will be provided with picture cards of each activity on the course and videos of each activity in the module.

Becoming a Play & Move partner

The procurement of Play & Move activities is under preparation. Suppliers will be put out to tender in autumn 2026. According to the preliminary plan, the invitation to tender on the procurement will be published in Hilma at the end of 2025.

Hilma.fi(external link, opens in a new window)

You can participate in the tendering process by submitting a tender by the deadline through the Tarjouspalvelu.fi portal. The tenderers have approximately one month to submit the tender. It is a good idea to reserve enough time for preparing the tender. More detailed information will be published in the invitation to tender.