Take Me Outside Day: A Celebration of Outdoor Learning
Take Me Outside Day was Wednesday, October 23rd 2024, and included a full week of fun and learning!
Missed out on TMO Day and still want to join a community of Outdoor Learners? Sign up for our year-long Learning Challenge!
For TMO Day en francais
Take Me Outside Day helps to raise awareness about outdoor learning by encouraging educators to take their learners outside. This FREE virtual event is an entire week full of activities, speakers, and prizes to encourage folks to head beyond the four walls of a classroom! With the help of our 100+ outdoor learning partners, there is something for all ages, grades, and subjects under the three central themes of Indigenous Perspectives & Knowledge, Environmental Education & Climate Change, and Health & Wellbeing.
Keep scrolling to see all the session recordings from 2024 or check out the 2024 Take Me Outside Week Playlist on our Youtube Channel!
Schedule
Check out our interactive program for an overview of the week! For more details regarding specific sessions and speakers continue scrolling. To download your own version of the program click here!
Monday, October 21 – theme: Indigenous Knowledge and Ways of Knowing
Past Workshop – YOU ARE THE LAND Workshop with Sarah-Anne Tourond
Hosted in partnership with Strong Nations, join Sarah-Anne as she shares her book “You Are The Land”, and guides us through a short meditation and yoga practice, wrapping up her session with a question period and an art project prompt to do following the session.
Ages: 3-13 years old
How to prepare: Be ready to move your bodies!
Past Workshop – Ancestral Technology Canoe STEM Challenge with Dawn Pratt of askenootow STEM
Join Dawn Pratt of askenootow STEM for this interactive and exciting STEM challenge featuring canoes! In this challenge, learners will use what they know about and can investigate buoyancy, forces, and motion to design and build a small-scale engineering buoyant floatation system that will float self-balance, and hold the weight of rocks when they set trail on their waterway path. Just as Indigenous people had to develop solutions for water transportation for migration or trade, students will follow the engineering design process to design and build a buoyant self-balancing system out of cardboard, straws, balloons, and masking tape; floatation designs will be tested to hold weight while self-balancing and buoyant in a water environment.
Ages: 8-14+ years old
How to prepare: Please gather supplies such as string, balloons, duct tape, plastic ties, elastics, straws, popsicle sticks, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, corks, paper plates, markers, cardboard, and scissors for the construction of your designs. You will also require a vessel that holds water to test your designs and various items that can be used as weights such as rocks.
Past Workshop – A Relational Path: Learning to Live with the Land – Author Read-Aloud with Emma Metallic and Artist Natalie Laurin
Hosted in partnership with Strong Nations Publishing join author Emma Metallic (Mi’gmaw) and illustrator Natalie Laurin (Métis, settler) as they introduce the Cedar School Decodable Series. Developed in partnership with Dyslexia Canada, the series will be available this fall from Strong Nations Publishing. During this session, Emma will guide us through one of Liv, Tom, Gus, and Bell’s adventures as they discover the importance of Outdoor Education and Mi’gmaw teachings. A question period will allow the audience to ask Emma and Natalie about their creative process.
Ages: 3-7 years old
Past Workshop – Natural Curiosity Throughout the Seasons
Hosted in partnership with Natural Curiosity this session will explore how to integrate the four branches of the Natural Curiosity framework, guiding educators to bring their students outdoors for deepened learning experiences. Participants will gain practical tools and examples for implementing these concepts in their own practice, with a focus on hands-on and hearts-on, experiential approaches that engage students with the environment and build meaningful connections to the world around them. Designed to inspire, the session offers actionable strategies to create transformative outdoor learning experiences that connect students to the natural world throughout the seasons.
This is a PD session intended for educators.
Ages: Adult
Tuesday, October 22 – theme: Environmental Education & Climate Change
Past Workshop – Tales with Whales
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to study whales? Step into the shoes of an Ocean Wise whale researcher as we explore what makes these animals so special, who is who, and what being a whale researcher is all about. Join this live session to begin your virtual whale-watching journey and learn how you can protect whales even from afar!
Ages: All Ages!
Past Workshop – Climate Change from Space with Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Joshua Kutryk
Join Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Joshua Kutryk as he shares his experiences in training to go to space and his love of the outdoors! Joshua will also reflect on the importance of space exploration and Earth observation in protecting and preserving our planet and its many ecosystems! Join us for a virtual field trip that is sure to be OUT OF THIS WORLD!
Ages: All Ages!
Past Workshop – Virtual Youth Climate Action Panel with moderator Larissa Crawford
Join a dynamic conversation moderated by Larissa Crawford with inspiring youth and changemakers who are taking climate action in their local communities! Featuring Youth Climate Activists Naia Lee, Indigo Kim, and Karishma Porwal.
Ages: 14+ years old
Past Workshop – Climate Connections: Climate Change Education in Outdoor Learning
Hosted in partnership with the Outdoor Learning Store learn about integrating Climate Change Ed (CCE) into your teaching practice in this virtual workshop, which offers inspiring ideas for CCE for elementary teachers and their students. It will introduce promising practices from K-8 teachers that connect CCE to socio-emotional learning, Indigenous ways of knowing, climate justice, critical hope, and age-appropriate climate action.
Offered by Hilary Inwood and Maria Vamvalis of the Accelerating CCE in Teacher Ed, which supports and accelerates Climate Change Education (CCE) in Teacher Education. Educators at all levels, from Kindergarten to higher education, are well-positioned to lead the cultural shifts needed for equitable, just, and sustainable forms of living on the Earth. The ACCE-TE team supports professional learning in CCE for faculty and students in preservice teacher education programs and for those already in the teaching profession (in-service teachers).
This PD Session is part of our Fall Workshop Series! Click here to learn about upcoming workshops or to watch past recordings.
Wednesday, October 23 – theme: TAKE ME OUTSIDE DAY
Join us for the 14th annual Take Me Outside Day! Educators and learners are encouraged to spend at least 1 hour outdoors! If you need any suggestions, check out our TMO Day Resource Page for a list of activities and lessons that can be done outside with your learners!
Past Workshop – Heartbeat of the Earth with Rise Up Indigenous Wellness
Join Launa Payne and Sherelle Anderson of Rise Up Indigenous Wellness for an interactive classroom session where Indigenous knowledge is weaved into everyday learning. This session will include mindfulness and movement. We will cover the holistic model of wellness, balancing the spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical being.
Ages: All ages!
How to prepare: Please have a classroom set of stones/rocks of similar sizes and shapes, and cup of water for each student.
Past Workshop – Singalong with Remy Rodden
Join eco-singer Remy Rodden for a fun and interactive singalong! Remy is committed to helping children learn about nature through song!
Ages: 3-13 years old
Thursday, October 24 – theme: Health & Wellbeing
Past Workshop – Q&A with Canadian Olympic Triathlon Athlete – Tyler Mislawchuk
Join us in partnership with PHE Canada in welcoming three-time Olympian Tyler Mislawchuk as he joins Take Me Outside Day fresh off his appearance at the 2024 World Triathlon Championship Finals and the 2024 Paris Olympics earlier this summer. Tyler will share his journey to becoming a high-level athlete and the important role the outdoors has played in shaping him and his well-being.
Ages: 8-14+ years old
Past Workshop – All About Polar Bears
Hosted in partnership with Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants join us in welcoming Polar Bears International LIVE from a Tundra Buggy to watch polar bears on the tundra outside of Churchill, Manitoba while learning all about how they have adapted to their incredible environment, how we study them, and ways in which we can work together to protect our shared future.
Ages: All ages!
Friday, October 25 – theme: Day of Reflection
Collaborative Changemaker Challenge!
Following a week of inspiring and engaging virtual field trips and sessions – share your climate action pledge! In partnership with GreenLearning’s eCard gallery, TMO challenges learners and educators to reflect on the week and share how they plan to support the environment and natural world through Outdoor Learning. Together we hope to create a gallery of change and demonstrate the important role youth are playing in taking climate ACTION!
A huge thanks to GreenLearning for supporting this year’s collaborative reflection activity! Scroll within the frame to see Changemaker Entries as well as entries from the Ripples of Change Contest! Hover over an image to view submission statements. To view the full eCard Gallery click here.
Resources
Check out these amazing partner resources to help inspire outdoor learning this week!
Ripples of Change from GreenLearning
By the end of this activity, learners will be able to understand that while climate change is happening and it can feel scary, we can still make positive ripples of change for our world. This activity inspires the creation of beautiful nature mandala-inspired art.
K-8 Activity Guide from Project Learning Tree
Project Learning Tree’s Explore Your Environment: K-8 Activity Guide includes 50 hands-on, multidisciplinary activities to connect children to nature and increase young people’s awareness and knowledge about their environment. Activities include detailed step-by-step instructions, time and material requirements, background information, academic correlations, assessments, and student worksheets with green career connections.
Paws up for Polar Bears from Polar Bears International
Learn about polar bears and their changing sea ice habitat. Students will learn to understand ecosystems and make informed decisions through problem solving. The curriculum also instills a stewardship ethic and incorporates NGSS and CCSS standards. Each unit and lesson can be used individually or together.
We Play and Protect – Group Scavenger Hunt from Invasive Species Council of BC
This scavenger hunt challenge from our friends over at ISCBC engages learners in identifying non-native species in their environments. Check out this resource and many other amazing activities and lessons by visiting their website.
Educators Teaching Educators: Canada’s Outdoor Early Childhood Education Continuous Professional Learning Framework from Outdoor Play Canada
This newly released Outdoor Early Childhood Education Framework aims to support educators teaching educators on how to bring learning and play for the early years outdoors.
Looking for more inspiration? Checkout our resource directory for lesson plans and resources to help engage learners in outdoor learning!
Looking to take your outdoor learning journey a step further? Join the Learning Challenge to receive monthly mailouts with ready-to-go resources for specific age ranges and to be part of a network of educators committed to participating in outdoor learning year-round!
About TMO Day
If you’d like to get an idea of what is involved with Take Me Outside Day, you can check out the full recap of 2022 here, (including all the recordings from our speakers), or our summary video from 2021 below! Our organizational Impact Reports are also available here. And feel free to reach out if you have any further questions: info@takemeoutside.ca.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Outdoor Learning
We are committed to creating a future for outdoor learning where diversity, equity, and inclusion are fundamental and foundational pieces that illuminate the beauty and strength of our learning communities. We recognize, as individuals and as a collective, that not every school-aged child in Canada has an equal opportunity to engage in outdoor learning at present. We also recognize that not all educators have equal opportunity or experience with taking learning outdoors, due to a wide variety of barriers. We envision a future where every school-aged child and every educator feels welcome learning outdoors.
Part of our commitment to this work in the realm of outdoor learning is to further support and educate our community on strategies to integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion into outdoor learning, and further into all educational practices.
We are developing a section of our website here where you will find tools and resources to assist you in making sure your outdoor learning can address issues of race, cultural backgrounds, sexual orientation, accessibility needs, and other marginalized identities.
