That’s a wrap on the Take Me Outside for Learning Challenge 2021/22!
"It became part of our daily routine. Every single day we got outside for meaningful leaning opportunities. It became more than what we did. It was who we were. My kids craved it and loved it. It changed all of us"- Primary teacher, Alberta
Another school year is finishing up, and we are once again bringing the Take Me Outside for Learning Challenge to a close.
If this is your first time hearing about it: the TMO for Learning Challenge is a commitment to ongoing outdoor learning throughout the school year, which involves taking your learners outside at least once a ...
Event recap: Spring Gathering 2022
On Saturday June 4th, a group of educators got together for "A Day in the Woods", and it was fantastic to spend time in-person again, connecting outdoors, sharing, and learning. The event was hosted in beautiful Revelstoke, BC, in partnership with the Outdoor Learning Store and CBEEN, and supported by the Columbia Basin Trust. Even the rain even held out for us all day!
We started the day with introductions, welcomes, and delicious snacks from Alison at Blue House Lunchbox. And then of course we went outside! Jade Harvey-Berrill, Outreach and Events Manager for the ...
#DrawnToTheOutdoors postcard winners announced 📬
Congratulations to all
of our winning artists!
Thank you to everyone who submitted postcard designs highlighting the many beautiful and inspiring outdoor landscapes found across the country.
Over the years, we’ve seen some great art shared through email and social media from students showcasing the outdoors: whether it’s drawings showing the beauty of nature, scenes depicting how fun it is to spend time outside, or art made from the natural world itself!
Earlier in 2022, we put the call out to students to submit their art to be made into a new set ...
Read aloud: “Perfectly Noisy”
Join author, teacher, and mother Lisa Carmody Doiron, as she reads from her new book called Perfectly Noisy.
Bear is a fellow who is overwhelmed by his noisy life. He finds the lights, clocks, voices, and sounds at school TOO MUCH! Bear tries different ways to calm himself down, but he always ends up losing his cool! Will Bear ever find a place that is perfectly noisy?
Want to win a copy of Perfectly Noisy? We're choosing one lucky winner in our May monthly newsletter -
Subscribe here to take part!
If you enjoyed reading along with Lisa, follow her on ...
Lettuce learn: A garden in every schoolyard
“I never thought about where my food came from beyond the grocery store before,” my classmate said to me during our introductory Environmental Studies course in university. Yes, that's right, university.
When I went on to facilitate garden and food-based experiential education programs, I wasn’t surprised to find a common disconnection between kids and youth from what they ate, its origins, and who grew it. But I’ve also seen the potential for great growth (pun intended) when folks put their hands in the soil and take an active part in their local ...
Telling stories that are as inclusive and diverse as we are
By Elizabeth Boileau
How important are the stories we tell about outdoor learning? Story books have a unique power to shape children’s outlook, motivate and inspire them. Children need to see themselves represented in stories of all types to know they have a world of possibilities before them.
Last year, at an environmental education conference, I learned that families of colour and diverse ethnic origins are seldom portrayed in the literature on the outdoors. Although I have often seen a huge diversity of families enjoying parks and natural areas, there are very ...
Take Me Outside: Changing A School Focus & Culture One Outdoor Activity At A Time
My name is Dayna Landry and I am a Grade 4 teacher from Drayton Valley who is passionate about purposeful learning and getting outside. I have been at Wild Rose School Division for 17 years, and Aurora Elementary School for 8. As the Wellness Champion at my school, I wanted to do more to get kids outside in meaningful ways. I wanted to be purposeful in our learning and in our focus on the benefits of nature and the outdoors for students. With support from my Admin team, this is how the Take Me Outside Pilot Project was created.
Step 1: Getting Outside In ...
Akachi Farms
"Food is health. Health is happiness. Happiness is strong community." "We've gone so far away from nature, but nature is medicine". These are powerful words Buchi Onakufe (owner of Akachi Farms) expressed to me when I recently visited her organic farm. Her farm is a self-sustained agricultural business. They grow organic crops for the community and its surroundings.
Agriculture has many curriculum connections related to Outdoor Learning. For example, here are some connections to the Ontario Curriculum:
Grade 2 Science: Growth and Changes ...
Hope for Diversity in Outdoor Learning
I have loved the outdoors for my entire life. Both of my parents were born in Guyana. My mother in the capital city of Georgetown and my dad in the countryside (Land of Canaan). They grew up spending a lot of their time outdoors. My father is an avid outdoorsman (fishing, camping, etc.). Their love of nature and the outdoors definitely influenced me. Now, as a teacher, I share this passion with my students and their families. There are so many opportunities for learning when you take your class outside. Not just outside in the paved schoolyard. But ...
Nurturing the Connection: 5 Tips for Raising Outdoors-Loving Kids
About Megan: Meghan J. Ward is an outdoor, travel and adventure writer based in Banff, Canada, and the author of The Wonders That I Find, a children’s book about a girl named Geneva who teaches her parents a thing or two about appreciating the small things in nature.
The house where I grew up was in suburbia yet it backed onto a protected wetland and forested area that contained a matrix of trails and secret forts. My sisters and I would take off for hours with other neighbourhood kids and play in those woods. We explored on foot, by bike, and even on skates when ...
