June is Pride Month, a time to celebrate the diversity, strength, joy, and stories of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. When we bring stories outdoors, something special happens. Reading beneath a tree, sharing reflections around a circle, wandering through a forest while imagining a character’s journey, or connecting identity to place through art and observation can help learning feel more meaningful, embodied, and connected.
Outdoor learning spaces can become places of belonging, spaces where curiosity, empathy, imagination, and authenticity are welcomed. The resources below highlight books and stories that celebrate 2SLGBTQIA+ identities and experiences, while offering opportunities to connect literacy learning with nature, community, creativity, and land-based exploration.
Whether you are reading aloud with young learners, facilitating reflective discussions with older students, or simply looking for ways to celebrate Pride Month outside, we hope these stories inspire connection, compassion, and joyful learning in the open air.
Pink Is for Everybody by Ella Russell (also available in French): Encourages children to explore colours and self-expression beyond gender stereotypes. Use outdoors for colour scavenger hunts, nature art, or identity-based play activities. Curriculum Connections: Visual Arts, Health, Social-Emotional Learning
Julian Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love (also available in French): A beautifully illustrated story about imagination and gender expression. Pair with outdoor costume-making using natural materials, parade play, or water-themed sensory learning. Curriculum Connections: Drama, Visual Arts, Language Arts, Health
When Aidan Became a Brother by Kyle Lukoff (also available in French): A story about a transgender child preparing to become an older sibling. Students can explore themes of identity, kindness, and community through outdoor reflection journals or collaborative games. Curriculum Connections: Language Arts, Health, Social Studies
Love Makes a Family by Sophie Beer: Celebrates many different kinds of families and relationships, helping students understand inclusion and belonging. Pair with outdoor collaborative art, community circles, or activities where students build “belonging webs” using sticks, string, and natural materials. Curriculum Connections: Health, Social Studies, Language Arts.
Maiden and Princess by Daniel Haack and Isabel Galupo: A fairy tale featuring two Indigenous young women who fall in love. The story celebrates identity, courage, and authenticity. Students can create nature crowns, outdoor dramatic play scenes, or seasonal celebration spaces using natural materials. The story also works well for storytelling walks or outdoor art inspired by symbols from the land. Curriculum Connections: Language Arts, Drama, Visual Arts, Social Studies, Indigenous Education.
Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff: A middle-grade novel exploring identity, change, and self-understanding. Pair with reflective outdoor solo sits, journaling, or place-based storytelling. Curriculum Connections: Language Arts, Drama, Health, Social-Emotional Learning
Ana on the Edge by A. J. Sass: Explores nonbinary identity through figure skating and friendship. Can support discussions about inclusion in outdoor recreation and sports. Curriculum Connections: Health, Physical Education, Language Arts.
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger: A Lipan Apache fantasy novel featuring an asexual Indigenous protagonist. The story explores family, spirit animals, and relationships between humans, land, and the spirit world. Excellent for land-based storytelling, ecological observation, animal tracking studies, and reflective journaling about relationships with place and community. Curriculum Connections: Language Arts, Indigenous Studies, Environmental Education, Science
Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline (available in French): A queer Indigenous coming-of-age novel that explores grief, identity, and belonging through magical realism and strong environmental imagery. Use alongside outdoor reflective writing, photography walks, cemetery ecology studies, or creative storytelling inspired by local landscapes. Curriculum Connections: Language Arts, Drama, Visual Arts, Indigenous Education
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe (available in French): A graphic memoir exploring gender identity and self-discovery. Outdoor art responses, nature metaphors, and identity mapping activities work well alongside the text. Curriculum Connections: Language Arts, Visual Arts, Equity Studies
Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead (also available in French): A contemporary Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer Canadian novel exploring identity, family, sexuality, and reconnection to community and land. Strong for outdoor reflective writing, storytelling circles, identity mapping, or discussions about relationships to place, home, and belonging. Curriculum Connections: Language Arts, Indigenous Studies, Social Sciences
Love After the End edited by Joshua Whitehead (also available in French): An anthology of speculative fiction imagining joyful Indigenous queer and Two-Spirit futures. Students can use outdoor spaces for speculative storytelling, future community design, ecological futurism projects, or creative writing inspired by local ecosystems. Curriculum Connections: Language Arts, Indigenous Studies, Environmental Education
Fire Song by Adam Garnet Jones: A moving story about a gay Anishinaabe teen balancing family responsibility, grief, identity, and hope in Northern Ontario. Pairs well with land-based reflection, solo sits, wellness walks, and discussions about mental health, resilience, and community support. Curriculum Connections: Language Arts, Health, Indigenous Studies, Social Sciences
This Town Sleeps by Dennis E. Staples: An Ojibwe queer horror novel grounded in land, spirit, community, and identity. Useful for nighttime ecology explorations, oral storytelling traditions, place-based mystery writing, or examining how landscapes shape stories and culture. Curriculum Connections: Language Arts, Indigenous Literature, Drama
The Nature of Us: The Nature of Us is an immersive sound installation that takes place in various communities. The sound score, created in the project residency (April 19-20), is installed through a section of landscape at Bowen Park. Audiences arrive to experience a surround-sound composition as they choose stillness, grounding, breath, or gentle movement invited by this moment and the installation’s natural surroundings.
Pride on the Bruce Trail: The aim of the Bruce Trail’s Rainbow Hikes is to create a safe, welcoming space for 2SGBTQIA+ hikers—including trans, gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, Two-Spirit, intersex, asexual, and straight friends—to show up and be themselves in a safe and friendly outdoor setting. Our hiking group typically includes 20 to 25 people representing a full spectrum of sexual orientations, ages. gender identities, and expressions. Diversity Rules.
Sachi Adventure Rainbow Paddle Nights: Join us on the Sunshine Coast for a vibrant evening paddle that celebrates rainbow Pride, inclusivity, and community on the water. Whether you join by SUP, kayak, or bring your own paddle equipment.
Fungi, Identity & Queer Ecologies: Join us for a playful, hands-on journey into the hidden world of fungi through a queer ecology lens. This 4-hour workshop will blend discussions around queer identity and fungi, basics of mushroom identification, a mini mushroom foray, and spore prints.
Queer Ecology Hike: Join us as we gather at Downsview Park for a Queer Ecology Hike led by Zwena Gray. We will engage in a relaxed park walk where we explore queer ways of knowing the land—through noticing, reflecting, and story‑sharing. We’ll try a few simple place‑based activities that help us connect with the space, with each other, and with the queer ecologies woven into the Park. This hike allows us to tune into our instincts and appreciate the everyday knowledge each person shows up with. This program is intended for participants 12 years of age or older.
Pride Paddle Vancouver: Jericho Beach Kayak is hosting two Pride Paddles this year! One at the end of June to celebrate Pride Month (in memory of the Stonewall Uprisings) and one in early August for Vancouver Pride Week!
RBG After Dark Summer Pride Party: Move to the beat of dynamic, genre-spanning music from our DJ, and be dazzled by a vibrant drag show hosted by the beloved queen, Karma Kameleon! Enjoy vibrant culinary offerings, sip sparkling drinks, and lose yourself in an atmosphere where self-expression shines.
June is Pride Month, a time to celebrate the diversity, strength, joy, and stories of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. When we bring stories outdoors, something special happens. Reading beneath a tree, sharing reflections around a circle, wandering through a forest while imagining a character’s journey, or connecting identity to place through art and observation can help learning […]
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