For TMO Day en français
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
October 19-23, 2026
Free
Take Me Outside Day is Canada's national celebration of outdoor learning and a collaborative campaign that brings together educators, schools, organizations, families, and communities to celebrate the many ways learning can happen beyond the four walls of the classroom.
While Take Me Outside Day takes place on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, the celebration has grown in recent years into Take Me Outside Week, a week-long campaign featuring live virtual speakers, virtual field trips, curriculum-connected outdoor learning activities, educational resources, and opportunities for organizations and partners to share their expertise, programs, and resources with educators and learners. At the heart of the week, participants are encouraged to spend at least one hour learning outdoors.
Take Me Outside Day traces its roots back to 2011, when educator and outdoor learning advocate Colin Harris ran more than 7,600 kilometres across Canada, visiting over 75 schools and inspiring more than 20,000 students to reconnect with the outdoors.
After Colin completed his cross-Canada run on October 25, 2011, Take Me Outside Day was established to honour that journey and continue the national conversation it inspired about outdoor learning, wellbeing, and connection to nature.
Today, Take Me Outside Week is made possible through the collective efforts of educators, schools, non-profit organizations, Indigenous partners, community groups, outdoor learning organizations, and supporters across Canada and beyond. Together, they help engage hundreds of thousands of educators and learners each year, creating opportunities to connect with nature, community, and one another through meaningful outdoor learning experiences.
This year's campaign theme celebrates the incredible opportunities that outdoor learning creates for learners of all ages.
When we learn outdoors, we nurture curiosity, strengthen connections with nature and community, support health and wellbeing, and inspire hope for the future.
Whether it's one lesson outside or an entire week of learning, every outdoor experience helps learners discover that learning can happen anywhere.
Outdoor learning helps learners:
Is your school an EcoSchool? Add the Take Me Outside Day Action Card and complete the certification questions to claim points towards your EcoSchools certification this year.
Not an EcoSchool yet? Teachers can learn more and sign up for free to access curriculum-linked activities and resources that support outdoor and environmental learning, and achieve certification that celebrates environmental action at school.
Begin the week by learning from Indigenous voices and exploring relationships with the land, place-based learning, and ways of knowing that deepen our understanding of the world around us.
Join author and educator Leona Prince for a special reading of Be a Good Ancestor and an interactive conversation about what it means to care for ourselves, one another, and the world around us. Together, students will explore the small actions that can grow into something much bigger, from caring for a plant or noticing the world around them to helping another person and thinking about the generations still to come.
Because being a good ancestor doesn't begin someday. It begins with what we choose to do today.
Suitable for grade 1+
Leona Prince is an award-winning Dakelh author, educator, and speaker whose work centers Indigenous ways of knowing, relationship, belonging, and our responsibilities to one another and the natural world. Her home community is Nak'azdli Whut'en and she is also a proud member of Lake Babine Nation. Leona draws upon her experiences as an educator, storyteller, and lifelong learner to invite people to think differently about their relationships with land, community, and future generations. For more information please visit https://www.leonaprince.com/
Explore the natural world through inquiry, environmental stewardship, and climate education that empowers learners with knowledge, action, and hope.
Join internationally recognized educator, author, and hope scholar elin kelsey for an inspiring exploration of what it means to cultivate hope in a changing world.
Through stories of resilience, cooperation, regeneration, and positive change, elin will invite learners to look beyond the challenges we face and discover the many ways people and nature are working together to create a more hopeful future.
Connected to this year's Hope Grows Outside theme, this presentation will explore how spending time in nature can nurture curiosity, connection, and a sense of possibility—and remind us that hope isn't about ignoring challenges, but about recognizing opportunities for meaningful action.
A powerful invitation to step outside, pay attention, and discover the stories of hope growing all around us.
Suitable for grade 4+
elin kelsey, PhD (she/her/elle) is an award-winning author, speaker and thought-leader for the evidence-based hope and climate justice solutions movement. She co-created the viral social media campaign OceanOptimism and is currently leading intergenerational collaborations with climate influencers to make evidence-based hope more shareable online. A best-selling children’s book author, her picture books reveal the intimate connections between humans and the greater than human world. Her work as a podcast host, film writer and exhibit creator celebrates the resilience that exists within ourselves, and across species. She is an Adjunct Faculty member of the University of Victoria School of Environmental Studies. She regularly leads workshops for environmental organizations, youth climate activists, educators and community groups on evidence-based hope and serves as a hope scholar in residence for schools around the world. For more, please visit https://www.elinkelsey.org
Join Parks Canada on location to discover how conservationists are helping restore the Westslope Cutthroat Trout, a species at risk in Banff National Park. Through the story of Hidden Lake near Lake Louise, students will explore species recovery, invasive species, biodiversity, and the role science and stewardship play in protecting native ecosystems. Discover how dedicated restoration efforts are helping this iconic mountain fish return to its historic habitat, with natural spawning offering new hope for the species' future.
A story of resilience, restoration, and possibility, reminding us that when we work together to care for the natural world, hope can take root.
Suitable for Grade 4+
Join us for an evening of practical inspiration and free resources to help bring environmental learning outdoors!
Jade Berrill, Director of Learning with the Outdoor Learning School and Store, will share free environmental education resources available to educators, along with her top three “Try with your class this Tuesday” activities. These low-prep activities are designed to connect students with environmental education and curriculum while getting them outside with little to no preparation.
Laura Nickerson from EcoSchools Canada will highlight free resources that can support educators as they prepare for Take Me Outside Day and sustain outdoor learning throughout the year. She’ll introduce the EcoSchools Program, highlight popular outdoor learning actions, and show how tracking these actions can contribute to whole-school sustainability efforts and EcoSchools certification.
Come away with practical ideas, ready-to-use resources and inspiration for getting your learners outside and connecting outdoor experiences with environmental learning.
A session for educators
Join educators and learners across Canada by spending at least one hour learning outdoors and celebrating the many benefits of outdoor learning.
Get ready to sing, move, and celebrate the natural world with eco-singer Remy Rodden! This fun and interactive sing-along invites learners to discover the wonder of nature through music, with catchy songs and plenty of opportunities to join in.
Remy is passionate about helping children connect with and learn about the natural world through the power of song.
Bring your voices, your curiosity, and your love of the outdoors for a joyful celebration of nature!
Suitable for EVERYONE!
Eco-singer Remy Rodden, a bilingual teacher, biologist, and environmental educator, uses fun, curriculum-connected songs to inspire children to learn about and care for the natural world. Drawing on decades of experience as an educator, adventurer, camp leader, and performer, including teaching in Yukon, Remy brings energy, humour, and wonder to every performance. His interactive songs explore topics such as biodiversity, habitats, and sustainability, encouraging young audiences to connect with nature and take action to protect it.
Discover how outdoor learning supports physical, mental, emotional, and social wellbeing while encouraging movement, mindfulness, resilience, and joyful learning.
How do we navigate the uncertainty of climate change without losing sight of hope and possibility?
Join Abhay Sachal, founder of Break The Divide, for an engaging conversation about climate anxiety, youth leadership, and taking action in the face of a changing climate. Abhay will explore the emotional realities young people experience when thinking about climate change and share ways to move from feeling overwhelmed to finding connection, purpose, and opportunities for meaningful action.
Through stories and insights from his work with young people, Abhay will invite teens to consider how they can respond to climate challenges with curiosity, courage, and hope—and recognize that they are not alone in creating change.
Suitable for grade 7+
Abhay Singh Sachal is a Canadian youth climate justice activist whose research and work resides at the intersection of climate change, ecoanxiety, mental health, and spirituality. He is the founder of Break The Divide, a non-profit organization that empowers young people with resources to understand climate emotions and connects communities to build resilience and share knowledge amidst the climate crisis . Abhay served as one of 10 advisors in the inaugural Environment and Climate Change Canada Youth Council. Outside of his activism, Abhay is currently a student at the University of Regina, completing a Masters of Education in Educational Psychology; a public speaker on environmental and climate issues; and, an avid ice hockey player and pianist.
Celebrate the week's experiences, reflect on new learning, and explore ways to continue taking learning outdoors throughout the school year.
These school boards have already committed to participating in Take Me Outside Week 2026 and are helping grow a culture of outdoor learning in their schools and communities.
Together, we are creating more opportunities for educators and learners to connect with nature, their communities, and each other through meaningful outdoor learning experiences.
School boards across Canada are making Take Me Outside Day part of their commitment to outdoor learning. Join a growing network of boards working together to inspire educators, support outdoor learning, and encourage students to connect with the outdoors.
Whether your board is just beginning its outdoor learning journey or already has a strong culture of learning beyond the classroom, Take Me Outside Day offers an easy way to engage educators across your system through a week of free activities, virtual speakers, and resources.
By partnering with Take Me Outside, your school board can:
Is your school an EcoSchool? Add the Take Me Outside Day Action Card and complete the certification questions to claim points towards your EcoSchools certification this year.
We'd love to partner with your school board.
Contact us to receive your board's dedicated registration page and promotional toolkit, and join a growing community of school boards celebrating outdoor learning across North America.
Join Leona Prince for a special reading of Be a Good Ancestor and a thoughtful conversation about what it means to care for ourselves, one another and the world around us. Learners are invited to consider the relationships they have with the land and other beings, the choices they make today, and what it means to be a good ancestor for future generations.
Suitable for Grade 1+
Want to continue the learning after Leona’s presentation? We’ve created a collection of optional, curriculum-connected outdoor lesson plans (in French AND English) inspired by the ideas shared during the session. Choose an activity that works for your learners, adapt it to your needs, or simply use the ideas as inspiration for your own time outside.
There’s no expectation to complete a lesson. They’re here as a resource to help make it easier to take the learning outside.
Early Years-Grade 2: Who Lives Here (EN / FR): Learners head outside to observe the plants, animals and other living things that share their space, explore their connections to place, and consider how their actions can show care and respect for the land and the beings around them.
Grades 2-4: A Schoolyard Promise (EN / FR): Learners explore a familiar outdoor space, noticing who and what shares it, how the place is cared for, and how their choices can contribute to its wellbeing. They then create Care for Our Place Promises inspired by what they observed and experienced.
Grades 4-8: Our Place, Our Responsibilities (EN / FR): Learners spend quiet time observing a familiar outdoor place, looking for relationships between living things, the environment, people and place. They then reflect on what responsibilities come with being part of that place and how they can care for where they learn.
Grades 9-12: What Will We Leave Behind? (EN / FR): Students investigate a local place to consider what they have inherited, what is changing and what they will leave behind. Through observation and research, they explore the impacts of human choices and consider actions that could contribute to a healthier future for people, other beings and place.
Join elin kelsey, PhD for an exploration of evidence-based hope and how spending time outside can help us recognize resilience, connection and positive change in the world around us. Learners are invited to consider their connections with the more-than-human world and discover how noticing real signs of cooperation, regeneration and possibility can help us find hope in a changing world.
Suitable for Grade 4+
Want to continue the learning after elin's presentation? We’ve created a collection of optional, curriculum-connected outdoor lesson plans (in French AND English) inspired by the ideas shared during the session. Choose an activity that works for your learners, adapt it to your needs, or simply use the ideas as inspiration for your own time outside.
There’s no expectation to complete a lesson. They’re here as a resource to help make it easier to take the learning outside.
EY-Grade 2: Tiny Signs of Hope (EN / FR) Head outside and look closely for small signs of life, change, connection and care. Learners discover that hope can be found in everyday moments in nature, even when we have to look closely to find it.
Grades 2-5: Hope Hunt (EN / FR) Explore the schoolyard through four Hope Lenses: Cooperation, Adaptation, Regeneration and Care. Learners look for real examples of how living things respond to change, work together and help places thrive.
Grades 4-8: Nature’s Problem Solvers (EN / FR) What can living things teach us about responding to challenges? Learners investigate how organisms survive and adapt, then use their observations to explore biomimicry and imagine solutions inspired by nature.
Grades 7-12: From Doom to Possibility (EN / FR) Challenge students to rethink how environmental stories are told. Using a Challenge → Response → Possibility → Action framework, learners investigate an environmental issue and create a message that acknowledges real challenges while highlighting evidence of response, possibility and meaningful action.
Join Parks Canada to discover the Westslope Cutthroat Trout and the work being done to support its recovery. Learners are invited to explore the connections between species and their habitats and discover how restoration, care and collaboration can create positive change in the natural world.
Suitable for Grades 4+
Want to continue the learning after Parks Canada's presentation? We’ve created an optional, curriculum-connected outdoor lesson plan/macro-model game (in French AND English) inspired by the ideas shared during the session.
Grade 4-12: Trout Trek (EN / FR) Become a cutthroat trout and try to survive the journey through a changing habitat! In this active outdoor game, learners experience how food, suitable water, shelter and environmental pressures affect trout survival, then explore how restoration actions can help bring hope back to an ecosystem. This game also has modifications for grade 1-3.
Looking for practical ways to take environmental learning outside? This educator workshop brings together Jade Berill from Outdoor Learning School and Store and Laura Nickerson from EcoSchools Canada to share free resources, practical ideas and easy-to-use activities for outdoor learning.
Discover low-prep activities you can try with your learners, resources to support environmental learning across the curriculum, and ideas for making outdoor learning part of your practice throughout the school year.
Join Remy Rodden for a fun, interactive nature sing-along celebrating the outdoors through music! Learners are invited to sing, move and explore the natural world through songs that inspire curiosity, wonder and care for the environment.
Suitable for all ages.
Join Abhay Singh Sachal of Break The Divide for a thoughtful conversation about hope, wellbeing and finding possibility in a changing world. Abhay invites learners to reflect on their relationship with themselves, one another and the world around them, and to consider hope not only as something we find, but something we can actively build through our choices, relationships and actions.
Suitable for Grade 7+
Want to continue the learning after Abhay's presentation? We’ve created an optional, curriculum-connected outdoor lesson plan (in French AND English) inspired by the ideas shared during the session.
Grade 7-12: The Possiblity Walk (EN / FR) Take learning outside with a guided walk exploring hope, uncertainty, perspective and possibility. Through quiet reflection and conversation, students consider what is within their influence and how small actions can help them choose hope when the future is uncertain.
Throughout Take Me Outside Week, learners across the country have been heading outside with one shared question:
Hope Grows Here is a simple outdoor reflection activity for learners of all ages. Head outside with your class, slow down and look closely at the place around you. Look for something growing, living, working together, being cared for, changing or recovering.
Hope might be a new plant pushing through the soil. It might be leaves breaking down and returning nutrients to the earth, birds gathering together, a tree providing shelter, people caring for a place, or an ecosystem beginning to recover.
There is no right answer. Hope might be something big, or it might be something you would normally walk right past.
When learners find a sign of hope, invite them to capture what they discovered. They could:
Then share what you discovered with the Take Me Outside community and help us build a collective picture of hope growing in outdoor learning spaces across the country.
As we explored throughout Take Me Outside Week, hope isn’t only something we can find. It can also be something we help grow.
After looking for signs of hope outside, invite learners to consider:
Maybe it’s through caring for a place, helping another person, protecting something living, building relationships, taking action or making choices that contribute to a healthier future.
Whether you spend ten minutes outside or build a larger lesson around the activity, the invitation is simple:
With Who's Hiding Under the Leaf Litter, learners investigate the hidden world beneath fallen leaves, exploring the roles of decomposers, predators, herbivores and prey while discovering how leaf litter supports healthy ecosystems and biodiversity.
The 2025 Position Statement on Active Outdoor Play serves as a celebration and extension of the 2015 Position Statement by being global in scope and inclusive of all ages, while exploring the benefits of active outdoor play for people (of all ages, cultures and abilities), communities, environments, and the planet. This initiative has been an extensive and intensive three-year process, involving an international Leadership Group consisting of researchers and thought leaders from every inhabited continent, alongside a larger Steering Committee consisting of over 130 researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and other active outdoor play-relevant actors and groups.
Learn more about this resource by watching the TMO/OLS Virtual Workshop: Understanding Outdoor Play
Curriculum 4 Change is a free online learning portal from Be The Change Earth Alliance, featuring 20+ interactive Action Packs and 9 supporting Lesson Plans. C4C combines research, discussion, nature connection, and project-based learning to build climate literacy and social-emotional resilience!
Take Me Outside Day is a celebration of outdoor learning that encourages people to take learning beyond the classroom. It is the heart of Take Me Outside Week, a full week of free programs, virtual events, resources, and outdoor learning opportunities.
Take Me Outside Day is Wednesday, October 21, 2026. Take Me Outside Week runs from October 19 to 23, 2026.
Everyone is welcome! Take Me Outside Week is designed for:
Registration opens Thursday, August 20, 2026.
Participation in Take Me Outside Week and access to the campaign's virtual programs and resources are free.
No. You can participate in as much or as little of the week as works for you. Join a virtual event, use one of our resources, or simply take your learning outside.
We encourage participants to spend at least one hour learning outdoors on Wednesday, October 21. What you do outside is up to you. It could be a lesson, an investigation, a nature walk, a creative activity, or simply an opportunity to explore and learn together. We will also help out with some great ideas leading up to the event!
No. The goal is to spend at least one hour learning outdoors. Every outdoor learning experience counts.
We encourage you to participate whenever you can. The celebration runs throughout the week from October 19 to 23, and many of the resources and virtual opportunities can be enjoyed at different times.
Each day has a different theme and will feature opportunities such as live virtual speakers, virtual field trips, curriculum connected outdoor learning activities, and resources for educators and learners.
The full schedule and featured speakers will be announced starting in late August. Registered participants will receive updates as details become available
No. While we encourage participants to join live when possible, information about recordings or other ways to access content will be provided when available.
Yes. Registered participants will have access to outdoor learning activities, resources, virtual programs, and other opportunities throughout the week.
Not at all. Take Me Outside Day is for anyone interested in bringing learning outdoors. You do not need specialized equipment, experience, or access to a large natural area.
No. Outdoor learning can happen almost anywhere. Your schoolyard, neighbourhood, local park, garden, community space, or even the space just outside your building can become a place for learning.
Outdoor learning happens in all kinds of weather! Plan an experience that is appropriate for the conditions and follow your organization's usual outdoor safety policies. If being outside is not possible, you can still participate in the virtual programming and explore ways to bring learning closer to the outdoors.
Outdoor learning can look different for everyone. Choose activities and spaces that work for your learners and consider accessibility when planning your experience. The goal is to create meaningful opportunities for everyone to participate.
Absolutely. We encourage schools to get everyone involved. Schools and school boards can also contact us about opportunities for larger scale participation.
Yes. School boards interested in registering their entire board should contact the Take Me Outside team directly rather than using the individual registration form. We can create a dedicated registration page and provide additional promotional support.
Share photos, stories, activities, and outdoor learning experiences on social media using #TakeMeOutsideDay
The Communications Toolkit includes campaign graphics, logos, sample messaging, and other resources that you can use to help promote the campaign.
Organizations interested in supporting or partnering with Take Me Outside can contact the Take Me Outside team to discuss opportunities to get involved.
Take Me Outside would like to acknowledge and celebrate the diverse environments and people across Turtle Island whose Lands are the places, spaces, and teachers for our work. The speakers and presenters this week come from a wide range of nations and places across Turtle Island.
We want to begin by acknowledging that outdoor learning recognizes humans as an interconnected part of the natural world, as part of relationships that have been stewarded since time immemorial by the First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and Indigenous peoples who have lived here before colonialism, and continue to live and thrive here despite it.
We begin with gratitude and the utmost respect for the Land and all our relations on, above, and within her. We offer our gratitude and respect to the many Inuit, First Nations, Métis, and other Indigenous peoples who continue to protect and share their deep relational knowledge to facilitate ongoing relationships with her. Sharing your languages of relationship, reciprocity, respect, and responsibility encourages the heart of outdoor learning.
We also acknowledge that the work of truth and reconciliation is a journey of lifelong learning and work. We commit to supporting educators in rising to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee’s calls to action numbers 6, 12, & 62 – 66.
As you explore Outdoor Learning during Take Me Outside Week with your learners, we ask that you take time to learn about and recognize whose traditional Land or territory you reside, work, play, or explore on. You can use this resource as a starting place. Tim Patterson, an Indigenous mentor and hiking guide from the Little Nicola Band, said, “It’s not just about acknowledging the Land, or the people of a particular Land, but asking what this knowledge and feeling compels you do?”.
Throughout this week, we hope the sessions and speakers inspire educators and learners from all walks of life to head outside and connect to the land. We hope you experience the way the land can love, nurture, and heal.
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.