Take Me Outside for Learning Challenge 2023/24
Registration is now closed. Here’s to another year of outdoor learning together!
The Take Me Outside for Learning Challenge is a commitment to ongoing outdoor learning throughout the school year, taking your learners outside at least an hour weekly. You will have opportunities for networking and community building with educators across North America, access to a curated resource list for outdoor learning, a twice-monthly newsletter, professional development opportunities, resource discounts to the TMO Store and the Outdoor Learning Store, a Certification of Participation, as well as an opportunity to win prizes for you and your learners. Scroll down for more information and ways to get started, including a useful list of resources.
How To Get Involved
1. Join the challenge
Register each fall. This will sign you up for updates, inspiration, and the chance to win prizes! And check out our resources below for inspiration.
The 5th annual Take Me Outside for Learning Challenge is underway until June 2024! Official registration for the 2024-25 school year will open soon.
Until then, you can sign up for Take Me Outside Day in October 2024 – which includes an easy opt-in for the Learning Challenge.
2. Get outside every week!
Commit to spending at least 1 hour/week outside with your learners throughout the school year. It can be class time, extended recess, picnic lunches, field trips, or all of the above. You know what works best for you. Need ideas? Click here or scroll down!
Once you’ve set your goal, download a tracker to colour in your progress through the year: 36 hours, 49 hours, or 100 hours outside!
Did you know? By signing up for the Learning Challenge, you’re also signed up for Take Me Outside Day – a celebration of outdoor learning which happens every October! If you want a recap of 2023, check out all the recordings and resource here.
3. Share your stories and experiences
We have created a Facebook Group where you can exchange ideas, share experiences, and see what other teachers are doing – feel free to join in and make it your own (Francophone or Francophile? Communauté d’apprentissage en plein air est là)! We will also be highlighting outdoor learning experiences and stories from the field and ask you to tag our social media accounts and use the #TMO4LearningChallenge. Our goal is to have platforms be beneficial to teachers in sharing resources and best practices. If social media is not your thing, no problem, you can still email us those pictures and stories and we will keep our website updated.
4. Spread the Word
We need everyone’s help! Invite your colleagues, download and share the Learning Challenge poster, or share publicly through your social media accounts. Let us work together to spend as much time as possible outside learning in the 2023/24 school year.
Register for the Learning Challenge
Looking for registration en français? Cliquez ici.
Registration is now closed.
Check back in August 2024 when the form will re-open for the 2024-25 school year!
RESOURCES
- April ’24 LC featured resources (Theme: Water Quality & Conservation)
- March ’24 LC featured resources (Theme: Getting Ready for Earth Month); March teacher feature
- Jan/Feb ’24 LC featured resources (Theme: Embracing Wintertime)
- December ’23 LC featured resources (Theme: Circular Economy / Waste Reduction for the Holidays)
- November ’23 LC featured resources (Theme: Reconciliation & Connecting to Indigenous Perspectives); November teacher feature
- October ’23 featured resources (Theme: Take Me Outside Day)
- September ’23 LC featured resources (Theme: Connecting to Your Local Environment); September teacher feature
- August ’23 LC mail out, including letters you can customize to parents, office staff, and a contract to use and adapt with your learners
- Note that the Activity Tracker links are broken in the August edition. See below to download!
- Learning Challenge Activity Trackers: Set your goal of 36, 49, or 100 hours of outdoor learning
- Catch up on previous year’s featured activities & resources through our blog
- Check out our professional learning workshops for educators to build your skills & knowledge around outdoor learning (and don’t miss all our previously recorded sessions)
- Take Me Outside Resource Directory
- TMO Day 2023 resources for each of the three event themes
- Activities inspired by TMO Day 2021
- CBEEN resources
- Indigenous-focused resources from our friends at the Outdoor Learning Store
- Looking for a document aimed to help teachers get started in preparing to take their students outside? Check out the COEO Outdoor Learning Tips and Resources found here. A French version is also available here.
- TMO Impact Reports
- Winter Challenge Activity Blogs: 2024, 2023 & 2022
Grand Prizes
We are really excited to be able to offer some incredible prizes for educators who participate in the Take Me Outside for Learning Challenge! Two grand prize winners will be chosen at the end of the challenge: One lucky winner will win a 4 day trip to Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada, and another will receive $500 to spend at the Outdoor Learning Store! Many thanks to the Banff Lodging Company and Pacific Foundation for Understanding Nature Society (Pac FUNS) for their generous donations towards the prizes. Click here to learn more. And we’ll have lots more prizes happening each month for participants!
WHAT EDUCATORS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE TAKE ME OUTSIDE FOR LEARNING CHALLENGE
“One of my students recently wrote a persuasive letter as part of an assignment, and for their topic they chose ‘why we should have more outdoor learning’.”
“I love it because it is a space where all can succeed, regardless of ability, language or experience.”
“Students benefited so much! Here are the ways: self-regulation and understanding how nature can be calming, sense of wonder and connection to big ideas, movement and understanding the concept of space, loving nature in its patterns of weather and seasons, observation and awakening all the senses, sharing the experience with others!”
“I always notice full engagement when we take learning outdoors.”
Thanks to our Partners & Allies for supporting the Learning Challenge & the work of Take Me Outside
