Outdoor Learning Winter Challenge
The 2025 Winter Challenge is back from February 24th to March 7th!
Welcome to the 7th Annual Take Me Outside Winter Challenge! This annual initiative encourages educators and learners to get outside and embrace the beauty of winter. It’s simple to join in, here’s what you need to know to get started:
- Join the Challenge: Scroll down or click here to sign up! By signing up, you are entering yourself and your learners in for winter challenge mailouts, resources, and prizes throughout the challenge!
- Participate and Go Outside: This is the most important step! You and your learners spend as much time outside as much as possible between Feb 24th – March 7th, whether it’s once, or every day. If you’re looking for ideas, start at the resource section below. Bonus: You can use this fun tracker sheet to colour in each day you spend time outside.
- Create: While outside, participate in our Winter Art Challenge! Create winter art using found materials, ice, snow, and non-toxic/environment-friendly paint. Share your creations with us by tagging us on social media or sending photos to our email info@takemeoutside.ca to be entered into our Winter Art Contest! We’ve got some amazing prizes from Mountain Equipment Company, Outdoor Learning School & Store, Take Me Outside Store, and more! There will be 3 categories with prizes for 1st and 2nd in each category!
- Inspire: Share with others on social media with the hashtag #TMOWinterChallenge! We’ll be giving away prizes every single day of the Challenge! Follow us for more on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. And if you don’t use social media, you can email your adventures to info@takemeoutside.ca.
- Gather: Join us for two virtual campfires, one in French and one in English, for a chance to connect and learn from Educators across Turtle Island! Click here or continue reading for more information.
- Prizes & Discounts: A big thanks to MEC and Outdoor Learning School and Store for their donation of prizes and for supporting our work!
Looking for more? Check out the inspiration from past years offered by our official hashtags on social media: #TMOWinterChallenge & #DéfiHivernal.
Winter Art Contest
If anything gets you outside throughout the Challenge, we hope it’s this! We’re hosting a friendly competition to see what amazing creations learners can create this winter season. Read on for some important details and rules:
- The challenge is simple, create outdoor nature art! Ideas for art include ice sculptures, winter painting, winter photography, found art, mandalas, or snowpeople just to name a few ideas.
- If you don’t have snow where you are right now, don’t worry! We want to see art inspired by winter and what winter looks like to you. We personally love natural, found, and foraged materials, but we’re open and excited to see what you dream up.
- You can create and submit your Winter Art anytime during the Winter Challenge (Feb 24th – Mar 7, 2025). Either tag us on social media, use the hashtag #TMOWinterChallenge, or email us at info@takemeoutside.ca.
- Please let us know the age of the learners so we know what category to enter your submission under! Learners are encouraged to be in the photos with their creations, but it is not required. If you are sharing photos of learners, please ensure you have media consent as we love to share photos of creations throughout the week on our channels.
- There are 3 age categories and each category will be awarded a first and second place prize!
- 6 years old and under
- 7 -12 years old
- 13+ years old
- The prizes will be sent to the supervising educators (not the learners), who may allocate them as they see fit.
- First Place in each category will win a $50 Gift card to the MEC and Second Place will be awarded a $50 Gift card to the Outdoor Learning School and Store.
Winter Art Inspiration from past winter challenges:
Prizes
On top of prizes for our Winter Art Contest, we will be randomly awarding prizes throughout the two weeks! Ways you can win a prize include:
- Share your completed tracker with us: Send us a photo of a completed activity tracker and be automatically entered to win a gift card to the Take Me Outside Store!
- Send us photos of your winter outdoor adventures! Or share with others on social media with the hashtag #TMOWinterChallenge. We love seeing the ways you and your learners head outdoors. We will be randomly selecting winners each day for a $25 gift card to the Take Me Outside Store! Follow us for more on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. And if you don’t use social media, you can email your adventures to info@takemeoutside.ca.
Bonus! Just for signing up, you’ll receive a 20% discount on everything at the Take Me Outside store, and 5% off at the Outdoor Learning Store. Check your confirmation email for all the details.
Virtual Campfires
We are excited to announce that as part of the 2025 Winter Challenge, we will be bringing back Educator Virtual Campfires offered in both French and English!
Join us for an hour of networking, learning, and gathering with other outdoor educators! There will be prizes! RSVP by clicking the links below:
French Virtual Campfire – February 26th at 4pm PST/ 7pm EST – https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/TczgaJj2Tae0JImBf0drjw
English Virtual Campfire – February 27th at 4pm PST/ 7pm EST – https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/eJS1HRQPT_i7C-a7_oYAag
Resources
Getting Started & Risk Assessment
Infographics from the Child & Nature Alliance of Canada (click for full size): Tips for the Cold
Infographic from Active for Life (click for full size): Dressing Kids for Winter
Infographics from the Black in Nature (click for full size): Identifying Hypothermia in People with Darker Skin Tones – English & French
Outdoor Play & Learning Toolkit for Elementary Teachers
Tips, Tricks, and Lesson Ideas for Winter Outdoor Learning
Infographics from OutGrown (click for full size): Winter Adventures Basics – English & Spanish
Educator Learning
What to Wear for Winter (video)
Lynx shares a brief description of what kind of clothing and layering should be considered for taking students outside.
What’s in Your Backpack? (video)
In this short outdoor learning video, Lynx shows teachers what she packs in her backpack when taking students outside during the winter.
Canadian Wildlife Federation: Below Zero
Winter is a vital part of our Canadian heritage, our traditions, and in some respects, our livelihood. While we may not always appreciate mounds of snow and freezing temperatures consistent with a Canadian winter, the fact is winter plays an important role in helping maintain ecological balance in the ecosystems on which both humans and wildlife depend.
Game of Groans: Winter is Coming! (webinar recording)
Dave Quinn is a BC-certified teacher, certified wilderness guide, and wildlife biologist who has led expeditions across the globe. He believes outdoor learning year-round offers a host of social, mental, and academic outcomes for students of all ages, and is happy to provide ideas, tips, and tools to help others find success throughout the year.
Get Outside: Learning Outdoors in Winter (webinar recording)
Pamela Gibson from Learning for a Sustainable Future shows the plethora of interesting, motivating curriculum connections winter offers – and it’s easier than you think! Her passion is making curriculum come alive through experiential learning, and helping students feel a sense of belonging and love for the earth, connected to nature and community.
Resource Databases & Activities
2023 Winter Challenge Activity Guides
A different engaging activity for each day of the Challenge – sure to give you an idea or two! We hope this inspires you to try something new, get creative, and head outside. But most importantly… have fun! If you’re looking for even more ideas, check out what we did during each day of the 2022 Winter Challenge here.
Offering over 160 resources in a plethora of topics, this database is a great place to start for ideas and activities. Search by keywords or scan the page, and you’ll surely leave inspired!
This program of Learning for a Sustainable Future offers a searchable database of over 1200 resources, and is available in French too! They also publish regular nature guides which follow the seasons and offers numerous starting points for learners of all ages in a variety of subjects.
- One of our favourite recent editions: Mid February 2024 Nature Guide: Track This!
10 fun and easy outdoor winter activities for kids! Keep your learners outdoors and entertained this winter break with these engaging and accessible activities, curated by Evergreen’s team of Outdoor Educators.
Active for Life: Physical Literacy Development
Active for Life is a Canadian not-for-profit social initiative created to help give children the right start in life through the development of physical literacy. Three lists to start off from their extensive library: Outdoor winter activities for kids when there’s no snow; 29 fun games kids can play in the snow; Creative activities across Canada to beat the winter blues.
Lessons in Grass: Winter Activities
Go out even in winter… We have an activity for every single day!
8 80 Cities Winter Placemaking Guide
The snowy season is here; why dread it, when we can embrace it! Winter placemaking is the active reimagining and repurposing of parks and public spaces during our coldest season to make winter an inviting and social time of the year for everyone.
Winter Challenge Posters
Coming Soon!
Related Winter Events
The #NatureForAll Love Fest focuses on bringing together, sharing, and celebrating personal stories throughout February from around the world about love for Nature and how that feeling inspires us to conserve it.
Birds are everywhere, all the time, doing fascinating things. Join us, February 14–17, 2025, when the world comes together for the love of birds. In as little as 15 minutes notice the birds around you. Identify them, count them, and submit them to help scientists better understand and protect birds around the world.
Out Grown: Winter Walks with Wox
Can you aim to spend 10 minutes outdoors each day all month long? There’s SNOW reason to stay indoors! Join Out Grown this February for our Winter Walk with Wox! It’s free, it’s fun, and the benefits of time outside are yours to keep. We’ve got lots of fun activity ideas to inspire you, a tracker for your progress, and you can join our community pages to stay motivated daily!
The Arctic Winter Games are a biennial multi-sport and cultural event hosted by contingents in the Arctic region, specifically focusing on circumpolar communities from areas like Canada, Alaska, Kalaallit Nunaat, and Northern Scandinavia. More than just a sporting competition, the Arctic Winter Games inspires athletes, artists, and communities to come together to celebrate the Circumpolar North.
A population often faced with harsh winters decided to put on a snow festival to warm their hearts. The tradition of celebrating from the end of January until mid-February has been around for a long time! In Quebec City, the world’s snow capital, the first major winter carnival made its debut in 1894.
Activities
Educators: We want to hear your favourite winter outdoor learning activities!
Click here to head to our collaborative Padlet – share, get inspired, and head outside!
Educators who leave their name and are registered for the Challenge will be chosen at random to win toques from #NatureForAll and gift cards to the Outdoor Learning Store. This is in partnership with the #NatureForAll Love Fest – a celebration of inspiring love of nature across the world.
Be sure to scroll through each of the grade options to add your activity where it best fits.
Partners
Thank you to Mountain Equipment Company, the Outdoor Learning Store, and Nature For All, for their generous prize donations for Winter Challenge participants!
We couldn’t do this without all of our amazing Outdoor Learning Partners. Check out the full list here!
Looking forward to seeing all of your outdoor adventures from February 24th to March 7th! ! #TMOWinterChallenge
And feel free to email us anytime: info@takemeoutside.ca