Outdoor Learning Winter Challenge 2024

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

Full article: “10 tips to make sure kids dress warmly enough in winter” (https://activeforlife.com/tips-to-dress-for-weather/)

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

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.

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.

TMO online resource library

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!

Resources for Rethinking

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!

Evergreen Winter Activities

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.

Click to zoom in and save!

For PDF version to print, copy & paste: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bc9ERASHQRvyEvNdXHbXKUaihW7Q4-UM/view?usp=drive_link

#NatureForAll Love Fest

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.

Great Backyard Bird Count

Birds are everywhere, all the time, doing fascinating things. Join us, February 16–19, 2024, 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!

Arctic Winter Games

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.

Carnaval de Quebec

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.