At-home education resources from Learning for a Sustainable Future
Welcome to Week 12!
Welcome to week 12 of Learning Inside Out! As the weather gets warmer we hope that many of you are able to "Step Outside" as much as you can this week to get some much-needed nature time—
keeping your local public health and physical distancing recommendations in mind, as always! The activities below will give you some great ideas for learning both inside and out!

We love to see these activities in action and share photos with our community whenever we can, so if you take photos of your kids or students engaging in these activities remember to share them on social media using the hashtag #LearningInsideOut or  email them to us !
About Learning Inside Out

Below you will find a selection of activities, broken down by various grade levels. These guides will be released weekly and archived on our Learning Inside Out page , so you can always access the full catalogue.

All activities have been modified from resources on our R4R database , simplified and adapted for at-home learning as needed. The activity descriptions below should contain all the information and links that you need!

If you'd like to view the full original resource on R4R, including curriculum connections for every province/territory, click the activity title.

We want this guide to work for you, so your feedback is invaluable to us.
Use the feedback button at the bottom of this guide, or email us at info@LSF-LST.ca .

Step Outside™ Nature Activities
Week 12: Early June Happenings
Grades K-3
Micro-hiking invites students to go on an outdoors 'mini hike' and explore a very small (one metre!) habitat through the eyes of a mini-person of their choice. This is a great way to see the world and your immediate environment through a different (tiny) lens!

This mini-person can be as simple as a stick figure made of toothpicks but should be no larger than a finger.

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Grades 4-6
This outdoor activity introduces young learners to insect diversity, distribution and behavior. After learning some background information, discussing observation techniques, and finding a great spot to look, students are invited to go on a hunt for insects!

It is not important for this activity that students learn the proper classification and names of the insects they find. The intent is to show them that insects are everywhere, that they are diverse and complex, and that they have interesting lifestyles and behaviours!

What do you think of the Get to Know Insects activity?
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Several of the Spring/Summer Step Outside Nature Guides point out that while some can be especially annoying, insects play extremely important roles in aquatic ecosystems.  As the weather warms and water levels fall, spring is an excellent time of year to explore the diversity of macro-invertebrate life found in nearby lakes, streams and ponds.

This resource involves students in a bio-monitoring project of a local waterway. Aquatic invertebrates are known to exhibit different tolerances to pollution and as a result are commonly used to assess the health of aquatic ecosystems and monitor changes in water quality!

Materials: A small net (aquarium net is fine) is really all the ‘equipment’ required. A magnifying glass is helpful but not essential as the macro-invertebrates are large enough that you can see the identification features with the naked eye.

What do you think of the Bugs Clues to the Environment Activity?
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Virtual connection is more important than ever—share your learning with us using #LearningInsideOut and don't forget to tag LSF!
Let us know how this helped your learning & teaching from home experience and what you'd like to see more of by filling out our brief feedback form!
Please share widely with any parents or teachers in your life!
Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF) is a Canadian charity with over 25 years of experience working within the education system. Our Resources for Rethinking (R4R) database is an award-winning collection of resources that are peer-reviewed by certified teachers and connected to curriculum in all provinces and territories. R4R is recommended on many Ministry of Education websites.
Learning for a Sustainable Future
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