At-home and at school learning resources from Learning for a Sustainable Future
Week 6: Take Me Outside Day
Many students thrive in the outdoor classroom, whether it be the change of pace, the fresh air, or the immersion in nature. With so many opportunities to touch, smell, see and hear, your schoolyard can provide rich learning experiences that are a welcome change to the four walls of the classroom for both students and teachers. This week Learning Inside Out teams up with Take Me Outside, a non-profit organization committed to raising awareness and facilitating action on nature and outdoor learning in schools across Canada.

The activities and resources suggested this week focus on environmental education, climate change, and, most importantly, learning outside. If we want students to connect to the Earth, extend their learning environment and commit to spending one hour outdoors on Take Me Outside Day on Wednesday, October 19th.

Are you wondering how to start taking your students outside for outdoor learning? Look no further! Learning for a Sustainable Future, in partnership with Take Me Outside, is offering a webinar entitled Learning Goes Outside: Getting Started on Thursday, October 13th, to help prepare you for Take Me Outside Week. This webinar will highlight some strategies for engaging in outdoor activities and resources to learn more! Whether it is Math, the Arts or any subject you teach, you can motivate and empower your students using the outdoors.
This activity explores the effects of climate change on animals and plants through a role-playing game. During the game, students gain insight into how climate change may affect familiar plants and animals.


Activities
  • Get outside and play Maple Trees and Marmots. Students pretend to be marmots or ground squirrels on a food hunt. Their challenge will be to collect enough food to survive the winter
  • Explore trees in your schoolyard with the Meet a Tree activity. This sensory awareness activity connects students with trees in a memorable way. Have students sketch their tree with as much detail as possible 
  • Have students create a tree poster or report to record what they found out about their tree and why they think it's unique. Use the Blind Tree Discovery worksheet with older students
  • Head outdoors with this Climate Change Scavenger Hunt to explore climate change and the many scientists who help with research
  • Start a Walking Wednesday Club at your school to promote healthy lifestyle choices and reduce car trips to school. Here are some fun ideas to help you implement your WW Club
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Grades 4-6
Students observe and describe the impact of weather on living and non-living things by predicting and monitoring changes over time in the school grounds, neighbourhood or a local park. Various tools such as journals, change observation cards, and a student-created scavenger hunt assist the students in noticing and describing changes. After gaining an understanding of weather-related changes, the concepts of climate and climate change are introduced.



Activities
  • Complete the Observing Change activity. Discuss the impacts of weather and climate change on living and non-living things 
  • Participate in a Climate Kids Scavenger Hunt; students take a hike and closely observe the nature around them. Have students start a nature journal to draw or describe each of their observations
  • Get outdoors with Climate Connections, where students play a variety of non-competitive games that explore the connections between human actions, climate change, and positive and negative impacts on wildlife habitat
  • Become a tree detective and learn how to identify trees by studying their different parts. Use the Tree Bee identification guide to help you identify the names of some common trees
  • Reduce your carbon footprint by walking or riding a bike to school. Learn more about Getting There: Alternatives to the car (p.96 to 103); in this activity, students are provided with different travel scenarios and asked to determine the most appropriate mode of transportation based on environmental and health impacts
What did you think of Observing Change?
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An active game to show how increasing greenhouse gases cause global warming. This game can be used to scaffold the student's understanding of the greenhouse effect and global warming and prompt discussion on how our actions can make a difference.


Activities
  • Try your hand at Climate Change Dodgeball, followed by a discussion on how our actions can make a difference
  • Get outside and teach students about renewable energy technologies by building working models. Students can learn how to build a wind turbine or solar oven. The hands-on learning resource allows students to be self-directed in their learning and model making
  • Need more ideas and inspiration to take action on climate change; the Climate Leadership Toolkit offers ways to involve the whole school community in climate leadership around consumerism, waste reduction and energy consumption
  • The Carbon Dioxide Game is a fun, active way to explain the greenhouse effect and human contribution to global climate change
  • Natural Inquirer has students use interview techniques to research and write about an animal or plant affected by climate change. Get outside and locate the real plant or animal you want to interview. Take photos of your plants or animals and share them with us at #LearningInsideOut
What did you think of Climate Change Dodgeball?
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Grades 10-12
In this group learning activity, students analyze the local human causes of climate change and their negative global impacts. They take action by proposing individual and community initiatives to reduce the negative effects of climate change.




Activities
  • Get outside and play Climate Balloons to learn how the North American lifestyle contributes to climate change and threatens the survival of those living in the developing world
  • Learn What's the Value of that Tree by measuring the tree; you can find out the amount of carbon dioxide and pollution it removes from the air and the amount of stormwater it can help mitigate
  • Getting Outdoors with Physics provides students with an opportunity to go outdoors and collect primary data around motion and its applications. Students will record the time required for a vehicle to drive through the drop-off area of a school, which will lead to discussions about commuting, vehicle emissions and fuel efficiency
  • Encourage students to participate in a walk- or bike-to-school day. Use carbon calculators to measure the emissions they could save by choosing alternative transportation between their home and school
  • Through interactive play on a life-sized game board, the Green House Gas Game introduces students to three of the most common greenhouse gases and their role in the natural and enhanced greenhouse effect. Teams add or remove greenhouse gases from their shared atmosphere to experience the impact of human actions
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About Learning Inside Out

Above 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 both outdoor learning in the school yard or at-home as needed. The activity descriptions above 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. We would also love to see photos of students engaging in the activities, please e-mail us any pictures or videos you have!
Let us know how this helped your learning and teaching from home or at school indoors and (hopefully) outdoors and what you'd like to see more of by filling out our brief feedback form!
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Please share widely with any parents and 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.
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