Primary Workshops

Nature's Needs

Grade 1 - Life Systems - Needs and Characteristics of Living Things
Brief Overview: The workshop begins with a read aloud of Feathers: Not Just for Flying by Melissa Stewart. Students will then discuss the needs of living things and how living things depend on one another. Students will get up and moving during the Nature’s Needs game where they have to chase down the needs called out. We will then discuss the different physical characteristics that help animals adapt and students will play a matching game. To conclude the workshop we will have a discussion about healthy environments, pollution, and what can be done to help the environment. 
Curriculum Connections:
  • B1.1: describe changes or problems that could result from the loss of living and non-living things that are part of everyday life, while taking different perspectives into consideration
  • B1.2: identify actions that can be taken to contribute to a healthy environment
  • B2.2: identify the basic needs of living things, including the need for air, water, food, heat, shelter, and space
  • B2.3: identify the physical characteristics of various plants and animals, including humans, and explain how these characteristics help the plants and animals meet their basic needs
  • B2.5: describe the characteristics of a healthy environment, including clean air and water and nutritious food, and how a healthy environment enables living things to meet their needs
  • B2.6: describe ways in which living things provide for the needs of other living things

Critter Chronicles 

Grade 2 - Life Systems - Growth and Changes in Animals
Brief Overview: This workshop begins with a read aloud of The Amazing Life Cycle of Butterflies by Kay Barnham to help students activate any prior knowledge they have about life cycles. Students will act out the life cycle of different living things through movement. Groups will cycle through life cycle stations and try to put them in order. Students will then break apart and choose their favourite life cycle and draw and label it to consolidate their learning. To finish the workshop students will play a game where they have to find their adult/juvenile version of their animal by asking specific questions.
Curriculum Connections:
  • B2.1: compare physical characteristics of various animals, including characteristics that are constant and those that change
  • B2.3: describe the life cycle of a variety of animals, including insects, amphibians, birds, and mammals
  • B2.4: compare changes in the appearance and behaviour of various animals as they go through a complete life cycle

Migration Makers

Grade 2 - Life Systems - Growth and Changes in Animals
Brief Overview: The workshops begins with a read aloud of Feathers: Not Just for Flying by Melissa Stewart to activate student’s prior knowledge. Students will learn about animal adaptations, both structural and behavioural, with a focus on migration. Students will move through adaptation centers and play a migration game. 
*Workshops longer than 100 minutes allow time for students to participate in a consolidation craft-ivity where they will build bird feeders out of toilet paper rolls.
*Allergy alert: vegan lard, bird seed (cracked corn, white millet, wheats, sorghum, black sunflower, oats)
Curriculum Connections:
  • B1.2: assess impacts of various human activities on animals and the places where they live, and describe practices that can minimize negative impacts
  • B2.2: describe the locomotion of various animals
  • B2.5: describe adaptations, including physical and/or behavioural characteristics, that allow various animals to survive in their natural environment

Waves & Whirls

Grade 2 - Earth and Space Systems - Air and Water in the Environment
Brief Overview: This workshop begins with reading We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom OR Great Big Water Cycle Adventure by Kay Barnham to help students connect their prior knowledge of air and water in the environment. They will discuss the origins of their water, with an emphasis on the water cycle. The lesson will explore how all living things depend on air and water, and what happens when these vital resources become polluted. Students will get to hear the story and see pictures of the “Oiled Goose,” a goose that Haley helped to clean and rehabilitate while she was an intern at Le Nichoir. Students will engage in a hands-on activity where they’ll experience firsthand the challenges of cleaning up an oil spill. To conclude, we will discuss what students can do to help protect the air and water in their local environment.
*Students should wear clothes that can get dirty.
Curriculum Connections:
  • E1.1: assess the impact of human activities on air and water, taking various perspectives into consideration, including those of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit, and plan a course of action to protect the quality of the air and/or water in the local community
  • E2.2: identify sources of water in the natural and built environments
  • E2.3: describe the stages of the water cycle, including evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection
  • E2.5: describe ways in which living things, including humans, depend on air and water

Dirt Detectives

Grade 3 - Life Systems - Soils in the Environment
Brief Overview: Brief Overview: Students will become detectives as they don gloves and use gardening tools and magnifying glasses to investigate the soil in their schoolyard. Students will go on a scavenger hunt for living and non-living things and discuss the importance of healthy soil. Students will learn about types of soil and soil horizons and then create their own out of natural materials. To finish off the workshop we will discuss composting and its role in healthy soil and explore how weathering helps to break things down.
Curriculum Connections:
  • E1.1: assess the importance of soils for society and the environment
  • E1.2: assess the impact of human activity on soils, and describe ways in which humans can improve the quality of soils and/or lessen or prevent harmful effects on soils
  • E2.1: identify the living and non-living components of soil, and describe the characteristics of healthy soil

Sprout Scouts

Grade 3 - Life Systems - Growth and Changes in Plants
Brief Overview: In this workshop students will learn about key plant concepts through hands-on, outdoor activities. The workshop begins with a read aloud of The Amazing Life Cycle of Plants by Kay Barnham to help activate students’ prior knowledge. Students will then discuss the needs of plants, plant terminology, including terms such as root, stem, flower, and the life cycle of plants. Students will get to break into groups and cycle through stations with hands-on activities. Students will also learn about pollination and play a traveling seeds game.
Curriculum Connections:
  • B2.1: describe the basic needs of plants, including the need for air, water, light, heat, nutrients, and space, and identify environmental conditions that may threaten plant survival
  • B2.2: identify different parts of plants, including the root, stem, flower, stamen, pistil, leaf, seed, cone, and fruit, and describe how each part contributes to plants’ survival within their environment
  • B2.3: describe changes that different plants undergo in their life cycles
  • B2.4: describe ways in which a variety of plants adapt and/or react to their environment and to changes in their environment
  • B2.8: describe ways in which plants and animals, including humans, depend on each other

Wild Poetry

Primary/Junior/Intermediate - Language/Science
Brief Overview: The workshop begins with a rainbow walk around the schoolyard where students can appreciate the colours in the natural world around them. Each student will get a pair of binoculars to help them notice small details that they normally wouldn’t be able to see. Students will listen to some poetry relating to nature and animals. Students will learn about different types of poetry and brainstorm what they could write about. Students will then get a chance to write their own poem. Students will be invited to share their poems at the end of the workshop.
Curriculum Connections:
Science Big Ideas
  • Organisms have unique characteristics and adaptations that allow them to survive in their habitat.
  • Plants and animals go through changes during their life cycle.
  • Air, water, and rocks in the local environment.
  • Taking care of the land through sustainability and stewardship.
Language
  • Writing: 1.1: identify the topic, purpose, and audience for a variety of writing forms
  • 2.1 write short texts using a few simple forms
  • Reading: 1.1 read a variety of texts from diverse cultures, including literary texts

Wild Words

Primary/Junior/Intermediate - Science/Language
Brief Overview: The workshop begins with a walk around the schoolyard with binoculars. Students will compare their view with binoculars compared to just their eyes. This leads into our next activity where students use “soft” and “hard” eyes. Students can bring out their writing journals (or paper will be provided) and will spend some time journaling about what they see. We will discuss what makes a good short story and brainstorm some ideas for ones about nature. Students will then find a sit spot and draft a short story. Students are invited to share their stories at the end of the workshop.
Curriculum Connections:
Science Big Ideas
  • Organisms have unique characteristics and adaptations that allow them to survive in their habitat.
  • Plants and animals go through changes during their life cycle.
  • Air, water, and rocks in the local environment.
  • Taking care of the land through sustainability and stewardship.
Language
  • Writing: 1.1: identify the topic, purpose, and audience for a variety of writing forms
  • 2.1 write short texts using a few simple forms
  • 2.4 write simple but complete sentences that make sense
  • Reading: 1.1 read a variety of texts from diverse cultures, including literary texts

Beautiful World: Art in Nature

Primary/Junior - Science/Art
Brief Overview: The workshop begins with a rainbow walk around the schoolyard where students can appreciate the colours in the natural world around them. Students will discuss the elements and principles of design and how each is important in art. Students will learn about frottage and then create rubbings of different textures in the natural environment around the school (leaves, bark, etc). Students will then use natural things that they find on the ground to make an art piece. The workshop will conclude with a gallery walk where students can show off what they have created.
Curriculum Connections:
  • D1. Creating and Presenting: apply the creative process to produce a variety of two- and three-dimensional art works, using elements, principles, and techniques of visual arts to communicate feelings, ideas, and understandings
  • Elements: line, shape and form, space, colour, texture, and value
  • Principles: contrast, repetition and rhythm, variety, emphasis, proportion, balance, unity and harmony, and movement