Exploring how to enhance habitat around us
- Utilizing lessons from the Camp Kawartha session
- Student-led exploration and discussion of the habitat in the school yard/outdoor space
- Collect ideas on a piece of chart paper – place this in the classroom – see over the course of the year how to action these items either fully or partially.
What is a healthy environment?
- How do we create/facilitate this for you? Mentally? Physically?
- Where do we find this?
- What is a healthy environment for plants/trees/animals?
Read: The Wind and the Trees by Todd Stewart
- Ideally read the book to your class outside.
Talk about basic “survival skills”
- What do we do if we get lost?
- How can we conserve warmth? How can we create shelter?
- How can we calm down our breathing?
- Box breathing, meditation, “special place” imagination exercise
- Knot tying
- Maybe your students know how to tie their shoes, maybe they do not. Either way, learning different knots in various contexts is fun, challenging and rewarding!
Basic Needs Map
- Create a map of the school and locate where to access basic needs.
- Navigate as a class or in pairs or individually to these locations.
- Track how long (through time, steps, and/or songs, etc.) it takes to get between locations
Beaver lodges investigation
- They have homes and families “like us” This website provides a basic overview, but there are many interesting aspects about beaver life. (https://www.nps.gov/gaar/learn/nature/beaver-family-life.htm)
- Is there a place in your community where you could see beavers at work?
Art project
- Build your home
- Ideally this can be done outside with found materials (honourable harvest)
- This can also be done inside the classroom using a variety of materials (plasticine/playdough/popsicle sticks/found materials/etc.)
- This allows the students to kinetically interpret basic human needs and their own representation of said needs.