Teachers play an integral role in supporting children’s learning, development, and growth.
Teachers can also be incredible advocates for nature-based learning, creating transformative opportunities for youth to connect with and explore their local environment. That’s why we celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week (May 6-10) to raise awareness of the significant impact teachers have on future generations!
To all teachers across the country, in big cities and small towns, the Canadian Wildlife Federation would like to give a BIG shout-out to you for all your hard work and dedication. We also offer our continued support ask you work to make nature a regular part of your classrooms and programs!
Are you a teacher looking to implement more environmental activities in your classrooms? Check out the top 3 resources and programs for educators, designed to help you engage youth in learning and taking action for wildlife and the environment.
#1: Learning Library
It’s just as it sounds! Our online catalogue of educational resources makes it easy and accessible for educators to find teaching materials, including lesson plans, projects and exciting activities! Effortlessly search through the Learning Library by age group, topic (like bats, pollinators, and rivers), learning environment (indoor or outdoor) and subjects (art, math, and history) to discover tools for your teaching toolbox. Give it a try!
#2: School Gardening Program
WILD Spaces connects educators and children to nature and helps protect pollinators through a meaningful learning experience. This program provides everything teachers need to empower elementary students to learn about pollinators, adapt school or community gardens to create pollinator habitats, and observe and document pollinators in the garden. Teachers also have a chance to sign up for free pollinator-friendly perennial plants that are easy to care for and thrive in sunny sites. Schools are then selected at random to receive a four-pack plant kit delivered to their school!
“Our plants arrived today! Thank you sooooooo much!! This will mean so much to our school community. We are right downtown Toronto, surrounded by concrete and fake grass, plastic and traffic. These plants will go a long way towards naturalizing our playground space and providing our students with hands-on science lessons. It also fits beautifully into our mental health curriculum by providing a calming natural space. We will provide photo updates as we plant and care for our garden!”- C J, Beverley Public School
Learn more by participating in our online classroom! Sign up today.
#3: Professional Development Workshops
Are you interested in incorporating environmental education into your teaching practice, but don’t know how to get started? If so, our professional development workshops are for you! Unleash the power of nature in your classroom with our Project WILD, Below Zero and WILD About Sports programs! As part of these hands-on workshops, educators receive hands-on training and tools to help build their confidence in incorporating environmental education into their teaching practice in all season! They’ll also receive a printed copy of our activity guides featuring more than 200 fun, interdisciplinary activities, games, and lesson plans for all ages and abilities!
Learn more these programs and find a workshop near you!
See what educators have been saying!
- “I wanted to just mention again how powerful these resources are, and how much they bring people together from all areas of curriculum. The educators in my workshop were from all subjects: science, phys. ed, literacy, first nations, numeracy, technology, and more. They are already planning on connecting with each other across districts to plan and implement these lessons and activities.” – WILD Education Facilitator, New Brunswick
- “I really enjoyed the group discussions and the peer teaching. It got us to actually use the learned content and got us to share ideas about how we would implement the activities in the classroom for students. I got to learn about how I could implement math in the activities with students.” – Workshop participant
- “I just wanted to say a huge thank you for the amazing workshop you delivered last week! I found them so helpful and really interesting, in fact, I am using the activity guide right now to complete a science assignment where I have to create a unit plan.” – Pre-service teacher, Brock University