Grade 4

Alberta Food Matters is a province-wide organization that connects dietitians, teachers and local producers to each other and to information on projects that already exist in Alberta and across Canada. They are linked to Canada-wide organizations that also promote these initiatives (such as Food Secure Canada, Coalition for Healthy School Food, Farm2Cafeteria Canada, Farm to School B.C. etc. AFM are currently working on a pilot project called “Community Animators” that supports schools to undertake whatever they are dreaming of doing to bring local, sustainable
food to their students.
 

Nature Alberta aims to be a strong voice and an active champion for the greater appreciation and conservations of Alberta's natural environment. Published four times per year, each magazine offers informative, educational, and engaging nature writing and photography that inspires readers to venture out and directly experience nature, deepens their connection with the natural world, and strengthens their commitment to protecting Alberta’s local habitats and wild places. Content can be used to guide discussions, engage students, and more. See the website to download free PDFs of current and past issues and the Nature Kids page to explore learning resources.

Take Me Outside has a directory of resources about outdoor learning, including lesson plans and kits!

See the Canadian Outdoor Learning Resource Hub for a detailed list of other organizations supporting outdoor/environmental learning.

Join the Take Me Outside for Learning Challenge each year to gain access to additional resources, presentations, and professional development opportunities. 

Bob is passionate about solar power, the sun, and renewable energy. He previously worked in the field of electricity and integrating renewable energy sources to increase reliability of the electric grid. Now retired, he has created a website to share his interest with the world! Bob's Solar Power Hobby Site is an excellent resource for Elementary and Junior High for learning about all things solar and renewable energy. Packed full of valuable resources, the website also includes a variety of solar cooker designs, recipes, and information about the solar panel installation process.

Discovering the Arctic Learn about arctic wildlife, challenges, people, and research.

Discovering Antarctica Learn about the oceans, atmosphere, landscape, food webs, exploration, and challenges. 

Discovering Galapagos Learn about the challenges that we face in ensuring a sustainable future for these unique islands and find out about ground-breaking conservation projects happening now.

Each website features activities, images, video clips and fact sheets.

Orange Marks the Spot is a series of 6 lessons, each about an hour in length, that are designed to introduce students ages 5-12 to orienteering. Skills covered in the lessons include: cardinal directions, navigating a course, and applying navigation and outdoor exploration skills. 

Download the eBird app to add your bird sightings and explore birds and hotspots near you! 

Nature Alive Adventures provides customizable outdoor experiences right to your school parking lot or to an outdoor space near you. They provide instruction in outdoor skills (e.g. animal awareness and tracking, natural fiber cordage, fire lighting, shelter building, etc), quinzhee building, and more! Nature Alive Adventures also provides day and overnight trips with snowshoes and freight toboggans. They are certified instructors with Paddle Canada to provide canoe instruction, guided trips, and certification.

Their YouTube channel provides in-class resources and instruction in a variety of outdoor pursuits and topics, as well as providing Nature Minutes, short videos with follow up activities that are meant to challenge kids to get outside.

To get in touch with Nature Alive Adventures, contact Dale and Colleen Kiselyk 780-305-6921
 

Record your sightings of animals and plants and contribute to citizen science! iNaturalist has also launched a new app for kids called Seek! Use the power of image recognition technology to identify the plants and animals all around you. Earn badges for seeing different types of birds, amphibians, plants, and fungi and participate in monthly observation challenges.

The Alberta Community Bat Program provides an Alberta Bats Colouring and Activity Book for elementary grades, a documentary about Alberta bats and the challenges facing their populations, and a guide for building a bat house. You can also take part in citizen science to help researchers learn more about the species of bats in Alberta. As part of the Alberta Community Bat Program, WCS Canada is compiling one of Alberta's largest databases of bat observations. Contribute your data and help better understand the distribution, habitat use, and seasonal timing of bat activity. There is a Bats of Alberta group on iNaturalist! Download the app to add your bat sightings!