Grades 4-6

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. 

Forests, Fins & Footprints is a community-funded documentation of clearcutting in the Ghost Valley — a watershed located just upstream of Calgary, on the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains. The film interviews environmentalists, biologists, geologists, and people who live and work on the land. How does clearcutting affect an area's water, landscape, and wildlife, as well as the people living in that watershed? How will clearcut forestry impact the future? And how can we as a society move forward more thoughtfully?

The website also shares ways that you and your students can take action.

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!

Three Nations Energy provides teacher & student guides, videos, and fact sheets about the carbon cycle, methane cycle, climate change, energy efficiency, renewable energy, hydroponics, and gardening! The student guides allow for self-directed learning and include an activity, basic facts, and follow up challenges and experiments. The teacher guides can be combined with the associated factsheets. Alberta curriculum ties are identified for all activities.

These materials are available as a Basic, Advanced or General level. The Basic level has been designed for an elementary, junior high, or adult learner with less of a science or technical background. The Advanced level has been designed for a senior high student, trades person, or an adult with a strong science or technical background. The General level is more suited to a wider audience.

Guides include how to build a solar oven and solar air heating!