Hands On Activities

The Calgary Horticultural Society has a resource page with helpful guides to gardening including activities to get started, how to use compost, and soil tips. 

Nature Calgary has a resource page to support anyone interested in birding. Resources include birding locations, checklist for birds in the Calgary area, birding software, migration date guide, and arrival times chart. 

Trout Unlimited Canada’s Water Edu-Kit program explores the science of water, enabling youth to improve their water literacy while enriching their understanding and experience in water science. The self-delivery program package has a complete set of tools to help youth understand and monitor the health of their local waterbodies and the challenges with water and conservation. This science-based, curriculum linked, program links classroom learning to stewardship action, through the program guide and water testing supplies.

Trout Unlimited Canada’s award-winning Yellow Fish Road™ program has been Canada’s premier water education program targeted to reduce water pollution. The program educates Canadians that storm drains are the doorways to our rivers, lakes and streams and anything other than rainwater can harm life in and around the water, as well as us as Canadians who need clean water. This science-based, curriculum linked, program links classroom learning to stewardship action, through videos, a presentation activity, program guide and storm drain painting supplies.

Classroom Resources includes online dissection alternatives, Animal Cams, and the Five Needs of animals video series. 

AnimalTales is a free book lending program with online resources and pre and post activities for Kindergarten to Grade 6. 

The following discussion questions and activities foster curiosity and link to Language Arts and Science curriculum for Kindergarten to Grade 7+. See past themes here, including kindness, respect, compassion, and responsibility. 

There are also Class Action Project ideas and guides to help animals, people, and the environment. Classes who complete projects can also end up on the Kindness Map. 

See CTS course offerings related to Equine, Animal Basics, and Animal Husbandry and Welfare. Teachers can complete the course as a class or a student can individually work through the course. 

The Seven Sacred/Grandfather Teachings include a teachers' guide and student activity booklet for Grades 1-2 and 3-6. 

There are over 700 scientifically credible resources in the CLEAN (Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network) collection. Every item in the CLEAN collection is rigorously peer-reviewed by teams of educators and scientists. Resources include information, lesson plans, and activities for teaching about climate change and energy. All resources are free and available online.

Canadian Geographic's giant floor map program is a free resource offered to K-12 teachers. Each floor map comes with a teacher guide with at least ten curriculum-linked activities will help bring the map to life.

Maps include:

Energy Production and Transmission: This map gives students the chance to explore and learn Canada’s energy story, highlighting where Canada’s energy is produced and where it goes.

Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada: This map shows the locations of Indigenous communities, residential schools, reserves and more. Rather than political borders, Canada is broken up into Indigenous language groups.

Polar Knowledge Canada: This map looks at the world from a circumpolar perspective. Use this map to explore the Arctic region and discuss why the Arctic circumpolar region is so important.

Canada from Space: This map, comprised of images taken by Canada’s RADARSAT-2, teaches students how Earth observation satellites monitor Canada’s environment, climate and borders.

ChangeMakers is a community/network providing learning opportunities, events, social connection, and a platform to grow your network and champion ecojustice for all. 

Climate Game Changers is an interactive resource to help guide climate learning for students, adults, and teachers. With a ‘choose your own adventure’ style of learning, and ways to take climate action. 

Bring Nature Home Toolkit for parents, students, and teachers to support outdoor and wildlife education. The tool lets you filter activities by Grade and Topic.

Forest Stewards provides information about the relationship between fires and forests, logging, and hydrological processes. 

CPAWS also has an action project map to discover what actions are being taken by students around Alberta in order to preserve the integrity of our parks and protected areas. Have you done any projects recently? Add your actions to the map!

Ask Nature provides a variety of biomimicry and engineering unit plans, lesson plans, and design challenges. The website also features professional development online courses to help teachers embark on design challenges with their students. 

Cornell Garden Based Learning provides downloadable lesson plans for Grades 2-8 about plants and gardening.