Environmental Education Programs for Elementary Schools
We offer a wide range of environmental educational programs for pre-school, kindergarten, and elementary classes at Fanshawe and Wildwood Conservation Areas (CAs). All programs meet Ontario curriculum requirements within Health and Physical Education: Active Living.
Program Length
- All programs are 1.5 hours.
- At Fanshawe CA (London), the morning time slot is 10 – 11:30 am and the afternoon time slot is 12 – 1:30 pm.
- At Wildwood CA (St. Marys), the morning time slot is 9:45 – 11:15 am and the afternoon time slot is 12:30 – 1:45 pm.
- If you choose to combine two programs to create a full day experience, we will secure an indoor or outdoor space for you to eat lunch.
- As we aim to accommodate as many requests as possible, we might ask to add you to a waitlist while we confirm availability.
Program Fees
- $8.50/student/half-day
- $16/student/full-day
- $170 minimum charge/half-day for groups with fewer than 20 students
- No charge for teachers or volunteers
Elementary Programs
Available at Fanshawe and Wildwood CAs:
Students use their senses to gain awareness and appreciation of plants and animals while exploring various natural communities. Games and activities throughout the hike encourage interaction with classmates and the environment.
- Kindergarten Curriculum
- Grade 1 Science and Technology: Needs and Characteristics of Living Things
A wintery puppet show introduces students to familiar animals and their winter survival strategies. Key terms include hibernation, migration, and adaptation. A short guided hike outside leads to observing and feeding birds and looking for evidence of animal life. The program concludes back inside with a cozy winter story.
Save $1/student by booking an afternoon visit!
- Kindergarten Curriculum
- Grade 1 Science and Technology: Daily and Seasonal Changes
A Christmas-themed puppet show welcomes students to the forest, introduces familiar animals and their winter survival strategies, and helps get everyone excited for the holiday season. Heading outside, the students observe and feed birds as well as leave “presents” for animals that are active in the winter. We also celebrate the holidays with a winter story and sing-a-long accompanied by jingle bells.
Save $1/student by booking an afternoon visit!
- Kindergarten Curriculum
- Grade 1 – Science and Technology: Daily and Seasonal Changes
A variety of pods, including a forest kitchen, featuring nature-related loose parts make our forest an exciting play space to encourage imagination, creativity, observation, and building. Students will enjoy using their senses, natural curiosity, creativity, and sense of wonder to discover and interact with nature in a forest. Activities connect with seasonal changes.
- Kindergarten Curriculum
- Grade 1 – Science and Technology: Needs and Characteristics of Living Things; Daily and Seasonal Changes
Just like us, animals and plants are adapting to the season. Through hiking, exploration, and playing, students discover how wildlife are preparing for the seasonal changes ahead and how they are uniquely adapted to survive.
- Kindergarten Curriculum (Fanshawe CA Only)
- Grade 1 – Science and Technology: Needs and Characteristics of Living Things, Daily and Seasonal Changes
Explore and discover bugs with us! Students will learn bug lifecycles and how bugs eat and move through active role-play games, then they will catch and examine bugs using nets, containers and visual guides.
- Grade 1 – Science and Technology: Needs and Characteristics of Living Things
- Grade 2 – Science and Technology: Growth and Changes in Animals
Discover how different animals adapt to life in the forest. Solve puzzles and explore how animals have different behavior and physical adaptations through various hands-on activities.
- Grade 1 – Science and Technology: Needs and Characteristics of Living Things
- Grade 2 – Science and Technology: Growth and Changes in Animals
Learn about the hazards and thrills of Monarch butterfly migration in a “choose your own adventure” map reading exercise. Additional activities focus on learning cardinal directions as well as the anatomy and life cycle of a butterfly.
Bring your running shoes! This program includes movement-based activities.
- Grades 2 and 3 – Science and Technology: Growth and Changes in Animals
- Grades 2 and 3 – Mathematics: Algebra and Spatial Sense
- Grades 2 and 3 – Health and Physical Education: Active Living
Students will have the opportunity to explore the diverse plant life in a local forest and meadow. Through learning botanical terminology and by participating in interactive games and activities, students will gain insights into plant anatomy and interactions within ecosystems.
- Grade 3 – Science and Technology: Growth and Changes in Plants
Students will role-play as soil scientists to test soil and learn about its different properties and types. By getting their hands dirty, they will discover how soil sustains life. We are sure they will “worm” up to it!
- Grade 3 – Science and Technology: Soils in the Environment
Learn what orienteering is and how to use a compass. Pairs of students are given a set of directions and use their map reading skills and a compass to find their way to a series of locations. Compasses supplied.
- Grade 4, 5, 6 – Mathematics: Algebra and Spatial Sense
- Grade 4, 6 – Social Studies: Spatial Skills
Catered to your grades’ science curriculum and age level, we will use a variety of games and simulations from the long-standing and trusted Project Wild and Project Wet resources to highlight science topics in a fun, active way.
- Grade 4 – Science and Technology: Habitats and Communities
- Grade 5 – Science and Technology: Conservation of Energy and Resources
- Grade 6 – Science and Technology: Biodiversity
- Grade 7 – Science and Technology: Interactions in the Environment
- Grade 8 – Science and Technology: Water Systems
Human activity and changing environments have altered natural habitats for wildlife everywhere. In this active game, students role-play as animals to experience the everyday pressures of survival. Survival depends on securing essential resources while navigating threats like predators, disease, extreme weather elements, and human impact. Running shoes are required.
- Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 – Health & Physical Education: Active Living, Movement Competence
- Grade 4 – Science and Technology: Habitats and Communities
- Grade 6 – Science and Technology: Biodiversity
- Grade 7 – Science and Technology: Interactions in the Environment
Dynamic and cooperative activities help foster awareness of how human impacts and pressures endanger our local environment. Themes include habitat loss and degradation, population growth, pollution, invasive species, and overconsumption.
- Grade 6 – Science and Technology: Biodiversity
- Grade 7 – Science and Technology: Interactions in the Environment
Looking for ways to help your students support each other and strengthen their connection to one another? Participate in a series of team building and leadership activities centered around understanding their local environment. Get ready to have fun while working on collaboration and problem solving skills! Your class will participate in various activities that involve listening, communicating, teambuilding, and trust-building skills.
- Grade 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 – Health & Physical Education: Active Living, Movement Competence
Learn what orienteering is and how to use a compass. Pairs of students are given a set of directions and use compasses and their map reading skills to find their way to a series of locations. Note: the Intermediate orienteering course map is more challenging than the Beginner map. Compasses supplied.
- Grade 7, 8 – Mathematics: Geometry and Spatial Sense
- Grade 7, 8 – Geography: Concepts of Geographic Thinking
Only Available at Fanshawe CA:
In this program, students observe and interact with a variety of aquatic creatures and discover how bugs help us learn about the quality of the water. Games will help students to better understand metamorphosis by role-playing a dragonfly, damselfly, and other aquatic animals.
- Grade 2 – Science & Technology: Growth and Changes in Animals
- Grade 3 – Science & Technology: Growth and Changes in Plants
- Grade 4 – Science & Technology: Habitats and Communities
Through participating in animal role-play activities and collecting and identifying organisms, students will discover the adaptations and habitat requirements of local species in two different environments, comparing what they have in common and what makes them distinct. Insect sweep nets are supplied.
- Grade 4 – Science and Technology: Habitats and Communities
Learn how we can help navigate and adapt to a changing climate. A few quick games at the start of the program will help students understand the local impacts of climate change. Afterwards students will be guided on an outdoor tour of the Watershed Conservation Centre, a LEED platinum building, to explore features that help mitigate the effects of climate change (e.g. green roof, native trees, bioswale, geothermal and solar heating). The tour concludes at the Fanshawe Dam with a guided tour across the dam discussing the structure, flood prevention, and clean energy. Students will also get to see a simulation of the dam and floodplain through a large working model.
- Grade 5/6/7/8- Science and Technology: STEM Skills and Connections
- Grade 5- Science and Technology: Earth and Space Systems- Conservation of Energy and Resources
Are there aliens among us, cleverly disguised as familiar flora and fauna? Students will discover and distinguish between native and non-native species and explore steps to take toward eliminating invasive plants. This program includes a scavenger hunt, movement-based games, and species collection in the meadow with sweep nets.
- Grade 6 – Science and Technology: Biodiversity
- Grade 6 – Health and Physical Education: Movement Competence
- Grade 7- Science and Technology: Interactions in the Environment
Learn the basics of GPS technology and apply your skills on a set course. Along the way, discover how GPS technology is used within various careers within the Conservation Authority, including flood management, species at risk monitoring, and forest management.
Note: Equipment can accommodate one class, if you wish to book more than one class, GPS units will have to be shared
- Grade 7, 8 – Mathematics: Geometry and Spatial Sense
- Grade 7, 8 – Geography: Concepts of Geographic Thinking
STEM+ Programs at Fanshawe CA:
Join us to learn about the amazing abilities of Beavers, and why they are known as ‘nature’s water managers’ and ‘ecosystem engineers’. As students learn about the many benefits of beavers and the dams they build, they will get to know local wetland habitats and program ‘beaver bots’ (ozobots) along a Thames River map. Students will also participate in flood simulations and an erosion experiment indoors, before heading outside to complete a beaver dam-building challenge with natural materials.
This half-day program is $10 per student (extra fee applies due to program setup and material requirements).
- Grade 3/4- Science and Technology: STEM Skills and Connections
- Grade 3 – Science and Technology: Growth and Changes in Plants
- Grade 3 – Science and Technology: Soils in the Environment
- Grade 4 – Science and Technology: Habitats and Communities
This special hands-on STEM program focuses on the local issue of flooding in the watershed. After a tour across the top of the Fanshawe Dam to learn about the structure, forces and flood control, students work cooperatively in small groups to complete a number of investigations, including identifying why and how floods occur. Students will participate in floodplain simulations and test the water-holding abilities of natural land covers and innovative green infrastructure solutions. This is an indoor program.
- Grade 5 – Science and Technology: STEM Skills and Connections
- Grade 5 – Science and Technology: Human Health & Body Systems
- Grade 5 – Science and Technology: Structures and Mechanisms- Forces Acting on Structures
- Grade 5 – Science and Technology: Earth and Space Systems- Conservation of Energy and Resources
- Grade 5 – Social Studies: People and Environments
- Grade 5 – Math: Number Sense and Numeration
Through this program students will get a glimpse of what it’s like to be an environmental scientist in their local environment. They will make flood predictions using a precipitation monitoring device and a Floodplain Simulator Model, and will participate in data collection by recording an inventory of local species (investigate live land or water insects) to help track climate impacts. These examples will guide students to better understand the local impacts of climate change, including extreme weather and stormwater pollution, and also help explain how and why Conservation Authorities monitor local changes over time.
Half day program, $10 per student (extra fee applies due to program setup and material requirements)
- Grade 5/6/7/8- Science and Technology: STEM Skills and Connections
- Grade 7- Science and Technology: Earth and Space Systems- Conservation of Energy and Resources
- Grade 8- Science and Technology: Earth and Space Systems- Water Systems
- Grade 8- Geography: Settlement Patterns and Trends
The program will highlight how Conservation Authority staff in STEM careers survey and evaluate local ecosystem health. The program starts with a guided tour across the top of Fanshawe Dam to learn about the Thames River. Students then take part in a series of hands-on activities that mimic some of the water quality monitoring that occurs as part of the Watershed Report Cards (WRC), including identifying benthic invertebrates and conducting a habitat assessment. We explore how pollution gets into the Thames River, code WRC information using ozobot robots, and learn to identify a variety of species at risk.
- Grade 7- Science and Technology: Structures and Mechanisms- Form, Function and Design of Structures
- Grade 7- Science and Technology: Life Systems- Interactions in the Environment
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Grade 7- Science and Technology: Earth and Space Systems- Conservation of Energy and Resources
- Grade 7- Geography: Physical Patterns in a Changing World, Natural Resources Around the World, Global Settlement
- Grade 7/8- Science and Technology: STEM Skills and Connections
- Grade 8- Science and Technology: Structures and Mechanisms- Systems in Action
- Grade 8- Science and Technology: Matter and Energy- Fluids
- Grade 8- Science and Technology: Earth and Space Systems- Water Systems
- Grade 8- Geography: Settlement Patterns and Trends
Only Available at Wildwood CA:
Join us as we share Christmas with our forest friends! Meet our puppet friends Rocky the raccoon, Professor Hooter the owl, Abbot the rabbit and Rudy the red fox who will be waiting to tell you about the forest and the magic of Christmas. Santa needs help in the forest! The birds need to be fed, the trees need to be decorated and “presents” need to be found for the animals! When all the work is done, warm up inside with a snack and fireside story and song!
Uncover the wonders of the tiny, amazing world beneath the water’s surface. Using dip nets, identification sheets and water containers, students will explore all of the creatures that call our stream home. We’ll look for crayfish, dragonfly nymphs, diving beetles, and more. Remember your boots and sense of awe!
- Kindergarten Curriculum
- Grade 1 – Science and Technology: Daily and Seasonal Changes
Discover how white-tailed deer survive and adapt through hands-on learning. Students examine real deer specimens, including antlers, and play the interactive “Oh Deer!” simulation to explore habitat needs and population changes. Then, students will step into the forest on a guided hike to search for real deer tracks, scat, and feeding signs to estimate Wildwood’s deer population.
- Grade 4 – Science and Technology: Habitats and Communities
Discover what every living thing ‘needs’ before heading into the forest. Create ‘hotel’ habitats for our forest friends and check out their natural life cycle by looking at some rotting logs! Explore what these natural communities have in common and what makes them distinct, and discover animal adaptations and habitat requirements.
- Grade 4 – Science and Technology: Habitats and Communities
- Grade 5 – Science and Technology: Human Organ Systems, Forces Acting on Structures and Mechanisms, Conservation of Energy and Resources
Surviving the elements takes skill and stamina. Learn how the human body reacts in different winter weather situations and what it takes to ensure enough shelter, water and food. Working together, students will test their skills in a collaborative survival challenge, which may involve learning fire-starting techniques or hands-on shelter construction.
- Grade 5 – Science and Technology: Human Organ Systems, Forces Acting on Structures and Mechanisms
- Grade 7, 8 – Health and Physical Education: Social-Emotional Learning Skills and Active Living
Learn the basics of GPS technology and apply your skills to a nature-themed game of The Amazing Race! Using GPS units out on a set course, students are challenged to find answers to natural science questions and to locate specific eco-caches.
- Grade 7, 8 – Mathematics: Geometry and Spatial Sense
- Grade 7, 8 – Geography: Concepts of Geographic Thinking
Students will learn about adaptation and mitigation methods for flooding in our watershed. The program starts by building an understanding of the forces of water and the local impacts of climate change. Then an active game helps to reinforce a number of concepts, including the water cycle, how humans use water, and wise water use.
- Grade 8 Earth and Space Systems: Water Systems
Schoolyard Programs
We also offer outdoor and environmental education programs right in your schoolyard. Each program runs for 75 minutes, connecting to nature, science, math, and language. After some animal warm-up activities, we use a read-aloud connected to the program’s theme, along with games and hands-on activities. Sensory awareness-focused activities are also included, such as exploring with hand magnifiers, sit spot reflection time, and/or guided bug hunting. We have a variety of programs already developed for grades K-3. Please contact us with your preferred timeframe and season, and we can provide more details about the seasonal options available.
$200 per class, up to three classes in a day. We can also schedule an entire primary division.
Coming Soon: Turtle Education Programs!
Opportunities to bring turtle education programs to your school are expanding. Your students can learn more about reptile conservation – ask us for more information or request a booking today!