Education
Experiential learning, or hands-on learning, is a great way to engage young people!
PLT Canada provides a lifetime of learning, connecting all ages to the outdoors through our hands-on educational activities and resources. Engage children and young adults in inquiry and place-based learning about the environment through the lens of trees and forests. Learn about the key role sustainable forest management plays in the fight against climate change, explore diverse career opportunities in Canada’s green sector, encourage critical and creative thinking, and more!
Whether you are a kindergarten teacher, high school science teacher, natural resources professional, or parent, PLT activities use nature to teach about math, science, social studies, language arts, and more. Our activities supplement and enhance your existing curriculum and bring learning to life.
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Nature-Based Curriculum Resources
View PLT Canada’s comprehensive educational materials for formal and nonformal educators working with youth of all ages. Click the arrows to expand each section.
Early Childhood
Introduce children ages 1-6 to the natural world through PLT Canada’s newest guide, Trees & Me: Activities for Exploring Nature with Young Children.
Filled with hundreds of fun and engaging activities for parents, caregivers, early childhood educators and more to do with little learners.
Get the Trees & Me Guide
Online Professional Development
K-8
PLT Canada’s new Explore Your Environment: K-8 Activity Guide includes 50 hands-on, multidisciplinary activities to connect children to nature and increase young people’s awareness and knowledge about their environment. Activities integrate teaching about the environment into a multitude of subjects using hands-on classroom studies and outdoor field investigations.
Get the Explore Your Environment Guide
Online Professional Development
Each filled with three engaging activities, our theme-based digital collections are the perfect way to try PLT activities with your learners. Designed to be flexible, the activities can be used as stand-alone lessons, or all together as a cohesive unit of instruction.
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Buy Nature of Fire |
High School
What is climate change? How are forests impacted by it and how do they also serve as a nature-based solution to mitigate it? Learn how to effectively teach about climate change and encourage your students to take action. This flexible self-contained unit of instruction is fully online and supports learning as a developmental progression. The Climate Change & Forests e-unit is filled with step-by-step lesson plans, downloadable worksheets, assessment tools, background information, and additional resources.
Purchase Climate Change & Forests
Career Resources (Middle & High School, Young Adults)
Encourage youth to explore rewarding green careers with hands-on instructional activities, online quizzes, and inspiring stories from trailblazing professionals in the forest and conservation sector.
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Get the Guide |
Take the Quiz |
Download the Guide |
Free Resources to Expand Forest Knowledge & Literacy
PLT Canada’s resources not only help students improve their environmental literacy, but also their forest literacy. Our Forest Literacy Framework translates the language of forests and sustainable forest management into concepts for grades K-12.
For older learners, help them increase their understanding of forests with our online learning experience, Forest Quest. In the game, they’ll navigate through a forest, learning about biodiversity, sustainable forest management, impacts forests have on our communities, green career opportunities, and more.
Free Worksheets
Our environmental education resources are ideal for teachers and parents who want to encourage outdoor learning and take their nature curriculum outside.
View our free eco-education worksheets and activities to connect the children in your life to the outdoors. Each worksheet asks questions to support critical thinking and provides one or more activities for you and the children to complete together.
Subscribe to our Environmental Education newsletter for access to the worksheets. Check back often for new resources to support learning about the environment for K-12! You can opt-out of the newsletter at any time after downloading the worksheets.
For Teachers
The Environmental Education worksheets are a great way to engage youth about the outdoors. Spark their curiosity through scientific inquiries into nature and creative thinking outside.
Elementary school teacher Deb L., from Sarnia, Ontario, has been using the worksheets in her virtual classroom lessons to inspire youth. You can see her Powerpoint slides below!
For Parents
If you’re looking for a fun way to get your child outdoors, learning about nature, you’ve come to the right spot. PLT Canada’s environmental education worksheets are an ideal way to help young ones learn about nature.
Children can practice problem-solving skills and build their sense of surroundings through these easy-to-use worksheets. Has COVID-19 kept you indoors for too long? If so, find an escape by exploring your backyard or nearby green space with the PLT Canada worksheets.
See an example of a worksheet below:
Sample K-8 Lesson Plans
Get a taste of PLT Canada educational resources with 3 free, downloadable activities from the new Explore Your Environment: K-8 Activity Guide. The full guide includes 50 hands-on, multidisciplinary activities to connect children to nature and increase young people’s awareness and knowledge about their environment.
Curriculum Connections
Learn how these free activities align to curriculum in British Columbia and Ontario.
Guest Speakers for Educators
Educators can reach out to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) contacts below to enquire about having a forestry professional speak with their students about sustainable forest management.
SFI Implementation Committees work with forestry and professional associations, universities, government agencies, landowner groups, conservation groups, and many others to support community outreach and education programs.
SFI Implementation Committees educational outreach contacts
Atlantic SFI Implementation Committee
Pierre Mezzetta, pierre.mezzetta@avg.adityabirla.com
Provinces: Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick
Quebec SFI Implementation Committee
Louis-Serge Gagnon, louis-serge.gagnon@westrock.com
Julie Deschesne, jdeschesnes@groupeforestra.com
Provinces: Quebec
Central Canada SFI Implementation Committee
Stephanie Parzei, stephanie.parzei@eacom.ca
Provinces: Ontario, Manitoba
Western Canada SFI Implementation Committee
Darrell Regimbald, darrell.regimbald@canfor.com
Provinces: Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia
More Resources
PLT Canada also offers free environmental education worksheets for teachers and parents, a Climate Change & Forests digital educational resource, a Teaching with i-Tree e-book, a Green Jobs: Exploring Forest Careers e-book, and A Guide to Green Jobs in Canada: Voices of Indigenous Professionals. You can also have your students take our Green Jobs quiz, which suggests rewarding green career pathways best suited to their personalities!
Nature Education Collective
Get inspired and grow your skills with exciting professional development opportunities! The Nature Education Collective (NEC), comprised of five national non-profit organizations who came together to enhance and expand nature-based education throughout Canada, is hosting a series of free professional development opportunities. The NEC is comprised of Canada’s leading national nature education NGOs: Canadian Wildlife Federation, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Earth Rangers, Outward Bound Canada and Project Learning Tree Canada.
