PATHWAY BLOG POSTS
Owl Workshop: Kookoo Onnagosh
Video Link Size of Group any Age Range 10-18 years How to: Educators from the TRACKS program share Indigenous and biological information
Project Feederwatch
Materials Needed Birdfeeder (s) Birdseed Binoculars (optional) Access to internet Website Link Size of Group 1-20 Age Range 5-12 years How to:
Climate Change Impacts on Nature in the Kawarthas
Video Link Size of Group any Age Range 14-18 years How to: Join naturalist Drew Monkman as he explores the impacts of
Bees Please
Materials Needed Native Plants or Seeds Garden Tools Sunny Location Bees Please Poster Size of Group any Age Range 4-18 years How
Kites in the Classroom
Materials Needed 1 kite kit per student Web Link Size of Group 1-20 Age Range 8-12 years How to: Many teachers have
Citizen Science: Using Seek and iNaturalist
Materials Needed iPads Seek app on cellphone Sweep nets Aquatic nets and buckets Video Link Size of Group 1-20 Age Range 10-18
Meeting Animal Friends
Materials Needed Magnifier (optional) Video Link Size of Group 1-20 Age Range 1-6 years How to: Join Craig Brant in this 4
Exploring Pond Life
Materials Needed Scoop nets Bucket Ice cube trays Video Link Size of Group 1-20 Age Range 4-14 years How to: Join Jacob
Natural Fibres Workshop
Materials Needed Samples of natural fibres (if available: wool, cotton etc.) Natural Fibres Video Size of Group any Age Range 6-18 years
Bird Sleuth Explorers
Materials Needed Copies of Guidebook Clipboard Pencil Binoculars (if available) Guidebook PDF Size of Group 1-20 Age Range 8-12 years How to:
Tell a Tale: Sharing Nature Through Stories with Young Children
Tell a Tell Workshop Video Size of Group any Age Range 1-6 years How to: Early childhood experts Kate Jarrett and Nancy
Citizen Science: Winter Birding with eBird
Materials Needed Access to Merlin app Access to eBird app or website Winter Bird ID sheets Binoculars (optional) Winter Birding Video Winter
Snow Much Fun Workshop
Materials Needed See video and info sheet Workshop Video Workshop Handout Size of Group 2-20 Age Range 6-10 years How to: This
Family Holiday Fun
Materials Needed A variety of materials – see attached summary of 10 family activities 10 Holiday Ideas PDF Size of Group any
Garlands for Wildlife
Materials Needed Heavy thread and needles Popped corn Peanuts in the shell Dried fruit, fruit peel Size of Group 1-20 Age Range
Awards Celebration 2023
Our annual Awards Celebration on September 17 was lots of fun! We had so many wonderful people to recognize with awards, interspersed with fun activities for everyone.
Ventriloquist/puppeteer Tim Holland entertained us with sassy puppets, jokes and unicycling – what a show!
There were so many schools, centres and individuals who did fantastic work during the 2022-23 school year! Here’s a summary of our award winners:
Graduates – Acorn to Sapling
Peterborough Daycare
Strath Maclean After School Program
Graduates – Sapling to Oak
Babbling Brook Childcare
Compass ELC Peterborough
Pearson Childcare
Lakefield Cooperative Nursery School
Highland Heights Public School
Queen Elizabeth Public School
R.F. Downey Public School
Most Landmark Points 2022-23 – Elementary
Highland Heights Public School – 468 points
Most Landmark Points 2022-23 – Early Learning
Pearson Childcare – 206 points
Most Landmark Experiences Reported 2022-23 – Elementary
Kawartha Heights Public School – 3749 experiences
Most Landmark Experiences Reported 2022-23 – Early Learning
Trent Childcare at Kaawaate – 1227 experiences
Three Year Participation Points Winners 2020-23
R.F. Downey Public School – over 6800 points over three years
Queen Elizabeth Public School – over 68oo points over three years
Trent Childcare at Kaawaate (large childcare centre) – 2038 points over three years
Babbling Brook (home childcare centre) – 912 points over three years
Awards for Outstanding Leadership (2022-23)
Cat Trites and Nicole Patton (Strath Jr. After School Program)
Aarohi Upadhyay and Kristen Nelson (Pearson Childcare)
Shayla Bush (Roseneath Public School)
Jessica Carey (Peterborough Daycare)
Krista Young (Keith Wightman Public School)
Michelle Pritchard (Compass ELC Peterborough)
Tracy Parker and Mallory Colquhoun (Millbrook South Cavan Public School)
Awards for Outstanding Leadership over Two Years (2021-23)
Deb Charmley and Kelly Bartlett (Kawartha Heights Public School)
Jennifer Richardson and Julie Holt (Kawartha Heights Public School)
Amanda Hipgrave (Highland Heights Public School)
Awards for Outstanding Leadership over Three Years (2020-23)
Indrani Talapatra and Wendy Burton-Booth (Queen Elizabeth Public School)
Emily Warren (Babbling Brook)
Lisa Gutoskie and Nicole Janzen (R.F. Downey Public School)
Heather Snowball (Highland Heights Public School)
Congratulations to all these wonderful people. Keep up this important working weaving Pathway Landmarks into each child’s everyday life!
Designing a Sustainable House
The cold weather months are an ideal time to encourage students to think about how we heat our indoor spaces, and the environmental impacts of the choices we make.
This can lead to exercising their creativity by designing their own healthy, sustainable home. This is a multi-step activity:
- Review a variety of videos showcasing options for sustainable building design.
- Play the Building Design Game that shows the cost and impact of several building options.
- Create a floor plan and sketch of their own ideal, sustainable home.
Intro Videos
VIDEO #1 – A tour through a beautiful home built of cob – a sustainable building material (3.56 min).
VIDEO #2 – Brief introduction to the concepts of green, sustainable and healthy buildings (2.25 min).
VIDEO #3 – A Landscape architect discusses design principles in a house built entirely from local and sustainable materials (5.19 min).
VIDEO #4 -A sustainable design expert explains some of the best approaches to making homes more environmentally friendly (7.33 min).
VIDEO #5 -A brief tour of 10 sustainable homes in various locations around the world (8.02 min).
Building Design Game
Teacher Sherri Owen has created an activity that explores a variety of building options (roof, insulation, electricity, appliances, heating), and involves students in making selections based on available funds. The game PDF contains complete instructions and templates for money and building parts that can be copied before playing the game. A simple video walks you through the process of playing the game.
Building Design Game PDF
Game Video
Design Your Own Sustainable Home
Now, design your sustainable ‘Dream Home’! Use everything you’ve learned about building options and costs, and create a sketch and floor plan of the home you’d like to live in.
Then, have a tour of Dream Homes! Students can compare their designs and explain the decisions made in creating their home designs. Were there difficult choices to make?
Geocaching
Materials Needed
- Cell phone or iPad
- Geocache app downloaded
- Pen
- Small item to trade
Geocache Website
10 Tips for Newbies
Size of Group
2-20
Age Range
8-18 years
How to:
Join the biggest treasure hunt in the world! You just have to download the app, find a geocache near you, navigate there using GPS and see what’s been left behind. Bring a pen to sign in and, often, there are items to trade. You take an item, and leave an item.
There are thousands of geocaches hidden somewhere in Peterborough and the Kawarthas!
Make a Decorated Quinzhee
Materials Needed
- Shovels and buckets
- Plenty of snow
- Coloured ice cubes
Size of Group
1-10
Age Range
6-18 years
How to:
A quinzhee is a snow house made by piling snow into a huge mound shaped into a dome, and then carefully hollowing out the inside (making sure the walls remain thick). Then, the outside can be decorated with pieces of coloured ice.
Quinzhees can be used as winter survival shelters. This can be a great exercise in teamwork, and a large group can be split into smaller groups to build more than one quinzhee if there is enough snow.
Hearts in the Snow
Materials Needed
- Ice cube tray (heart shapes if possible)
- Water
- Red food colour
- Freezer
Size of Group
any
Age Range
2-5 years
How to:
For a fun game with young children around Valentine’s Day, try hiding coloured ice cubes in the snow and see how many they can find. If you can access a heart-shaped ice-cube tray, that is perfect! Otherwise, red coloured regular ice cubes will work as well. If it’s cold enough, you can even freeze the cubes outdoors!
Sensory Walk
Materials Needed
- None!
Size of Group
1-10
Age Range
Birth to 5 years
How to:
Young children need plenty of opportunities to exercise all of their senses while exploring their world. Go outdoors together as often as you can, and give children opportunities to touch, smell, see and hear as many different items as you can.
Professor Mary Lou Lummiss of Fleming College explains the importance of sensory experiences for young children, and takes you on a walk through her garden (3 minute video).
Bumble Bee Watch
Materials Needed
- Camera with zoom
- Access to website
Size of Group
1-20
Age Range
7-18 years
How to:
Ontario is home to many species of Bumblebee, and June is an excellent time to go looking for them. Bumblebees are social bees, and only their queen survives the winter. The queen works hard in spring and summer to collect pollen, nectar and to lay eggs to build her colony.
Bumble Bee Watch is a Citizen Science program that encourages people to go out looking for bumble bees, learn to recognize species and to report what they’ve seen. Visit their website, and get started learning about the fascinating world of bumble bees!
Helping Bees
Materials Needed
- Pollinator Plants
- Trowels
- Small Watering Can
- Compost
Size of Group
1-10
Age Range
1-6 years
How to:
Children are never too young to learn to appreciate bees, respect them, and welcome them into their lives. June is a great month to go for walks together, look for bees, and notice which plants they visit. Share a sense of wonder about bees and the important work they do, helping plants make fruits and seeds.
Involve young children in stewardship activities by planting some flowers that bees will appreciate. Choose a sunny location. If you don’t have a garden space available, large pots can be used (although they will need to be watered more frequently).
Try growing plants such as black-eyed Susan, purple coneflower, blazing star and bergamot. Even tiny children can help to water the plants with small watering cans or spray bottles. Reinforce the concept that by helping the plants we are also helping the bees!
Turtle Patrol
Turtle Video #1
Turtle Video #2
Size of Group
any
Age Range
8-18
How to:
June is a month when many turtles are travelling from their wetland homes to drier places to lay eggs. This can be a perilous journey if they must cross roadways. The Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre teaches about the species of turtles in Ontario, why they are in peril and what we can do to help (Video #1 – 11 minutes). In Video #2 (6 minutes), older students can learn about turtle rehabilitation and get involved as volunteers.
Monarch Ultra Workshop
Size of Group
any
Age Range
8-18 years
How to:
In this video, Carlotta James describes the Monarch Ultra Run, a long distance run from Peterborough to Mexico, to mimic the migration route of Monarch butterflies. This amazing journey was designed to raise awareness of loss of habitat for these pollinators, and to raise funds for Monarch conservation.
After watching this 20 minute video, discuss what you can do to help Monarch butterflies in your area.