Schoolyard Score Card

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Schoolyard Report Card

Schoolyards are places for playing, socializing, exploring, and sharing the land with other living things. How would your schoolyard score if you gave it a report card?

The best schoolyards build health in many ways – healthy kids as well as a healthy environment.  That means opportunities for active play, creative play, quiet reflection, social interaction and exploring the natural world.  Many schools are beginning to see their schoolyard as a habitat – welcoming many plants and animals to share the space with the students.  This also provides excellent opportunities for outdoor learning and building stewardship skills.

1. INTRODUCTORY VIDEO

Watch the video with your students to help you get started.  It explores what we mean by a ‘habitat for people’ and a ‘habitat for wildlife.’  It showcases some projects from other schools to help get your ideas flowing!

These score sheets have grade-linked opportunities to explore your schoolyard using math, science and geography skills.  Grades 3-6 will go out and measure the schoolyard and make maps of what they find.  Grades 7-8 will begin by drawing their schoolyard from memory, then use satellite images to compare with their drawings, and create accurate basemaps.

Then, using the Score Sheets, students will evaluate their schoolyard on the basis of:

a) Habitat for People

b) Environmental Health

c) Habitat for Wildlife

Download the Schoolyard Score Card below to get started!

Grade 3-6 Report Card
Grade 7-8 Report Card

 3. DISCUSSION AND FOLLOW-UP

How did your schoolyard score?  Are there things that scored well?  Are there opportunities for improvement?  Can your class play a role in improving your schoolyard’s score?

The score cards provide suggestions on simple places to begin.  Realizing that we can make positive changes in the world around us, and working together to do that, helps build hope, empowerment and leadership skills.

The Schoolyard Report Card is an activity that can build your classes’ Pathway Points and gives you an opportunity to win the monthly draw!   Don’t forget to report what you’ve done on the Pathway website pathwayproject.ca 

Kim’s Spring Activity List

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Kim's Spring Activity Guide

Our Outdoor Activity Consultant, Kim, has rustled up some exciting Spring Activities to keep our Pathway community busy!

1. Kites

learningliftoff.com

As spring can be breezy, it’s a great time to learn about wind and make and fly a kite
 

 2. Help the Birds 

Encourage birds to nest around your property by providing mud and nesting materials.

 

MUD

  • Choose a spot at the edge of a flower or vegetable garden to establish a mud hole. Use a hose or a bucket of water to wet the earth.
  • Squish the soil using your hands, a stick or a shovel, until it reaches a muddy consistency.
  • Try to find clay soil. Don’t worry if the mud contains small bits of grass or other plant fibres. 

NEST LINING MATERIALS

  • Stuff a mesh onion bag with materials such as dead twigs, pine needles, leaves, feathers, moss, dry grass (as long as it’s chemical-free), strips of bark, and plant fluff from plants such as cattails or cottonwood.
  • Hang the bag from a clothesline or tree branch in your backyard.
  • Some materials that were previously recommended for nesting are now considered unsafe. Do not provide hair (human or animal), string, yarn or loose bits of thread, as birds can become entangled in these materials. Likewise, do not provide pieces of felt or cloth, dryer lint, plastic, tinsel, cellophane or aluminum foil; these can be choking hazards or cause internal blockage.

3. Create a Wild Bee Sanctuary

For a detailed outline visit this link at the David Suzuki Organization 

  • Fill your yard with flowers
  • Plant native
  • Go organic
  • Add water  
 

b. Make a Bee Bath

Use a shallow plate and place it at the ground level where you’ve noticed bee activity. Place a few flat stones in the plate to create landing pads or islands and safe places to crawl out should they fall in. Add fresh water but don’t submerge the stones. Birds and butterflies will use it, too. Replace the water every few days to eliminate mosquito larvae… more here

Make a bee home

Honeybees and bumblebees live in social colonies, but most wild bee species are solitary. About two-thirds of solitary nesting bees use tunnels in the ground to lay their eggs. About one-third use hollowed-out plant stems or tunnels in dead trees or fallen logs… Want to discover the best homemade housing you can make for bees in your backyard? Read more here

4. Plant a Pollinators Garden 

Check out this amazing resource from Bee City Canada on how to create a habitat. and Follow it up with the Planting for Pollinators blog from Kidsgardening.org 


5. Create a Spring Checklist 

With your kids, make a checklist of things that make you think of spring. Go on a hike in the forest, check off all of the things that you see and feel on your list. Try to ensure that the list is multi-sensory, so things like feeling the warmth of the sun and different smells of the seasons are also on the list. Feel free to add to the lists as you are walking and noticing more things.

6. Colours of Spring

Pick up some paint chips from a hardware store. On your outdoor adventure, hand them out to your kids and see if they can find matches to many different colours. They may think it’s impossible, but this gets them to really look at items to find a match. Remember to look up, blues often match the sky!

If paint chips are not available to you, crayons will work too.

7. Meet a Tree in your Neighbourhood

Have your kids pick a tree that you really get to know over time. They can get to know it in so many different ways (draw, take bark rubbings, look with a magnifier, or use a camera). In the spring, they will be looking for the buds starting to explode into leaves. Most people think that buds form in the spring, but with careful observation, you will see that buds are actually on the tree all winter!

8. Disc Golf

Get your family involved in this fun, active, burgeoning sport. Peterborough has three easily accessible, free courses for you to enjoy. The courses are at the north end of the Riverview Park and Zoo, TASS, and Hamilton Park just south of Jackson Park. In outlying areas of Peterborough, there is one at Mount Julian Viamede and Ennismore Waterfront Park. Or, you can make your own course anywhere you would like by simply identifying objects as your targets. All you need is a frisbee, or a disc, and a good arm! www.peterboroughdiscgolf.ca

9. Take a Hike

Home Sweet Home: Build or install a nest box this spring!

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Home Sweet Home:

Build or install a nest box this spring!

Here’s a great spring activity to try at home or at school.  Nest boxes provide wonderful habitat for many kinds of birds, and having avian families in your yard gives hours of enjoyment watching these feathered miracles.

In nature, holes in trees are prime real estate for wildlife.  In fact, many kinds of birds need these holes, called ‘cavities’ for building their nests and raising their young.  Especially in urban areas, dead or dying trees are usually removed, leaving a scarcity of nesting sites for our bird neighbours.

Luckily, nest boxes are quite easy to build with a few simple tools and some understanding of what birds need for protection from weather and predators.  While there are many specialized types of nest boxes for specific species, a good basic design is suitable for many small birds such as chickadees, wrens, and nuthatches.

Here are some basic guidelines:

  • nest boxes need enough space for a nest full of baby birds and access for parents
  • the correct size of the entrance hole is important; it should be near the top of the box;
  • nest boxes must be cleaned out every year, so make sure you can open up the box, and reseal it safely
  • don’t put a perch on your box; birds don’t need it, but perches can help predators reach the young birds
  • don’t paint or put a finish on your box; birds prefer untreated, natural wood
  • provide ventilation and drainage; a few small holes near the top provide ventilation, and small holes in the floor allow moisture to drain

  • use a predator guard to protect the entrance hole from being chewed by squirrels or other mammals who would destroy the eggs or young birds; a metal plate or piece of thick wood are effective (see examples)
  • install securely at least 6 feet from the ground; avoid nailing into trees – a pole or post are ideal

 

Cornell Ornithology Lab has great illustrated guidelines

 

Here are some plans for a simple nest box you can build from a 4 ft. piece of 1 X 6″ lumber

Chickadee Nest Box Plans from Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Note:  Entrance hold diameter is 1″ for House Wrens; Use 1 1/8″ diameter for Black-Capped Chickadees; 1 1/4″ for White-Breasted and Red-Breasted Nuthatches