Back to School Educational Ideas Featuring Nature!

Back to School Educational Ideas Featuring Nature!

Although it may be difficult to think about it now while the summer days are still warm and the lake is

calling, school is just around the corner. This makes it a great time for teachers, home schoolers, day homes and other groups to think about adding exciting and creative educational experiences to add to their teaching curriculums. Medieval Manor Gardens can customize a variety of workshops, nature walks, interactive games, arts and crafts sessions and camping experiences for your particular age group and learning level using nature as the focal point. In addition to biology and ecology, students and teachers will also be able to build on such valuable skills as teamwork, leadership and community.

Here are some examples as possibilities:

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  Workshops – Puddle Gardens. Students get to learn about wetlands before creating their own miniature wetland garden to take home.

• Workshops – Fantasy Gardens. Students learn about prairies and woodlands before creating their own miniature themed container garden to take home.
• Workshops – Pollinator Gardens. Students learn about pollinators and build a pollinator garden under the guidance of an instructor in their school yard area.
• Workshops – Wild Recipes. Students learn how to make a food item with native plants. Real marshmallows, wild bergamot cookies and wild berry scones are just a few examples.
• Workshops – Mocktails. Learn some different non-alcoholic beverage recipes utilizing native and other garden plants.
• Nature Walks – A number of different focal points can be explored including native plants, wildlife,

  

  different ecosystems or even a night walk to witness nocturnal life and some astronomy!

• Interactive Games – What do You See? By participating in this game students will learn about a variety of wildlife present in Alberta and how they utilize sight to notify them of danger, assist in finding food and in finding potential mates. Become one of them and see what they see. You may find a companion, your next meal or become one – it’s all perception.
• Interactive Games – Herbival. Learn about some emergency uses of herbs in your pantry as well as some native plants, then practice your new skills in the Herbival game.

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  Arts and Crafts -Eco Printing. Use natural items like leaves, bark, flowers and more to create artistic, colourful prints on fabric and other mediums. Different methods will be shown.

• Arts and Crafts – Plants to Dye for. Learn about native dye plants, mordants and dye materials. If the facilities permit, students can make their own dye and/or dye project.
• Arts and Crafts – All About the Bz. Bat, Bird , Butterfly and Bee Houses along with other wild creature habitat information. Students can build and then install their creation at school, home or one of our locations and continue monitoring them for activity.

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  Camps – Whether at your chosen location or one of ours, we can provide outdoor lessons, activities

  

  and space for educators to continue with their regular classes in a nature friendly environment. Day camps, overnight, and 2 day camps available with different package options.

We can also do more specific educational sessions like Little Brown Bats, Meet Drago, the Tiger Salamander, 3 specific native plants, and others that can stand alone for a more condensed learning period if it’s a better fit for your needs. You can also add any of these into one of our other sessions for a unique package experience.

If you are looking for ways to raise funds for your group to help cover costs for any of our programs or those of others, consider selling our native plants. We provide educational/promotional material, customers are sent to our online store to purchase, and we deliver plants to your school on pick up day for clients. No hassle dragging around product or money. Medieval Manor Gardens makes it as easy as possible for you, because after all, we appreciate your help! You receive 50% of profits to apply to our programs or to assist you in covering the costs of someone else’s (compare that to other organizations that commonly give your group 30% of profits). Please contact us for further details and to help create an exciting learning environment for your students!

***Oh, and FYI, we offer adult variations as well:) !