by CJ Goater
Algonquin Avenue Public School has received a $4500 donation from Green For Life to support outdoor environmental education programming.
The school is now equipped with an outdoor classroom and the donation will be used for more outdoor education experiences like field trips.
Darren Lentz Principal of Algonquin Avenue Public School noted that attendance and participation during outdoor events have been higher than normal.
The outdoor classroom is great for outdoor education but Lentz explained it serves other functions, “we host a variety of literacy and numeracy events out in the outdoor classroom (as well as) regular classes (and) guests like the Lakehead Regional Conservation Authority.”
Field trips are an important part of the school’s outdoor education program and Lentz explained some of the available opportunities.
“We take the kids to the trap line. We do canoeing with partners at Lakehead University. We go to a lot of different community-type events and community organizations with our students. So those field trips go on the land out to the farms out to the Bush in different areas we have a big canoe project going, so we go and take kids out to harvest materials for our Birch bark canoe construction. So all those experiences get kids out of the classroom on the land and experiencing the outdoors.”
Principal Lentz concluded by highlighting what outdoor and environmental education is all about, “it’s about getting kids outside and connecting to the land because we know the importance of our environment, what’s happening to our Earth, the best way to combat that is to help build a relationship with our students and the Earth and the outdoors so that they’ll learn to love it and protect it.”
