We are so excited to announce our new birds- and protected areas-focused education initiative we couldn’t wait until the school year!
Starting this month, we’re bringing back our Naturehood program for Nova Scotian youth and families. Naturehood is a program of Nature Canada that connects kids, families, newcomers, and marginalized Canadians to nature. Your “naturehood” is any green space that provides meaningful nature connection, whether it’s a remote wilderness area or a city park.
In recent years, we’ve used Naturehood support to engage informal audiences of campers, families, and new Canadian youth in natural history learning activities, bringing families to provincial and federal protected areas, fostering species ID skills, and engaging young people in nature activism. We’re bringing some of those activities back this year, but we’re also launching a short pilot project – Nature School – which takes a more formal and curriculum-aligned approach to natural history education. Check out our family-friendly event series and, for the teachers in our community, read on for how you can sign up for a fully funded field trip to a Nova Scotian National Wildlife Area or Migratory Bird Sanctuary!
We often hear from educators in Nova Scotia who struggle to find locally-relevant natural history learning resources or who want to get their students outside but don’t know where to start. Nature School is our response to that need and intended to be a living initiative that improves with teacher feedback over time. Over September 2025 to end of March 2026, we’re delivering free in-school and in-field programing for elementary grades looking to learn more about birds and protected areas in Nova Scotia.
Our programs are available to public, private, and homeschool classes and focus on curriculum-aligned activities related to birds, their lifecycles, and habitats.
Our 2025-2026 programs include:
Grades P-3: Bird Form & Function
Grades 4-6: Bird Habitats & Population Trends
Both programs can be delivered either in school or on-site, are free, and include both Nature Nova Scotia staff facilitation and a resource package for teachers. For classes who want to explore an important site for bird conservation in Nova Scotia, we will also fund class travel to either a National Wildlife Area or Migratory Bird Sanctuary, up to a maximum of $300 per class (maybe more if interest is low!)- and we’ll help you decide which protected area might be the best fit for your class!
We’re taking expressions of interest from teachers over the summer and will be in touch in September, when our Education staff return, to schedule field trips for September through March.