School Programs

SCHOOL PROGRAMS

Sea to Sky Outdoor School’s team of kind and passionate educators offer a delightful range of programs for school groups. Our programs incorporate nature connection, play, sustainability education, adventure, self reflection, physical literacy, team-building and leadership.

Day programs

GoWild Day Programs are a celebration of wild places. Facilitated activities engage students in expanding their comfort zones and connecting with the wisdom that can be found in outdoor classrooms. GoWild Day Programs can be tailored to the geography of your community. A nearby forest or neighbouring park can provide a wonderful place to GoWild. Day programs can be customized to compliment the current unit you are working on in any subject area; or, they can be a stand alone experience. Either way, you will be delighted with the outcome.

MULTI Day programs

Webweavers

KEEP THAT EARTH BALL ROLLING!

Grades 3 - 4

Duration: 2 - 3 days

The Webweavers program is designed to connect children to our home planet and celebrate the many gifts we receive from the Earth.  It introduces children to the wonderful web of life: the interwoven threads of connection that keep this Earth ball rolling.

In this program students will:

  • Spend entire days outdoors
  • Learn through connecting with nature via play-based activities
  • Sing, dance, laugh
  • Get up close and personal with slugs
  • Paddle really big canoes
  • Get dirty
  • Be able to describe complex relationships between the natural world and the human world
  • Consider how they can act individually and as a community to create a more sustainable relationship between humans and nature.
  • Demonstrate competency in caring for themselves, others and the environment.

In this program, students “run the rainbow”, guided by the wise “Council of the Webweavers”: They earn a blue orb by making contact with Nature, experiencing the sights, sounds, textures and tastes of wild places. They earn a green orb by learning about the wisdom that Nature offers: inter-connectivity, systems, and cycles. They earn a yellow orb by participating in a community building action project.

Then, after the program, they earn an orange orb by sharing what they have learned with their families and friends. And finally, they earn a red orb by participating in a community project in their school.

Webweavers is a nature-based program; students spend the majority of each day in wild spaces.

discovery

a new world to discover, new directions to explore!

Grades 5 - 7

Duration: 3 - 4 days

The Discovery Program offers students a New Compass, which can serve as a guide and touchstone for students as they are confronted with the many personal and societal challenges of our time.

The cardinal points of the Discovery Compass are Nature, Sustainability, Ethics and good Work.

Students explore these “directions” through a program of field games, team initiatives, interpretive hikes, workshops, ocean exploration, group discussion, forest activities, and campfire celebrations.

During this program students will:

  • Build community with their classmates
  • Participate in wild skills and deep thinking workshops
  • Paddle big canoes
  • Sit alone in the forest
  • Play forest games
  • Get up close and personal with all manner of slimy things
  • Be able to use their New Compass to guide them to individual and community actions that will lead to a more sustainable and resilient connection to themselves, others and the natural world

The compass metaphor and its interconnected directions provide students with a different way of seeing the world, supporting them to feel more grounded, authentic and caring.

go wild

our wildest, wettest, sluggiest program, with the most creek-walking, trail-blazing, barefoot-in-the-forest experiences.

Grades 5 - 9

Duration: 3 - 4 days

Facilitated activities in wild places engage students in expanding their comfort zones and connecting with the wisdom that can be found in the wild. They will develop their confidence, curiosity, and vision of themselves as resilient humans and leaders.

 

During this program students will:

  • Have a big wild adventure
  • Expand their comfort zones in wild spaces
  • Paddle big canoes
  • Hike
  • Learn wilderness skills
  • Look to the wild world for inspiration for solutions to the greatest challenges of the 21st century
  • Connect with and build community
  • Develop an understanding of their own personal leadership potential
  • Identify how their actions and the actions of others affects their community and the natural environment
  • Walk barefoot in the forest



Connections

"OUR actions make a difference"

Grades 9 - 12

Duration: 3 - 4 days

The Connections Program provides students with an opportunity to see their world as a connected whole and reflect on their place in it.  The connections program challenges students to step into their playful nature as they explore wild places, and to dig deep into their intellectual and academic selves as we ask big questions and challenge them to engage as thoughtful and critical citizens. 

During this program students will:

  • Build personal resilience
  • Sit alone in the forest
  • Live technology free for 3 days (cell phone free)
  • Connect with themselves, their community of peers and the natural world.
  • Engage in meaningful activities and discussions about the challenges and crisis of the 21st century.
  • Run laughing through the forest
  • Sing, play, dance, wiggle, be silly
  • Paddle big canoes.
  • Ask important questions
  • Analyze complex social and environmental issues from multiple perspectives and plan for thoughtful actions to influence positive sustainable change.

Students’ lives are fast-paced, busy and stressful, and this can lead to disconnection from themselves, from others, from the natural world.  In the connections program, students are invited to slow down, be present, and discover the joy and inspiration of wild places. 

WHAT KIDS ARE SAYING