Learning About Wildlife

As part of CWF's National Wildlife Week program an educational kit is produced each year featuring a different conservation theme, such as water resources, community action, biodiversity, sustainability, shoreline habitat, climate change, migration, invasive species, or endangered species recovery. The kit

• Is linked thematically with the Common Framework of Science Learning Outcomes, K-12 (Pan-Canadian Protocol for Collaboration on School Curriculum) and is suitable for use with a wide range of students.
• Includes a “Learning About Wildlife” unit with background information for teachers, student resource sheets, lesson plans, and activity cards or a board game. It is supplemented by online learning activities and outdoor projects that benefit wildlife and habitats.
• Complements a variety of school subjects, including art, biology, earth science, environmental science, geography, language arts, math, physical education, physics, and social studies.
• Includes a colourful NWW promotional poster.
• Complements other WILD Education programs, such as Fish Ways , Focus on Forests , Project WILD , Below Zero , and WILD School , and Ocean Education units.

Learning About Wildlife Units include:

Watersheds...more than just water...explore yours!

The 2006 NWW Learning About Wildlife Unit 24 consists of a teacher’s guide with a simple lesson plan for a display about watersheds, a colourful promotional poster, information about CWF’s WILD School program, a large watershed illustration, information about the Discover Canada’s Watersheds map and a postcard for ordering the map.

Follow this link to the 2006 NWW Learning About Wildlife unit or contact CWF to order a classroom copy of the kit.

Explore and Embrace a Special Wild Place

In Learning About Wildlife Unit 23, we take a look at Canada’s special wild places where people connect with nature — a busy birdfeeder in your backyard, a favourite walking trail, or an officially protected area like a national park or bird sanctuary. By using this unit, students will discover their own special wild spaces where they can explore their relationship with the wild. As they come to know the wild creatures that share their space, they'll learn that, although such places provide sanctuary, these spaces also need our protection.

Download a copy of the Explore and Embrace a Special Wild Place learning unit here.

This learning unit also includes a Special Places trivia game.Click here to download a copy of the trivia cards. If you wish to order a copy of the complete kit or of the gameboard by mail, send us an e-mail.

Give Backyard Birds Something to Sing About

Learning About Wildlife Unit 22 informs students about the importance of Canada's birds to the health of our ecosystems and the planet. It is filled with classroom-ready materials, including a resource sheet, lesson plans, information poster, and game, that address the issue of backyard birds through a hands-on approach.

Students will learn:

• basic bird-identification skills;
• the challenges that birds face;
• about bird ranges, migration, and biodiversity; and
• how to make maps as a tool to learn about and help birds. Mapping is a familiar tool for educators. It can be simple or complex; it can involve only your class or the community. Activities in this unit culminate in mapping activities.

Download a copy of the "Give Backyard Birds Something to Sing About" learning unit, here (PDF format - 1.2 MB).

Native Species, Nature's Choice

Learning About Wildlife Unit 21 focuses on the impacts of alien species on Canada's wildlife and environment and the need to protect native animals and plants. These native friends and invasive foes are addressed in detail in the unit. Educating youth is an important way to raise awareness about this issue, curb the spread of alien species, and restore native species to their natural place. The lessons in the unit captivate students with hands-on, inquiry-based experience and provide an avenue to learn basic skills and deepen knowledge of academic subjects, including life science, geography, history, and language arts.

Click here to download the kit entitled Native Species, Nature's Choice (Learning About Wildlife, Unit 21) (pdf format - 5.13 MB)

For more information about invasive species in Canada, check out our new Invasive Species in Canada database .

Have students use CWF's Invasive Species in Canada database to solve the interactive story maze Battle With the Alien Space Invaders , found here.

Climate is Changing. Help Wildlife Weather the Storm.

This unit (Learning About Wildlife Unit 20) enables you to engage students in learning about the value of wildlife, the potential impacts of climate change on species and their habitats, and the need to conserve these ecological treasures.

Download the kit entitled "Climate is Changing. Help Wildlife Weather the Storm." Lesson 4: Climate Connections requires a set of 27 activity cards. Download front activity cards and back activity cards . Print front of cards onto the back, then cut to make playing cards.

For additional learning activities on climate change click here.

Migration . . . An Incredible Journey

The theme of this package (Learning About Wildlife Unit 18) is “Migration . . .an Incredible Journey.” It addresses the habitat needs of wild travellers and looks at migration as the lifeblood of planet Earth. It includes a lesson plan designed to teach students about the value of terrestrial and freshwater habitats to migratory species, the risks that face these wild wanderers, and how we can help to give them safe passage; three student/teacher resource sheets as well as an educational chart.

Download the kit .

If you would like to order a printed copy of this kit or the educational chart, contact CWF .

Home Is Where There's Habitat

Habitat is home, sweet home to everything from newts to narwhals. It means food, water, shelter, and space — all arranged just the way plants and animals like them. If one of these vital elements is removed or tampered with, then species are forced to find other homes. Humans need exactly the same basic elements to survive. However, while we can control what happens in our communities, wildlife can't. In this educational kit (Learning About Wildlife Unit 17), we delve deeper into the concept of habitat than in past units. It will help educators inspire youngsters to work for wildlife in their schoolyards, backyards, communities, and beyond.

Download this kit .

Other Units Available From CWF
(not available for download, but please contact CWF for more information)

Give Wildlife an Edge . . . Protect Our Shorelines (1998): Packed with projects for conserving habitat alongside lakes, wetlands, rivers, and oceans, this unit celebrates the ecological value of shorelines.

Wild Things Need a Place to Grow (1997): With the theme ecological sustainability, this kit shows us how to meet the survival requirements of living things well into the future.

We're Part of the World-Wide Web of Life — Get On-line With Nature's Network (1996): This unit takes on ecosystem approach to habitat conservation.

Wildlife . . . Yours to Recover (1995): This kit focuses on ways to help imperilled species make a comeback.

Biodiversity Works for Wildlife — You Can Too (1994): This unit offers advice on how to benefit the environment by taking on habitat projects with diversity in mind.

Community Action Makes a World of Difference for Wildlife (1993): This kit shows the advantages of working with human communities to benefit natural communities.

Keep Canada Ever Green for Wildlife (1992): Full of projects to rehabilitate plant communities, this unit reminds young people that trees, shrubs, grasses, and other native greenery are wildlife too.

Water — A Mainstream Issue for Wildlife (1991): This kit emphasizes the importance of conserving our water resources.

Local Action Brings Worldwide Results (1990): Wildlife projects show us how to become better managers of the global environment by acting locally as habitat stewards.

Act Today for Wildlife in the Year 2000 (1989): The original Habitat 2000 kit gives young Canadians the basic knowledge they need to see wildlife through to the next century and beyond.

Contact us to order copies of past and present Habitat 2000 kits by mail.