EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

for empowering kids to explore and restore nature

Welcome! This page is for adults who want to empower and inspire kids to take action for nature.

Here, you’ll find resources to guide you — an educator, parent, guardian or youth leader — as you lead lessons about wildlife in Canada and how young people can help conserve species and habitats. These resources have been optimized for ages 10-12, but may be suitable for other ages as well.

These resources are informed by WWF-Canada’s Living Planet Report Canada 2025, our flagship report summarizing how wildlife in our country are faring. This report is published every few years to provide updated information and recommendations to help guide politicians, business leaders and the public as they make decisions that impact wildlife and habitats.

By engaging kids with these resources, you’ll provide them with a fun and age-appropriate opportunity to explore their connection to nature and how they can contribute to conservation solutions in the world they are inheriting.

Select from the options below and let the learning begin!

Website for kids

Kids become wildlife investigators as they explore this site on their own, discovering the stories of six Canadian species and how they fit into the ecosystem, fun quizzes, Q&A videos with research scientist Jessica Currie, inspiring examples of kids like them taking action for nature, and more.

Welcome, wildlife investigators

Living Planet Report Canada for Kids home page

Lesson plans

Whether you teach in a classroom, home school or an informal learning environment, these lesson packs will equip you to lead “Mission: Explore to Restore,” a unit on wildlife, ecosystems and conservation for grades four to six (ages 10-12). Together, the eight lessons support learning outcomes relevant to science curricula for all provinces and territories in Canada. Some of the activities weave in skills from other subjects as well, such as physical education and language arts. Tools to help assess student learning are included.

Click on any lesson blocks below to download relevant resources

Lesson 1 – Launch ‘Mission: Explore to Restore’

Students are introduced to the mission and explore the LPRC for Kids website.

Lesson 2 – Scientists at Work

Students watch Q&A videos to learn how scientists study wildlife populations.

Lesson 3 – Wildlife Investigation

Students learn about a Canadian species and its role in the ecosystem.

Lesson 4 – All Species are Connected

Students play a tag game to experience how species in a food web impact one another.

Lesson 5 – Map the Connections

Students explore how scientists use maps and make their own maps of species’ habitats.

Lesson 6 – Student Scientists at Work

Students gather and contribute their own data to a wildlife or ecosystem monitoring project.

Lesson 7 – ‘Explore to Restore’ Pledge

Students identify achievable ways they can help wildlife and pledge to take action.

Lesson 8 – Think for Wildlife, Write for Change

Students reflect on and share what they have learned by writing letters.

Mission Cards for Lessons 1-8

Print and distribute a set of mission cards to each student.

Appendix 2 – Assessment Tools

Rubrics to help you and your students assess student learning.

Video downloads

Download the four-video series featuring WWF-Canada research scientist Jessica Currie answering questions about her job, how scientists study wildlife, how wildlife in Canada are doing and how kids can take action to help conserve wildlife. Each video is one to four minutes long. The video series also appears on the website, but the downloadable files provide an alternative way to screen it, and complete Lesson 2, where kids do not have direct access to the internet.

Video 1

Reporting in for wildlife in Canada!

Video 2

A report card for wildlife populations

Video 3

How people in Canada are helping wildlife

Video 4

Thanks for joining us!

More opportunities to empower kids

Interested in more ways to engage kids taking action for nature? Subscribe to WWF-Canada’s Living Planet @ School newsletter.

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