Raincoast Field School
“The goal of the Raincoast Field School is to increase outdoor learning opportunities for students in our local public schools.”
Raincoast Field School is an outdoor education program designed to meet BC curricular outcomes while providing hands-on learning opportunities for students in our local public schools. It is a collaborative program developed by the Raincoast Education Society (RES) and the teachers at the Tofino and Ucluelet elementary schools.
Field trips and activities are led by a qualified full-time instructor with extensive experience as a science educator, and encompass multiple aspects of curricular outcomes including science, numeracy and literacy. The program is constantly evolving, with lessons being built or recycled to best fit with the unique themes of each class as determined by the teacher.
Making Connections
Raincoast Field School is designed to complement classroom lessons taught by each class’s teacher. The program provides education about the environment in a natural setting and incorporates physical education while reviewing mathematics, English language, arts and social studies concepts that students have learned in class.
Ultimately, the material covered in each class is based on specific requests from the teacher which the Field School instructor then incorporates into a unique activity or lesson plan.
Progress
Full programming is provided to the Wickaninnish Community School in Tofino (since 2014) and the Ucluelet Elementary School (since 2018) through Raincoast Field School. Each and every student from K to grade 7 gets to participate in at least one field trip per month during the school year – that’s over 200 Raincoast Field School trips delivered per year!
Follow along
Raincoast Field School programs are currently being run in Tofino and Ucluelet elementary schools (K-7). Follow along with our programs below.
#tofinofieldschool
Take Me Outside Day: A Celebration of Outdoor Learning! A day that highlights the importance of spending time outside, being physically active and connecting with nature.
🦎. The RES celebrates outdoor learning everyday by providing opportunities for outdoor learning throughout the year for the youth in our communities.
🦎. This year Take Me Outside presents a Learning Challenge for us all: commit to spending at least 1 hour/week outside with your learners throughout the year.
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#tofinofieldschool #uclueletieldschool #raincoastfieldschool
#raincoasteducationsociety #raincoast #outdooreducation #stem #steam #learning #learnoutside #outdoored #experientiallearning #naturebasedlearning #nature #forestschools #placebasededucation #natureschool #tofino #explorebc #explorecanada #britishcolumbia #beautifulbc
Thank you Sophia & Savannah for shining up our much used & loved Magic School Bus - 🚐. It looks awesome!! ✨ ✨
Shout out to the Ukee Coop for the car wash - sure makes it easier!
#tofinofieldschool #uclueletfieldschool #raincoasteducation.org
Ms. Bruhwiler’s Kindergarten class went on an adventure to North Chesterman beach to learn about winter animal adaptations.🌊- 🐻 All the students met Bruce the black bear pelt and discovered the physical adaptations bears have to survive,
💤Sophia reviewed the 3 ways animals survive the winters in Clayoquot sound – hibernate, migrate, or stay-active! The students already knew that bears don’t fully hibernate around here but rather go into a state of Torpor!
🚌 A bus trip to North Chesterman beach where students enjoyed a snack and free play in the sand.
🤸🏿♂️ Sophia created a game of tag using winter animal adaptations
where students collected food to survive while 2 students named “Winter” tried to tag everyone. Who gathered enough food to hibernate for the winter?
💨 As the wind picked up, the whole class headed back to the bus. Sophia was so impressed with how much the students already knew about animal adaptations!
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#tofinofieldschool #raincoastfieldschool
#raincoasteducationsociety
#raincoast #outdooreducation #stem #steam #learning #learnoutside #outdoored #experientiallearning #naturebasedlearning #nature #forestschools #placebasededucation #natureschool #tofino #explorebc #explorecanada #britishcolumbia #beautifulbc
Ms. Tucker’s grade 3 class went on a landform hunt around Tofino stopping at Radar Hill and South Chesterman Beach. 🌊
☔️ With a rainy view over Clayoquot Sound, students pointed out all the landforms they could see from Radar Hill.
🏔 Sophia led the students on a journey back in time by telling the story of how this region was formed by glaciers since the last ice age.
🌄 The whole class found signs of glaciers scratching along the rocks at the top of Radar Hill.
🏞 Students completed a “fill in the blanks” sheet naming all the local landforms with only drawings.
🏜 On South Chesterman, students created landforms in the sand and then Sophia demonstrated erosion by pouring water over each shape.
💨🧊💧 Finally, they all discussed how water, wind, and ice cause erosion and change the shape of the landforms. Sophia was so impressed with their scientific vocabulary and high enthusiasm to explore the area! 🙏🏽
#tofinofieldschool #raincoastfieldschool
#raincoasteducationsociety
#raincoast #outdooreducation #stem #steam #learning #learnoutside #outdoored #experientiallearning #naturebasedlearning #nature #forestschools #placebasededucation #natureschool #tofino #explorebc #explorecanada #britishcolumbia #beautifulbc
Mr. Holt’s grade 2/3 class played a giant game of Predator vs. Prey at Mackenzie Beach to learn about food webs. 🦅
🐿 The majority of students were selected as Herbivores – they had to find food and water stations hidden around the forest without getting tagged by the predators!
🐕 A handful of students were selected as Omnivores – they were given the big task of finding all the food and water stations but also tagging the Herbivores.
🦁 Only 2 students were Carnivores – they had to tag Herbivores and Omnivores to survive.
🔥 For the last part of the game, Mr. Holt and our volunteer Brooke were introduced to the game as a human and natural disaster– they could tag everyone!
Once all the students were exhausted, the animals were called back to make a circle with Sophia – Mother Nature. Students shared their experiences living at different trophic levels and made an important observation: “surviving is really hard!🙏🏽
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#tofinofieldschool #raincoastfieldschool
#raincoasteducationsociety
#raincoast #outdooreducation #stem #steam #learning #learnoutside #outdoored #experientiallearning #naturebasedlearning #nature #forestschools #placebasededucation #natureschool #tofino #explorebc #explorecanada #britishcolumbia #
Ms. Holt’s Kindergarten class had a visit from Bruce the bear pelt and then learned about a year in the life of a bear!
🐻 The students discovered physical adaptations of the local Black Bear species while touching a real bear pelt.
🐻 Sophia narrated the actions of bears during each season while all the students acted out a year in the life of a bear.
🐻 Bear Aware! Students practiced their bear safety with loud voices, making themselves big, and backing away slowly.
🐻 After practicing their bear walk, everyone found their own den in the school forest. The challenge was to collect as many popsicle sticks as possible before hibernating!
Sophia had so much fun being a bear with Ms. Holt’s class! She loved hearing all the bear stories that students wanted to share.🙏🏽
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#tofinofieldschool #raincoastfieldschool
#raincoasteducationsociety
#raincoast #outdooreducation #stem #steam #learning #learnoutside #outdoored #experientiallearning #naturebasedlearning #nature #forestschools #placebasededucation #natureschool #tofino #explorebc #explorecanada #britishcolumbia #beautifulbc
Ms. Baas’ grade 1/2 class discovered the phases of the water cycle through drawings, movement, and outdoor exploration. Once the students knew the names of each phase of the water cycle, Sophia led everyone along Tonquin trail to look for evidence of each phase. 🌄
💦 Students guessed how much rain falls in Tofino each year - over 3 metres!
🦿 Following a big drawing on the board, students learned the name of each phase of the water cycle and connected it with a body movement.
🌲 Along the Tonquin Trail, students pointed out all the runoff heading to the ocean and the importance of trees.
💧 Water Cycle game! Everyone transformed into a water droplet to start making their way around the cycle by playing rock, paper, scissors. Students reflected on how much time they spent as droplets in the ocean whereas the groundwater phase was hard to get to. 🌊
With a little bit of sunshine, the students were so excited to be outside.☀️ 🙏🏽 Sophia was impressed with all the connections students made during their morning.
#tofinofieldschool #raincoastfieldschool
#raincoasteducationsociety
#raincoast #outdooreducation #stem #steam #learning #learnoutside #outdoored #experientiallearning #naturebasedlearning #nature #forestschools #placebasededucation #natureschool #tofino #explorebc #explorecanada #britishcolumbia #beautifulbc
Mr. Redican’s grade 5/6 class completed Bird Olympics at the park with Sophia! Through a series of challenges, students learned how to survive like a bird. 🦢
🦅 Each student got the chance to measure their wingspan compared to a bald eagle.
🪶A big game of migration tag on the field followed – a group of birds had to migrate across to gather food without getting caught by the predators!
🔭 Crack the code! Pairs were given a set of binoculars and a code word. Using the binoculars, they had to find letters in the distance to spell a word!
👍🏼 For a nest building competition, students had their thumbs taped to their hands so they only had the use of 4 fingers. Using teamwork, the students built incredible nests! 🪹
🐦Finally, students had to pair a bird with the matching beak and determine what it might eat with that type of beak.
By the end of the morning, the students were bird experts! Sophia had a great time being a bird with Mr. Redican’s class. 🙏🏽
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#tofinofieldschool #raincoastfieldschool
#raincoasteducationsociety
#raincoast #outdooreducation #stem #steam #learning #learnoutside #outdoored #experientiallearning #naturebasedlearning #nature #forestschools #placebasededucation #natureschool #tofino #explorebc #explorecanada #britishcolumbia #beautifulbc
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#ukeefieldschool
Ms. Sigmund`s grade 1/2 class visited @thorntoncreek with Sophia and Savannah. The group was so appreciative that Dave Hurwitz shared the space with us and even managed to have some live male Salmon for the students to admire! 🐟 -
🎡 The grade 1/2`s demonstrated their knowledge by taking a turn at the Spinning Wheel of Life and Death of a Salmon. Students were not surprised that only 2 of our Salmon made it to the smolt stage, this lead to an informative discussion highlighting some key facts about the life cycle and habitat of our 5 local Salmon species.
🪱 Students not only got a chance to observe a live Salmon swimming around, they also investigated the tiny invertebrates that Salmon snack on and even recognized the final stage of the life cycle when a Salmon skull was seen on the edge of the creek. 🙏🏽 again to Dave & all the Thornton Creek Hatchery staff and to the grade 1/2`s for a great field school!
#ukeefieldschool #raincoastfieldschool
#raincoasteducationsociety
#raincoast #streamecology #outdoored #experientallearning #naturebasedlearning #nature #forestschools #learningoutside #natureschool #ucluelet #explorebc #explorecanada #britishcolumbia #beautifulbc #outdooreducation #learning #learnoutside
Mr. Floucault`s grade 5/6 students executed a simple machine challenge with Ms. Brinkman guided by Savannah at Big Beach. 🌊
📐 To kickoff the field school, the class played a matching game to classify examples of simple machines. Students quickly matched slide with inclined plane but took time to examine how totem poles are raised before classifying it as a pulley.
📿For the challenge the 5/6`s got into teams and had to create something to move a small plushy 1 meter in the water using only 2 large recycled items and some other building supplies. Simple machines were incorporated into the creations like pulleys with string to return the vessel to shore and inclined planes for the small plushy to get inside.
Savannah was impressed with the students creativity and had lots of fun playing in the snow with the class! 🙏🏽
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#ukeefieldschool #raincoastfieldschool
#raincoasteducationsociety
#raincoast #streamecology #outdoored #experientallearning #naturebasedlearning #nature #forestschools #learningoutside #natureschool #ucluelet #explorebc #explorecanada #britishcolumbia #beautifulbc #outdooreducation #learning #learnoutside
Ms. Tremblay’s grade 2/3 class explored the diverse algae that grows along Big Beach. This was the first field school for the students and the first in the series: The Intertidal zone shore is interesting! 🌊
🎭 While Savannah narrated, the students acted out a tidepool story to foster discussion on being “Tidepool Destructos” or “Tidepool Protectors.”
🔎 The students collected, sorted and categorized the seaweed and algae they found along the shore. Some of the student created categories included long or short, weird/unidentifiable, and bumpy vs smooth.
💡 During the reflection back in the classroom the students shared how they enjoyed using the ID pamphlets and how they would never forget the feeling of the various seaweeds.
The grade 2/3s were so engaged and creative, Savannah shore was impressed! 🙏🏽
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#ukeefieldschool #raincoastfieldschool
#raincoasteducationsociety #raincoast #streamecology #outdoored #experientallearning #naturebasedlearning #nature #forestschools #learningoutside #natureschool #ucluelet #explorebc #explorecanada #britishcolumbia #beautifulbc #outdooreducation #learning #learnoutside
Intro to Sustainability with Kira, Reddfish Restoration and The Den.
Ms. Wilson’s class is diving into a field school unit that will explore the nature of sustainable practices around BC’s resources. 🏞
To start off the morning the group and Kira met in the classroom to broadly define the idea of sustainability. The students in Ms. Wilson’s class shared some great connections and examples of sustainable practices in their own life. For example so many kiddos bike or bus to school! 🚲🚌
The first stop on their community leaders in sustainable practices tour was @reddfishrestoration. Mara and Jadyn of Reddfish welcomed the group and introduced part of Reddfishes mission: restore salmon habitat and community involvement through employment, volunteering, etc.! The students split into three groups and rotated through a stream table, art and outdoor activity stations that all explored salmon as an essential resource to our west coast community. The stream table at Reddfish is open to the public and an awesome resource to up your learning on watersheds, salmon and human habitat and natural or anthropogenic impacts effecting the above. 💦
After Reddfish, the group marched down to The Den, a sustainable goods shop and refill store. Diane Rudge, the owner, introduced key points of the stores mission: zero waste products, refillable products and selling/ promoting local products. ♻️ The students loved touring through the store and checking out the living wall. A lot of them recognized products that they had in their own homes. 🏠
🙏🏽Thank you everyone for making this intro to sustainability field school a great success! Ms. Wilson’s class can not wait to check out more sustainable practice examples in the community and grow their understanding of what it means to be sustainable.
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#ukeefieldschool #raincoastfieldschool
#raincoasteducationsociety #raincoast #streamecology #outdoored #experientallearning #naturebasedlearning #nature #forestschools #learningoutside #natureschool #ucluelet #explorebc #explorecanada #britishcolumbia #beautifulbc #outdooreducation #learning #learnoutside
Spring Cove and Terrace Beach: Then and Now with Kira
Kira and Mr. Foucault’s Grade 5 & 6 class headed down to Spring Cove and then over to Terrace Beach for field school. The class is starting a unit on global community, which connected well with the global presence involved in the fishing community and BC packers camp at Spring Cove. 🌏 The group started learning about the time immemorial presence of the Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ and the pre and post World War II history of Japanese immigrants, which provoked a lot of thoughtful questions and discussion points. 🈁
At Terrace Beach the group made their way to the midden (ancient refuse pile) along the Terrace Beach Trail. At the midden they learned about the different traditional tools used by the Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ and the group had a great discussion on the differences and similarities between a midden and our modern-day landfill practices. 🐚 To finish off the field school the students tried their hand at making their own tools out of loose natural materials. ⚒️ They quickly realized how much time, practice, knowledge and skill it takes to create working tools out of natural materials. Furthermore, how we sometimes take for granted the materials we have at hand today. 🗻
Thanks for bringing your focus, respect and enthusiasm to the field school Mr. Floucault’s class! 🙏🏽
#ukeefieldschool #raincoastfieldschool
#raincoasteducationsociety #raincoast #streamecology #outdoored #experientallearning #naturebasedlearning #nature #forestschools #learningoutside #natureschool #ucluelet #explorebc #explorecanada #britishcolumbia #beautifulbc #outdooreducation #learning #learnoutside
Fall Detectives! with Kira. 🕵️♀️ Kira was SO excited to meet the new kindergarteners in Ms. Wilson and Ms. Williamson’s class! For both field schools the group put on their detective hats and using all their senses became fall detectives! At Big Beach they started with a nature colour wheel exercise where the kiddos found loose, natural items on the beach that matched almost every color on the wheel. 🎨 Some particularly interesting items were the kelp holdfast, colorful seaweed, leaves, beach glass and feathers. Afterwards they took to the forest for a fall scavenger hunt. With their findings they used magnifying glasses to take an close up look at the intricate patterns and details in nature. 🌊 Using the same gathered materials, they finished off the field school with a fun blindfolded sensory guessing game. 🤸🏿♂️ Thank you for the super fun times Ms. Wilson’s class and Ms. Williamson’s class! 🙏🏽
#ukeefieldschool #raincoastfieldschool
#raincoasteducationsociety
#raincoast #streamecology #outdoored #experientallearning #naturebasedlearning #nature #forestschools #learningoutside #natureschool #ucluelet #explorebc #explorecanada #britishcolumbia #beautifulbc #outdooreducation #learning #learnoutside
A Journey Through Time with Kira. ⏳
In this field school, Ms. Lefevre’s Grade 7 class connected to their social’s unit on ancient civilizations. After an introduction in class they headed to Spring Cove and Terrace Beach to learn about the historical use by the Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ. 🌊 The class and Kira felt very grateful to learn about the history through the Spring Cove and Terrace Beach interpretive signs provided by the Ucluelet First Nation and the Wild Pacific Trail. 🪧
Some highlights from the morning were visiting the Elder Tree, seeing the pictures of Spring cove in the early 1900’s and spotting CMTs along the trail. The group also enjoyed learning Nuu chah nulth for Spring Cove and Terrace Beach, as well as seeing the history of travel between the two areas along the short cut and in traditional dug out canoes when on the water on the map at He-Tin-Kis park.
🙏🏽Thank you Ms. Lefevre’s class for the engaging morning!
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#ukeefieldschool #raincoastfieldschool
#raincoasteducationsociety #raincoast
#streamecology #outdoored #experientallearning #naturebasedlearning #nature #forestschools #learningoutside #natureschool #ucluelet #explorebc #explorecanada #britishcolumbia #beautifulbc #outdooreducation #learning #learnoutside
National Forest Week. 🌲 Mr. Garand’s Grade 4/5 class and Kira joined an awesome team of Foresters, Educators and Archeologists for a field school celebrating National Forest Week.
They made their way to the new Macoah Trail between Macoah and Secret Beach. Upon arriving they were introduced to Dennis Hetu, an archeologist and cultural educator from the Toquaht Nation. Dennis acknowledged the sacred Toquaht land the trail ran through and then walked them along the trail showing everyone the vast amount of Culturally Modified Trees (CMTs) in the surrounding old-growth forest. 🌱
It was unbelievably cool! They found evidence of pre-contact harvesting as well as post contact euro logging. At the half way point, they were led through a fascinating activity in the surrounding second growth forest by Erik Holbeck, Tracy Andrews and Mike Davis- all local foresters. Each forester took a group of kids and picked a tree sample a core from using an increment borer. The kids loved using the increment borer and observing the trees life through the sample. 📏
Huge shout out to Tracy, Erik and Dennis for everything you did to make this happen! Including actually planning and building the new trail! 🙏🏽 @toquahtnation
#ukeefieldschool #raincoastfieldschool
#raincoasteducationsociety#raincoast#streamecology #outdoored #experientallearning #naturebasedlearning #nature #forestschools #learningoutside #natureschool #ucluelet #explorebc #explorecanada #britishcolumbia #beautifulbc #outdooreducation #learning #learnoutside #toquahtnation
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Support
Raincoast Field School is made possible with the support of the administration and teaching staff at local schools, and the generosity of organizations, businesses, and individuals within the community. The curriculum is designed to build upon itself each year, representing a long-term commitment to the students. Our instructors are highly skilled educators in a full-time position with the RES, committed to the program, and the community they teach in.
Need help?
If you have any questions about our courses, our events, or just us in general – we’re here to help!
