PlantCraft
PlantCraft is a 6-month, arts-based immersion into the world of plants where we learn by making and doing.
Community and connection with plants through art, craft, food and medicine.
PlantCraft is a 6-month, arts-based immersion into the world of plants where we learn by making and doing. We’ll explore local plant ecology through an arts-based lens, weaving baskets, carving with local wood, crafting herbal remedies, harvesting plant fibers and much more. Each month, you’ll be introduced to local species of plants and trees and their use in a variety of projects.
Using plants for food, medicine, utility and adornment are practices both ancient and timeless. In this program, you’ll be invited to reconnect with skills that have been woven into our cultures, histories, and bodies for generations. Whether you’re an experienced artist or curious crafter, PlantCraft is designed to help you carve out time each month to nurture your creativity, on the land, in good company.
This program is for those who want to:
Deepen relationship with the plant world through embodied skills
Cultivate hands-on skills and practices to share with your community
Gain direct knowledge of key species that make up our local ecosystem
Learn in a community setting with like-minded folks
PlantCraft is guided by an ethic of care for the land. We’ll be working with plants for their beauty and utility, as well as investigating their role in the landscape. Along the way, we’ll learn responsible harvesting guidelines and practices for stewarding wild plant communities.
Program price: $690 + HST. If cost is a barrier, please see our Economics for a Changing World page for sliding-scale and mutual aid options.
Meet your instructors
PlantCraft is co-created by Miki Tamblyn, Annie Sanassian and Dani Hagel, three artists and educators who believe in craft as gestures of care for ourselves, each other and the lands that sustain us. This year, we're honoured to be joined by guest instructors Cailey Campbell, Jen Britton and Matt Hamilton. We can’t wait to introduce you to some of the plants and skills that inspire us.
Annie Sanassian has fond memories as a kid discovering camel bones in the desert whilst exploring with her family. The bones were gifted to an artist friend and in reciprocity they were gifted back in art form. This process was awe inspiring and since, as an educator, spoon carver, mushroom farmer and owner of Full Moon Farm and Apothecary, Annie aims to integrate meaningful and creative relationships with nature and people. You might find her weaving branches, peeling bark, plucking leaves, chipping wood and experimenting with clay. She specifically loves carving playful and eccentric wooden spoons.
Dani Hagel is a herbalist, naturalist and artist whose work weaves together the art and science of plant medicine, naturalist knowledge, and the traditional folkways of her Black Sea German and Slavic ancestry. Inspired by the everyday magic of botanical colour, interspecies collaborations and wild plant stewardship, Dani believes land-based practices can help us guide us into right relationship with each other and the more-than-human world. She cultivates a diverse landscape of medicinal, edible and dye plants on her permaculture-inspired farm, Eramosa Herbals.
Miki Tamblyn is a mixed-media visual artist, wildlife biologist and student of the more-than-human world. They love to work with their hands to experiment, play, and create in collaboration with the other artists of our ecosystem, especially the plants. For Miki, crafting is a way to calm the minds and connect with life through our animal bodies. They are especially into weaving baskets, playing with natural dyes, and drawing the world around them. Miki believes that the embodied learning that comes through weaving, drawing, carving, touching, holding and feeling the earth can bring us deeper into loving relationship with our planet (Yay!)
Jen Britton’s relationship with plants began as a wee free girl of the 80's, romping through forests and watching her Oma garden. Plant crafting has provided her an opportunity to explore reciprocity, connect with community and deepen her relationship with the land. She is ever so grateful for the mothers and women in her life who gardened, preserved food, shared their knowledge of plant remedies and medicines and for her father’s love/respect of the natural world and all its beings.
Matt Hamilton is a dedicated father and nature lover who specializes in wood carving, using his passion for nature to create beautiful, functional and playful pieces that reflect his deep connection to the land. His work with wood is rooted in a celebration of the beauty and wonder of the world around us, and a commitment to a loving and sustainable relationship with the natural world.
Cailey Campbell is a mama, seedkeeper, culinary artist, and food grower. She has found solace and joy being by water for as long as she can remember and believes that the land and water are one of life's most precious teachers for cultivating our inner worlds.
Through her various roles at Skaronhyase'ko:wa (The Everlasting Tree School) in Six Nations, Cailey has had the honour of experiencing the multitudes of benefits to children in an earth-based education that is culturally-rooted. These experiences continue to inspire her and deepen her commitment to cultivating equitable and liberated relationships with the earth and each other.
2024 Session Dates
PlantCraft runs one Sunday a month, from 9 AM to 2 PM at GOS’ Stone Road site.
Sunday, May 12th: Weaving with Dogwood with Miki and Annie
Sunday, June 23rd: Wild Foods with Cailey, Annie and Dani
Sunday, July 14th: Carving with Annie and Matt
Sunday, August 11th: Medicine Making with Dani, Annie and Jen
Sunday, September 22nd: Natural Dyes with Miki, Dani and Annie
Sunday, October 13th: Plant Fibers and Cordage with Annie, Dani and Miki
Here’s what past participants are saying:
"I absolutely LOVED PlantCraft! It was such a wonderful way to connect with myself, creativity, and the land. I really liked the process of each week - it wasn't just show up and do a craft. We were engaged with the plants we were working with in a really connected way. The carving week stood out to me - harvesting and processing our own tree made the experience real, and was a great reminder of the living beings we're crafting with."
"I really enjoyed being part of PlantCraft! Connecting with the land through the lens of creativity helped deepen my appreciation for all the life forms who share themselves with us in various forms as helpful tools (e.g. spoons, baskets, writing utensils, dyes, etc). Our lives are deeply enriched by plants, and I'm grateful to have had PlantCraft experiences which helped illuminate and deepen these connections. Understanding all the work (both the work humans put into creating art, as well as the work plants put into growing) that goes into creating a craft piece also inspired more care, reverence, and consideration both for the objects as well as the plants and people who make these objects possible."
Goslings
Ages 4 -6.. An early start for grounded, resilient, and joyful kids. Programs running Monday - Friday
Our most popular program.
Goslings starts kids early for a lasting foundation for a life time of wonder, resilience, and belonging.
GOSlings runs every day of the week from 9am to 4pm.
Friday Goslings features AM & PM Sessions year round.
Wednesday Goslings features AM & PM Sessions in the Winter Season.
Families are always welcome to register for AM and PM Sessions with care for your child in between sessions.
Growing nature connected kids from a young age.
This means kids who are calmer, more aware, compassionate and joyful. Goslings sessions are filled with all the foundational elements of Guelph Outdoor School. In recognition of this younger age, Goslings instructors collaborate to share a sense of wonder and mystery in the natural world through exploration, games, free-play, songs and story.
What you and your child can expect
A nurturing, and magical atmosphere in a wild, riverside cedar forest. Responsive and experienced adult instructors supporting small groups of 10 - 20, We maintain excellent ratios of approximately 4-5 kids per adult instructor, often with volunteer support.
A seat at the fire for everyone.
Guelph Outdoor School is a leader in providing accessible, straight forward sliding scale and mutual aid options to ensure that children have access to our outdoor immersion and mentorship programs regardless of financial status.
We maintain a trust-based , user-end approach: give what you can, take what you need.
Oaks & Acorns
A Parent & Tot morning program. for parents and caregivers.. Monday - Thursdays mornings. 9:30 - 11:30am
Reconnect with Nature with the ones who know best: our children
Monday - Thursday. 9:30am to 11:30am. Fall, Winter, & Spring
Simple and rich outdoor immersion for young families
step into wonder with your child, and other families.
Animal tracking, nature craft, stewardship projects, feeding chickadees, visiting the river, timeless wanders and slow pace mini-adventures, shelter building, getting to know the plants, games that teach and stretch awareness, story and song always,
Facilitated Parent discussions about things that matter these days.
pathways in education, community building and expanding our capacity for positive change, parenting stories, art of questioning and other mentoring techniques, decolonization, reconciliation, cultural repair, mutual aid and community repair, community service, rites of passage and child development, stewardship.
A culture for kids to be a part of.
Showing kids from a very young age that it’s good to gather together in community, around the fire, sharing ideas, singing songs. Oaks and Acorns gives an excellent opportunity to normalize nature connection and the values, feelings, behaviours, emotional states, and ways of being that go with it.
A nature connected kid is a gift to the world.
This program and your decision to be a part of it represents an important investment in change, towards health, repair, possibility. We can’t know what challenges await our children, but we feel confident that being nature connected is the place to start.. Thanks for being a part of it.
Register ONE family member to start, and then add all family members who will/may join you throughout the year using the link provided in your confirmation email. This helps us know important information about each participant (allergies, emergency contact information, photo waivers etc..). We require that each participant purchase an Annual Membership ($35) prior to registering. This fee helps us recover costs such as insurance and other administrative costs to support this nonprofit organization.
If you have a current membership, we will send a notification when it has expired to renew it for the following year. This timing may not coincide with registration for this year’s program. You can view membership status’ for your family on your account by selecting ‘Membership Cards’.
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Welcome to O&A Parent and Tot @ Guelph Outdoor School
This unique program is as much for parents as it is for kids - providing a rich weekly outdoor gathering during the early, isolating years of taking care of children. Oaks and Acorns helps families get nature connected from the get-go, connects families, and builds community. This unique program lays the foundation for a generation of nature connected kids.: this means young people who are resilient and comfortable in the natural world for life.
With morning programs on Monday, Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays -- Oaks and Acorns, like all GOS programs, is available on a sliding scale basis. We offer 2 ways to participate, to suit your family’s needs:
Option 1) Seasonal Registration
This means registering for a whole season: Fall, Winter and/or Spring. This ensures your spot every week on the day of your choice, and is great for families who know they will come out more often than not.
Each day of the week (Mon-Thurs) will launch with spots for 30 families for the whole season of weekly sessions, for a total of 120 spots per season.
Option 2) Drop-In Registration
This is for families who are not ready to commit to a whole season, or who need more flexibility in their week. Perfect for families who want to be a part of the Oaks & Acorns community, but anticipate coming only from time to time. Space permitting, this option enables you to sign up for any day of the week, starting one week before the activity date, right up to the moment we gather.
We hope this option will enable more families to get a taste of this community favourite at least occasionally. (No more 2-year waitlists!!) Drop-In spots will be available for a minimum of 5 families per Oaks & Acorns date, for a total of 20 spots per week. Drop-In registration opens one week ahead of each session date, and may be cancelled up to 2 hours ahead of the program start time.HOW TO REGISTER
For Seasonal Registration:
All Oaks & Acorns participants (both kiddos and their accompanying grownups) must have an Annual Membership purchased in their name (click here to get yours), which is good for one year from the date of purchase.
Program fees will be paid per family by one main Account Holder – meaning one caregiver can bring kiddo the first week, and other caregiver on the second, and the whole family the week after that – all under the same Seasonal Registration.Step 1: Purchase an Annual Membership for all anticipated participants.
Step 2: Register only ONE ADULT family member (your main “Account Holder”) for your desired Oaks & Acorns day of the week. Here is where you will select your sliding scale code if needed.
For Drop-In Registration:
Step 1: Same as seasonal registraions, you must purchase an Annual Membership for all anticipated participants.
Step 2: Find your preferred day session, and select "Register for Drop-In" and choose your day from the calendar. Easy Peasy.
OUR SLIDING SCALE
We believe that every family’s circumstances are unique and complex, and we recognize that a paid, sliding scale system means a change from previous years. We encourage you to consider your family's current economic resources, the number of family members you plan to bring along, how frequently you expect to come out in a season, and the future you'd like to see for this program -- and contribute the amount that makes deep sense to you.
CANCELLATION POLICY
For Seasonal Registrations:
Should a cancellation be requested at least 21 days before a program start, we can offer a full refund minus a $25 Cancellation Fee to recover administrative costs.
After the start of the program, a pro-rated credit will be applied to your GOS account based on the number of sessions remaining, less a $25 Cancellation Fee to recover administrative costs. This credit may be used toward future registration in any GOS program.
Should you require to change your program day, contact sonia@theguelphoutdoorschool.com to make the request. A charge of 6% of your program fee will be applied.
"My son has been attending the Oaks and Acorns program and it has been an exceptional experience for him. In addition to spending meaningful time outdoors, he has delighted in creative activities like making shakers, drumming and enjoying story time. Last week, we explored tracking animal footprints, a skill he now eagerly practices in the woods near our home. The program coordinators are incredibly kind and foster an environment where children can truly be themselves—whether participating in activities or freely exploring nature with their guardian. This program is a treasure for children who thrive in and connect with the natural world."
- Angel, Guelph Outdoor School Parent
Foxes
Wed, Thurs, Friday 9am - 4pm. The classic mid-week session: Adventure, Growth, Wonder and Play. Ages 7 - 9
Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, from 9am to 4pm
Tracking adventures satisfy the inquisitive and creative mind at this age, providing ample opportunity for inference, story telling, deduction, pattern recognition. Foxes delivers invisible learning and healthy growth, with the volume turned up on fun.
What you can can expect
A welcoming atmosphere, days of exploring, practicing skills, and games that teach and learning to use field guides. Foxes operates on long-term mentoring relationships, where professional facilitators work together to identify areas for growth and development: for individuals and the group. Our model seeks to support young people in becoming resilient, capable, and service minded. Our daily endeavors promote attributes such as: Quiet Mind, Common Sense, Aliveness and Agility, Inquisitive Focus, Caring and Tending, Service to Community, Awe and Reverence, and Self-Sufficiency. We foster these attributes through a set of core routines and nature based challenges. The learning experience is dynamic, emergent, multi-sensory, and exciting.
Nimble, clever, quick, fun-loving
Foxes is a celebration of child passions: climbing, running, sneaking, listening, hiding. This program is also a step into the world of competence and self-sufficiency: building skills in fire tending, shelter building and tool use.
Registration is welcome at any time, during the trimester and fees are automatically pro-rated.*
Foxes & Wolves
Mondays and Tuesdays 9am to 4pm. Self-Sufficiency & Co-Operation. Ages 7 -14
Nimble, clever, quick, fun-loving
Foxes and Wolves is a celebration of child passions: climbing, running, sneaking, listening, hiding. This program is also a step into the world of competence and self-sufficiency: building skills in fire tending, shelter building and tool use.
Every Monday and Tuesday
9am - 4pm
What you can can expect
A welcoming atmosphere, days of exploring, practicing skills, and games that teach. Foxes and Wolves offers a wider age range, affording opportunities for peer mentorship & role modelling. Professional facilitators work together to identify areas for growth and development: for individuals and the group. Our model seeks to support young people in becoming resilient, capable, and service minded. Our daily endeavours promote attributes such as: Quiet Mind, Common Sense, Aliveness and Agility, Inquisitive Focus, Caring and Tending, Service to Community, Awe and Reverence, and Self-Sufficiency. We foster these attributes through a set of core routines and nature based challenges. The learning experience is dynamic, emergent, multi-sensory, and exciting.
Wednesday Wolves
Wednesdays 9am - 4pm. Awareness. Co-Operation & Self-Suffiency. Becoming Ourselves. Ages 10-14
Service and Resilience.
The Wolves program is for experienced outdoor schoolers aged 10-14. It is a continuation & consolidation of skills engaged in previous years. Wolves fosters a balance between self-sufficiency & co-operative work by showing how individual gifts inevitably enrich community. The program engages the “hard skills” of fire-tending, shelter building, tracking, and tool use - balanced with the “soft skills” of listening and speaking with care, increasing awareness, and developing an stewardship.
Wednesdays, 9am to 4pm
What to expect
Like all GOS programs, Wolves supports young people in becoming themselves. Our model promotes the attributes of connected kids; Quiet Mind, Common Sense, Aliveness and Agility, Inquisitive Focus, Caring and Tending, Service to Community, Awe and Reverence, Co-Operative Team work & Self-Sufficiency.
Learning and development happens consistently and invisibly through story-telling and song, thrilling games and nature-based challenges, hands-on tasks, reflective moments in wild spaces, role-modelling & mentorship.
Through connection with self, others, and the natural world, Wednesday Wolves support each other in becoming Increasingly capable, compassionate, & service minded,
“I enjoy that he is surrounded by positive male mentors.”
“I can actually focus at work while he’s at outdoor school as I know he’s in good hands, is learning and having fun! ”
“this is an essential part education, so often missed”
Monday Cedar Grove: Full Year
Mondays 9am - 4pm. Our full year option designed for the home school community. Ages 7 - 14
Mondays | 9am to 4pm
Our full year Cedar Grove program is designed for (but not exclusive to) the home school community. We offer this full year program for outdoor schoolers who know they want to do outdoor school the whole school year.
Cedar Grove is full outdoor immersion throughout the year and changing seasons. The program delivers invisible learning and healthy development through responsive mentorship, sensory awareness games, primitive skills & self-sufficiency challenges, as well as timeless journeying among surrounding valleys, swamps, waterways, cedar groves, open fields, hardwood stands, and rocky outcroppings. Key moments and discoveries are integrated into group learning and culture through well placed questions, pouring over field guides, sketching, stories, mapping, and repeat visits to best locations. We field trips to local trails and landmarks to help tie the varied landscapes of Guelph together.
As with all our GOS programs, Cedar Grove is a balance. It features hands-on experiences of fire making, mapping, plant identification, storytelling, shelter building, and tracking animals, balanced with the 'soft skills' of careful listening and using best words, of co-operation and conflict resolution, thanksgiving and sharing the story of the day.
Cedar Grove Full Year features opportunity for more long term projects and reflects our commitment to sustained mentoring relationships. Professional facilitators have a heightened opportunity to identify areas for growth and development for the individual and group. Our model fosters the attributes of resilient, capable, and service minded kids. Our daily work promotes Quiet Mind, Common Sense, Aliveness and Agility, Inquisitive Focus, Caring and Tending, Service to Community, Awe and Reverence, and Self-Sufficiency. The learning experience is dynamic, emergent, multi-sensory, exciting and community-oriented.
“The science on nature connection is rolling in, showing significant benefits in the emotional, cognitive, spiritual, physical, and social lives of those who engage. Hope to see you out there.”
Tending The Wild
Tuesdays 9am to 4pm. A Caretaker program for children and future stewards. Ages 7 - 12
For young caretakers.
For kids who demonstrates an ability to work with a quiet mind on focused projects. If your child is introspective, caring, calm, and compassionate already, this may be right program for them.
Tuesdays, from 9am to 4:00pm @ Stone Rd
Tending is about having fun and being in the woods, and also about developing, from a young age, an ethic of stewardship, reciprocity, and right relationship. We practice bird language, deep listening to the plants and the land, ethical plant harvesting, folk methods for simple herbal remedies, storytelling, and song lines, and thrill-filled games that teach.
Participants are supported in understanding how they fit into the broader ecological community. Kids and Instructors practice walking with a light footprint, expanding awareness, limiting disruption, observing the habits and patterns of the natural world, and the many ways of stewardship.
What you can expect
A welcoming & inclusive program. Our experienced instructors bring a rich combination of knowledge and abilities to this session: art and nature craft, ecology & stewardship, a wealth of games and songs that deliver invisible teaching. The day is flexible and varied, with options for focused projects as well as timeless wandering and quiet reflection. Kids are offered well placed questions to help them reflect their role in caring for lands and waters, for themselves, and others.
Thursday Waxwings
Thursdays 9am-4pm | Self Expression. Creativity. Nature Connection. Ages 10-14
for the creative & the expressive.
For the artists, the thinkers and dreamers, the readers and writers, the doodlers & crafters, scraggly and fabulous. This program is designed to help kids channel their energy and creativity in a space that is safe for them to be themselves. Waxwings will gently encourage self-expression and acceptance through arts based activities, group connection and establishing a healthy co-existence with the natural world.
Together we’ll be a museum of Waxwings.
What to Expect
Waxwings offers a flexible weekly option for new and experienced outdoor schoolers. We may spend our days working with natural inks and dyes or maybe we spend the day out on the land with our favourite books, pads & field guides, and don’t forget the Waxwing Cookoffs’ which have become a hit... Generally, days are filled with awareness games, cooperative projects and creative focus time. Kids are supported through an inclusive environment where there is enough space for all voices and experiences to be heard and shared.
Nature Connection and Mentorship for a Changing World.
Friday Woodchucks
Fridays 9am to 4pm. Busy, Crafty, Making a Home in the world. Ages 10-14
A day of carving and craft.
Yes, we’re talking all kinds of carving: try-sticks, spoons, figurines, whatever we can imagine, but also a deep dive into the old wise ones that surround us in the woods: the cedars, the cottonwoods, the maples, and the buckthorns.
Woodchucks is the same old lovable outdoor school stuff, and a great option for kids who have grown up in our programs and want to keep going.
Ages 10-14 | 9am - 4pm
Walnut Exspresso Cups by GOS instroctor Matt Hamilton
Saturday Sessions
Skunks (ages 7-11), Herons (ages 12 - 15). 12 - 4pm
Skunks
ages 7 - 11
This Saturday program has a scent of it’s own! Being the weekend, we turn the volume up on fun. Skunks is about singing silly songs, being at the fire with buds, and getting out on the land for adventures.
Skunks is a great option for young people who are not willing or able to take time out of school hours. It is a half day afternoon session, allowing for a sleep in, or visit to the market before heading into the woods.
Skunks don’t take themselves too seriously, and this session is a great way to develop skills, make friends, and get on the adventure trail.
Register and Details:
Herons
Aged 12 - 16
Our co-ed Saturday program for adolescents, tweens, and teens.
Herons is great way to get out of the house and get busy being yourself out in the woods. Just like our beloved youth, Herons are at once tall and gangly and awkward, but have a characteristic grace, power, and strange wisdom.
Browse other Weekly Programs
Raccoons
Build Nature Connection right into the school week. Raccoons provides outdoor immersion support for teachers and students, once a week for 30 weeks of the school year.
Designed and delivered by the passionate instructors @ The Guelph Outdoor School
• Games, music, & nature-based challenges to support for positive interactions in the school yard and recess.
• Supports teachers and classrooms during learning blocks for meaningful, safe, and inspired learning outdoors.
• An effective, equitable, and cost-effective boost for social. developmental, and academic outcomes school-wide.
• Unique and effective mental health initiative for the whole community
Program details:
A team of two Guelph Outdoor School instructors, for the whole day at your school, once a week. 30 weeks, rain or shine, from early Oct to mid June
No bus or no parent volunteers needed
Every Raccoons program is tailored to the needs of each school community, each teacher and classroom
GOS Instructors work with teachers and their classes, to meet academic, social, and classroom culture goals
Classroom teachers effortlessly book the program for specific learning blocks in advance
Origins: The Guided Recess
The Raccoons program by Guelph Outdoor School is inspired by The Guided Recess, a program delivered by Wild Earth, an outdoor immersion organization in New York.
We’re grateful to Wild Earth for leading the way with innovative programs like this AND for their support in helping us custom tailor the program idea to Guelph schools. We’ve made some changes to our version, where Raccoons instructors are working directly with teachers and their students to use the out-of-doors to raise the levels of student engagement, health and well-being, focus, creativity, positive interpersonal relationships, social-emotional learning and vibrant classroom culture.
Learn the Land
Year-long adult program at GOS for anyone who wants to deepen their nature connection and naturalist knowledge in a community setting.
build relationship with yourself, with each other, and with the land.
Learn The Land is a year-long adult program at GOS for anyone who wants to develop and deepen their nature connection and naturalist knowledge in a community setting. One day each month, we’ll gather in a different natural environment around Guelph to learn about wildflowers, trees and shrubs, animal tracking, all the while exploring how we fit into the broader ecological community. A monthly zoom call supports home study and self-directed projects.
IN A NUTSHELL:
Want to learn more about wildflowers, tree identification, animal tracking, birds, and the web of relationships that makes up our local ecology? Do you want to develop relationships with the landbase beyond consumption? Would you like to learn in the fields and forests with friends?
THE BONES:
Learn The Land offers hands-on community based mentorship, with knowledgeable naturalists to help you get to know the wild nature in Guelph’s backyard.
What will we be doing? One Sunday morning each month, we’ll gather in a different location in Guelph to explore and look at local plants, animals and their ecological connections together in a small group setting. Through the art of questioning, open discussion, field guides we’ll come to know many of our wild neighbours.
THE DETAILS:
Deepen your learning journey by joining the group for the monthly Sunday outings in the parklands, forests and along the river's edge throughout Guelph, where we will investigate the flora, fauna, and fungi we find along the way. There we will practice observation, field journals and sharing of knowledge based on what the group knows so far. We will use field guides to learn how to properly identify the species we encounter. This field work will be complimented by in depth at-home study, follow up research, focal species assignments, and self-directed projects supported by mentors through a monthly Zoom call. On the calls we will share stories, presentations, follow-up research on what has captured our imaginations out on the land, and what we have been learning through home study.
We are here to support, guide, and mentor on this learning journey.
THE APPROACH:
Why do a program that asks for a commitment to looking beyond learning the names of the species we encounter?
We believe that a profound relationship requires patience, questions, listening, and understanding. By investigating the ecologies which link the mushroom to the pine, the pine to the bird, the bird to the squirrel, then we really start to know and understand our wild neighbours for who they really are; complex organisms in delicate communities learning how to be in relationship with each other.
“ I am so grateful for the deeper level of awareness, inquisitiveness and knowledge that I have gained since beginning Learn The Land. The instructors have been super knowledgeable and inspiring. Providing supportive, positive guidance, a TON of great resources along the way and even ideas on how to organize your various field findings.”
These are lessons we can learn from for the benefit of our own interconnected relationships, with our communities, our families and ourselves.
Learn The Land is an experiential naturalist training program for adults GOS-style, with a focus on curiosity, questioning, mentorship and self-directed learning at your own pace. It is for adults of all experience levels. Together we'll build our knowledge of plant, tree, animal tracking, and broad ecological connections.
In the field we will be practicing awareness routines of nature connection, playing games that awaken our bodies and minds, and working toward building lasting relationships with the place where we live and with each other. Each Learn The Land session will be a reflection and celebration of what emerges on the landscape through the seasons. We welcome everyone from the nature-curious, to avid naturalists who want to get together with others and keep the wonder alive!
Learn the land is an inclusive, anti-oppressive space.
MEET YOUR MENTORS
byron murray : I grew up walking along the Etobicoke Creek before I set out to spend years exploring the continent making music, writing zines, and learning about the natural world. At the Guelph Outdoor School since 2013, I treasure all-day wildlife tracking missions, and wandering the Eramosa River valley just trying to find out what's on the other side of the hill. I love to sing and make radio. I am inspired by thunderstorms, decolonization, and rivers.
Annie Sanassian : I am an educator, spoon carver, mushroom farmer, and lifelong learner, deeply inspired by the interconnectedness of plants, animals, people, and fungi. With a strong love for the outdoors, I continually seek to deepen my understanding of the natural world through hands-on work in cultivation, art, and tending to land. My travels around the world have enriched my understanding of cultural sensitivity and heightened my awareness of life's richness and diversity. These experiences shape my approach to creating inclusive and positive outdoor learning experiences for all.
We will be getting together throughout the year, rain or shine, every Sunday closest to the New Moon from 9am - 1pm, rotating between three different locations around the city. Some of the locations involve moderate hiking conditions.
DATES :
Apr 27, 2025 (GOS Stone rd)
May 25, 2025 (Arkell Springs)
Jun 29, 2025 (South End Community Park)
Jul 27, 2025 (GOS)
Aug 24, 2025 (AS)
Sep 21, 2025 (SECP)
Oct 19, 2025 (GOS)
Nov 23, 2025 (GOS)
Dec 21, 2025 (AS)
Jan 18, 2026 (SECP)
Feb 15, 2026 (AS)
Mar 15, 2026 (GOS)
For any additional questions please email byron:
byron@theguelphoutdoorschool.com
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This is entirely up to you. Most folks choose to spend about 2 hours a month, which worked for them. Others chose not to do at home projects, and only came to outings and did the zoom meetings, which is great if that is what you prefer. Our online community (hosted on the Slack platform) is a great place to talk about any follow up research and to connect with others in the group. Some will put in a little more time there, while others don't. This part really is self directed, and up to you.
Annie and byron are available to help with the follow up research along the way. -
The calls typically begin at 7:30 and run until 9pm. We will determine the best night of the week for the majority of participants but it seems to be Wednesdays, the week before our next outing.
The recordings will be uploaded and retrievable on youtube for future reference and review. -
Some suggestions on what you may need to bring with you are :
- Appropriate clothes for the weather
- Binoculars or field lens if you have them
- Notebook and field guides
- Lunch & Snacks
- Camera
- Thermos or water bottle
- Some goals and intentions for the dayWe will also include specific suggestions with the notification email sent out the week before every outing.
The GOS Field Trip
Your class, our (outdoor) classroom
Get out of the box for nature based challenges, outdoor awareness games and facilitated full outdoor immersion experiences to set the tone for inspired learning, a culture of curiosity and wonder in and out of the classroom.
From 9:30 am - 2:30 pm • 15 - 60 Participants
What to expect:
Full-immersion experiential learning
Rich & Relevant links to Ontario curriculum
Connection to local landscape
Fresh games & nature-based challenges
Create a connective experience for positive classroom culture
Thrilling, Wholesome, Joyous, & Unforgettable.
the GOS outdoor classroom
The GOS Field Trip is designed to connect kids with themselves, with others and the natural world.
Through a direct nature immersion experience we bring curriculum links to life. The day’s content is a combination of open-ended opportunities for experiential, child-led learning, and structured “lessons” which emphasize plant ID, animal tracking and pattern recognition, sensory awareness games and challenges, and bush-craft demonstrations.
What is unique about the GOS field trip is that we practice the art and science of creating connection with the natural world over and above information about it. Our work is to generate inspiration to get outside and engage - at school and at home.
A Field GOS Trip
9:15 am Arrive & Opening Circle
10:00 am Warm-Up Games! Gather at fire, snack, & orient
10:30 am Stations 1 & 2
12:00 pm Lunch and Free Play
12:30 pm Stations 3 &4
2:00 pm Closing Circle & back on the bus for
2:30pm Back on the bus!
Fee Structure
Up to 2 Classes (Up to 50 students), 2 GOS staff. $925 + hst
3 Classes (50 - 75 students), 3 GOS staff. $1225 + hst
4 Classes (75 - 100 students). 4 GOS staff. $1525 + hst
Sliding Scale Options available
For visits to our location, organizing transportation and bus fees are the responsibility of the visiting school.
GOS also offers the BUS-LESS field trip, where GOS instructors come to your school yard and deliver a similar program.
“I have been on a ton of great field trips over the years, but I have to say, today’s trip probably tops them all! Amazing staff, programming, student attitude and engagement - the entire day pretty perfect in my eyes from beginning to end! Thanks for the experience and please pass along my gratitude (again) to your team.”
Who's experienced the GOS Field Trip?
Kortight Hills • Alma • Jean Little • Trillium Waldorf • Meezan • Elora• John F. Ross • J.D. Hogarth • Willow Road • Gateway Drive • Brant Ave. • Rockwood Centennial • John McCrae • Holy Trinity • Jean Steckle • Everdale • GCVI • Rainbow Daycamp • Victory • Ottawa Cresent • Arthur • Westminster Woods • Wellington Hall • Aberfoyle • Hamilton Hebrew • Centre Wellington • Arbour Vista • Holy Cross Catholic School • Edward Johnson • the CELP program, Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) • Ecole Guelph Lake
A Warm Welcome
Gratitude and Song often start and end the day. Nature-Based Challenges, Games, Wandering and Exploring.
Just like GOS Weekly Programs, the GOS Field Trip is simple but essential.
This is a video of GOS instructor Maya getting us warmed up for the day >>
Gratitude and Song feat. Maya & jean Little PS
The Outdoor Toolbox
Team up with GOS to design engaging, effective, and exciting lessons in the outdoor and naturalized areas on and around your school grounds.
The Outdoor Toolbox is about using the outdoors for vibrant classroom culture, positive interpersonal relationships, emotional regulation, and academic success.
2 Classes once a week, for three weeks.
In a nutshell: Visiting GOS instructor works with teachers and their classrooms one day a week, across three weeks. One 100 minute block with each class.
Part Guest Instructor, Part Consultant the GOS instructor provides frameworks, tools, fresh games and challenges to support classroom teachers in designing positive and inspiring outdoor experiences for students all year long.
The Outdoor Toolbox is about using outdoor experiences to promote vibrant classroom culture, positive interpersonal relationships, emotional regulation, and academic success.
3 week series includes:
• Fresh and Thrilling Games to activate bodies and minds & lay the groundwork for inspired learning.
• Nature-based challenges to promote curiosity & inquisitive focus as well as co-operative teamwork and positive classroom culture.
• Story Telling, Mapping, & Place-based learning to support students in understanding their bio-region and cultivate a sense of stewardship & responsibility.
Content, Coaching & Team Teaching Includes
• The Nature of Curriculum: practice finding meaningful and engaging curriculum links. Using the outdoors as engagement ‘hooks’ - to help introduce, engage, and also reflect any curriculum area.
• Effective Learning Tools for the Outdoor Classroom: Art of Questioning, Minds Eye Imagining, and Sensory Awareness exercises make for rich experiences to be drawn on in the classroom.
• A unique opportunity for dialogue, troubleshoot, + Q&A for all educators regardless of outdoor experience or naturalist knowledge. GOS meets teachers where they are at, to help make meaningful steps towards nature immersed learning now and in the future.
Fees
The Outdoor Toolbox is $1250 + HST (Sliding Scale Available)
Guelph Outdoor School is committed to paying a living wage to our dedicated and professional educators. While this professional fee reflects some of the best value we can offer, we also know that some schools can use additional support in accessing our programs. As such, please get in touch about our sliding scale options. We appreciate your collaboration and support.
“I just want to send you a note to thank you for the opportunity of having Chris Green into our school. The 3 sessions for outdoor education was invaluable ! He took us to our neighbourhood park as well as opening our eyes to green space on our own property that I would have never thought of using before. He was kind, engaging and very resourceful.
This is an amazing program and all of my students loved it !!
Thank you so much !!
Crystal
”
Sensory Integration = Emotional Regulation
Learn the tools of expanding full body sensory awareness for kids who are happy, focused, relaxed and ready to learn.
For Teachers and Schools
Partner with GOS to bring Nature Immersion to your classroom. Do the GOS Field Trip at our forest classroom or invite the Outdoor Toolbox to your school
Moon School
Outdoor School for Adults.
A year-long exploration of nature connection and skill building through naturalist knowledge, sensory awareness, storytelling and play.
May 2025 - March 2026
Join us for a year-long exploration of nature connection as reverence, resilience and cultural transformation. Rooted in joyful celebration and critical reflection, Moon School takes up the questions: How might we practice nature connection to cultivate webs of care for the land and each other? What does an embodied, reciprocal relationship to the more-than-human world look like in an age of extinction and human-driven climate change?
Each Moon School session is crafted to reflect what is emerging on the landscape in the changing seasons. Together we'll build naturalist skills like plant and tree identification and animal tracking, and practice ancestral skills like sensory awareness, fire-making, natural crafts, medicine-making and storytelling, and explore how these land-based practices can invite us into reciprocal relationship with the land we live on. At Moon School we learn in community through games, skills, conversation, song, and timeless exploration of thickets and riverbanks, forests and fields.
Now in its 8th year, Moon School is hosted by instructors Dani Hagel and byron murray. We are nature nerds, artists, writers, folk ecologists and lovers of the Eramosa River valley and the complex web of floral, faunal and fungal relationships that make their homes here. We intend Moon School to be an inclusive, anti-oppressive space, and are attentive to the challenges inherent in exploring interconnection and right relationship as white settlers on stolen land. We are inspired by thinkers and cultural workers Robin Wall Kimmerer, Baptiste Morizot, Ursula K. LeGuin, Sophie Strand, Wendy Makoons Geniusz, Linda Black Elk, Martin Shaw, and many more.
Moon School runs in the late afternoon and early evening, intentionally inhabiting the liminal space between day and dusk (and night in the darkest times of the year), creating a unique opportunity for firelit conversation and sensory awareness. No other program at GOS is like it.
“Moon School was always a highlight of my month and helped me refocus my busy life around what matters most; connection with people and the natural world.” - Past participant
A typical Moon School session might include…
Exploring riverbanks, meadows, trails and forests, engaging with the land through the changing seasons
Using field guides to identify plants, trees and animal track and signs
Focused naturalist study of topics like bird language, botany, geology and their interconnections
Engaging with local plants by tasting teas and preparing wild foods and medicines
Games and sensory awareness activities to get us in our bodies
Fireside discussion of nature-based writing that moves us
Moon School is for those looking for…
An approach to nature connection that values ancestral (re)connection, decolonization, and reciprocal relationship with the other-than-human world
Hands-on, embodied learning in a small group setting
A place to learn about the land through a lens of ecological and social justice
Fees & Dates At A Glance
Program price: $955 + HST. If cost is a barrier, please see our Economics for a Changing World page for sliding-scale and mutual aid options.
Moon School consists of 12 sessions. We meet one Sunday a month, rain or shine, from 3-7pm.
2025-2026 Program Dates
Sunday May 11, 2025
Sunday Jun 8, 2025
Sunday Jul 13, 2025
Sunday Aug 10, 2025
Sunday Sep 7, 2025
Sunday Oct 5, 2025
Sunday Nov 2, 2025
Sunday Dec 7, 2025
Sunday Jan 4, 2026
Sunday Feb 1, 2026
Sunday Mar 1, 2026
Sunday Mar 29, 2026
Past participants say:
“Moon School got my inner child out and jumping in puddles and chasing cray fish again. I got to wander through the fields with other adults, steeped in awe, looking at flowers and shrubs and pulling apart owl pellets and falling in love with ferns. We got to sit around fires and reach into our ancestry and our dreams for the earth. Moon School is a place I'd been longing for for a long time, but never even knew I could find. Every time I left feeling energized, inspired and refreshed. It was fun, engaging and transformative.”
“Moon School was one of the major highlights of my month all year, but the value it brings goes so much deeper than that. I built skills, gained knowledge and was introduced to new interests every month, and Danielle and byron helped cultivate a new lens for looking at and interacting with the natural world and community around me that I will carry with me forever.”
Saturday Skunks
Saturdays 12 till 4.pm. Sleep in, have breakfast, do skunks. Ages 7 -11
Afternoons 12 to 4pm.
Our Saturday program has a scent of it’s own! Being the weekend, we turn the volume up on fun. Skunks is about singing silly songs, being at the fire with buds, and getting out on the land for adventures.
The Saturday session is a great option for young people who are not willing or able to take time out of school hours. It is a half day afternoon session, allowing for a sleep in, or visit to the market before heading into the woods.
Skunks don’t take themselves too seriously, and this session is a great way to develop skills, make friends, and get on the adventure trail.
Like all GOS programs, Skunks is about invisible learning, nature immersion, and mentorship. Professional facilitators work together to identify areas for growth and development for the individual and group. Our model seeks to foster the character attributes of resilient, capable, and service minded people. We look for, and seek to promote: Quiet Mind, Common Sense, Aliveness and Agility, Inquisitive Focus, Caring and Tending, Service to Community, Awe and Reverence, and Self-Sufficiency.
Skunks features hands-on experiences: ancient fire making, mapping, plant identification, storytelling, archery, shelter building, and tracking animals. It is balanced with the so-called ‘soft skills’ of careful listening and using best words, of co-operation and peacemaking, thanksgiving and sharing the story of the day.
This weekly afternoon experience is always dynamic, emergent, multi-sensory, and exciting.
Registration
Browse other Weekly Programs
Saturday Herons
Saturdays 12 - 4pm. Self-Expression, Fun, Being Wiggy. Co-Od Ages 12 - 15
Our first co-ed Saturday program for adolescents, tweens, and teens.
Herons is great way to get out of the house and get busy being yourself out in the woods. Just like our beloved youth, Herons are at once tall and gangly and awkward, but have a characteristic grace, power, and strange wisdom.
Registration & Details here:
A great option for kids who have grown out of Skunks, or youth who are looking for a welcoming, non-competitive way to get active on weekends. An opportunity for safe self-expression, adventure and exploration, or just unplugging and hanging with new friends who want to do the same, Herons is a unique and timely program.
Caring Mentors offer a levelled-up version of outdoor school which provides ample opportunity for hands-on projects, quiet moments to connect with ourselves and ask the big questions. Big laughs and silly jokes, stories to help us make sense of a strange and changing world, and a positive environment to simply be.
Drama, fire skills, carving, improv, tracking, plant ID, games, and more games, sit spot and adventure to favourite haunts. Herons may just be what your young person needs to round out a week of school, remote learning, or other challenges that need balancing out. Hope to see you out there.
