TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup
Le grand nettoyage des rivages canadiens TD
The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup is a nation-wide, non-profit event coordinated through the Vancouver Aquarium and sponsored by TD Friends of the Environment Foundation. It encourages Canadians to clean up their local waterways during the national cleanup week in September. This event is completely free for all participants, with supplies, instructions, and educational materials provided to make it as easy as possible to take children out to do a cleanup. Thousands of students across Canada participate in this annual event, designed to build spirit, leadership and raise awareness of the environment.
www.vanaqua.org/cleanup
1-877-427-2422
The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes
The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes honours young people ages 8 to 18 in the U.S. and Canada who have shown leadership and courage in public service to people and our planet. Each year, ten national winners each receive $2,000 to support their service work or higher education. Half of each year’s winners are chosen for their work to protect the environment. For more information and to nominate a candidate, visit www.barronprize.org
Young Leaders in Rural Canada Awards
The Rural Secretariat is seeks nominations of young rural Canadians (18 to 29 years old) who have demonstrated outstanding achievements and made contributions to rural, remote and/or northern Canada, for the fourth Young Leaders in Rural Canada Awards (YLRCA). A commemorative Award will be presented in each of the following categories: innovation, leadership and partnership.
Details on the web site: www.rural.gc.ca/dialogue/youth/
Contact: Carole Fournier
Rural Secretariat
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Phone: 613-759-7013
Fax: 613-759-7105
1341 Baseline Road
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C5
Email: fournierc@
(add agr.gc.ca to complete the email address)
The Great EcoKids Challenge
Earth Day Canada is challenging kids across Canada to take action and contribute to a healthier environment in their schools, homes and communities.
The Great EcoKids Challenge is a nationwide contest, providing schools, extra-curricular clubs, and youth groups with an opportunity to participate in a large-scale group activity that will improve the state of their schools and communities, and ultimately, the health of the environment. Prizes in 2007 were from SONY and included a Vaio laptop computer, handycam camcorder, and digital cameral. To enter or find out more information, please visit their website:
GMAC Great Canadian Writing Contest
Open to kids across Canada in Grade 5 or Grade 6, the GMAC Great Canadian Writing Contest is made possible by Founding Sponsor General Motors Acceptance Corporation of Canada, Limited (GMAC), and is managed by ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation.
To enter the contest students submit an original story, in English or French, of no more than 200 words, based on the contest theme (in 2007, the theme was "family"), along with an illustrated 'book cover' that they have made.
Crazy 4 Math contest
Describe how you use math in any activity you love to do — a sport, game, craft, hobby or anything else. Send in a description of the activity and how you use math. You can also include a drawing or diagram. Class entries are also accepted. All participants will receive an MP3 of Googol Power's new song "Crazy 4 Math" when you enter.
Great Acts for Great Lakes
Environment Canada's Great Acts for Great Lakes Program encourages teachers, administrators and community group leaders to teach their students about our environment through class initiatives. Every year a challenge is issued whereby students are asked to submit a project. Each student will be rewarded with a certificate of achievement for participating and winners from three age groups will be awarded a tree planting ceremony and an Environment Canada guest speaker who will visit onsite to encourage and congratulate the students.
www.on.ec.gc.ca/greatacts-grandsgestes/
Talk About Canada!™ Scholarship Quiz
Operation Dialogue is the Canadian not-for-profit organization that runs the Talk About Canada!™ Scholarship Program. Their mission is to get Canadians talking and thinking about Canada. The scholarship program offers an opportunity for students to learn more about Canada and for graduating students to earn a spot in the scholarship lottery. The program is intended for the "average" student as well as the very gifted. The quiz takes place online.
www.talkaboutcanada.ca
www.operation-dialogue.com.html
Flat Travelers, Toy Travelers and Geography Postcard Kids
Flat Stanley is a book written by the late Jeff Brown, about a boy who gets flattened by a bulletin board that falls on him. When he wants to visit friends far away, his parents just send him in an envelope!
This story inspired a Grade 3 teacher from Ontario to initiate the Flat Stanley Project, in which classes from different schools send each other a paper Flat Stanley and the host class records his adventures then sends him and his journal back to the original class. The Official Flat Stanley Project is a group of schoolteachers who want to provide students with another reason to write.
Homeschoolers have their own version of the project, and a yahoogroup through
which to find each other as hosts of Flat Travelers:
groups.yahoo.com/group/flat_travelers_homeschool.
Like Flat Stanley, a Flat Traveler is a laminated paper character (it could be a person but it doesn't have to be) that gets sent to other families for a "visit" and comes home with a log of their adventures, some photos of them in their travels, outings and activities, and sometimes some other souvenirs. It's a fun way to learn about geography and history, and to engage in writing and drawing, among other things. Not to mention making some friends! The Flat Travelers Homeschool group was formed to give homeschool families a group of participants to contact world wide. As a member of this group you should be prepared to host Flat Travelers from other families as well.
One Canadian homelearner did something similar with a non-flat traveler--his stuffie toy dog Jake. See Jake's big adventure.
Another way to network and learn about other places
around the world is through postcards. Geography
Postcard Kids Project was started to help homelearning children enhance
their geographic studies, even some history, through exchanging postcards
from where they live with other postcard kids in other, sometimes very faraway
places.
groups.yahoo.com/group/postcardkids
The KEO project
KEO
BP 100
75262 PARIS Cedex 06
France
Email: eko1@
(add keo.org to complete the email address)
Web site: www.keo.org
KEO is a satellite that will carry messages into high orbit around the Earth in a time capsule. Every man, woman and child on the planet is invited to participate by sending an uncensored message of up to four pages to let our descendants know what our hopes and fears and dreams are in the 21st century, or just to say "hi" to some future great-great-great-great-etc....grandchild.
Aside from providing an opportunity for engaging in writing, the project could spark in children some interesting technicological and sociological questions and inspire a contemplation of our common humanity with future generations as well as with those who share the Earth with us now, who may be writing messages from totally different cultural perspectives from ours.
After the launch, currently estimated to be in 2009 or 2010, we will all get to read everyone's messages in anonymous format on the KEO website. The hope is that this will create a greater awareness of our bond as fellow human beings and contribute to better understanding and tolerance in the world.
You can submit your message online at their website (have it ready to copy and paste into the online form — maximum 6000 characters) or by postal mail to the address above. Deadline for submissions has been postponed a few times but is currently set to the end of 2008.
