Resources for Educators
Below are links to resources for teachers (and home school groups) related to our Peterson Young Naturalist Program and other Nature-Based Learning (NBL) initiatives. Look for more coming soon!
Peterson Young Naturalist Awards Program
Here you’ll find information on how teachers can take part in our annual Peterson Young Naturalist Awards program, which offers prizes and recognition for K-12 students on the basis of excellence in nature journaling throughout the year. Loudoun Wildlife judges submitted journals at the end of each school year and student winners are announced at a special awards celebration in their (and their teachers’) honor.
Peterson Young Naturalist Lesson Plans
Here you’ll find a variety of teacher-submitted lesson plans for the Peterson program. Use as-is or modify as you see fit for your own classroom use!
Loudoun Wildlife’s “Nature-Based Navigator” Lesson Slides
Loudoun Wildlife is developing short lessons similar to “morning meeting” that will use our repository of nature photographs and videos to help you facilitate community-building conversations with your students. Thinking routines such as see/think/wonder will be incorporated that will help students grow in language and vocabulary development. Here you’ll find our growing collection of Nature-Based Navigator slides, with more being added all the time.
Other Nature-Based Learning Lesson Plans
Here you’ll find additional lessons for school programs from the Virginia Cooperative Extension offers lessons for school programs and access to the VCE Speakers Bureau.
Earth Sangha’s Wild Garden Manual
Written with educators in mind, this manual covers everything from how to get started, how to plan your native garden, species lists for various growing conditions and more.
Resources for LCPS School Gardens
This page includes a Virginia Cooperative Extension handbook for building and maintaining a school garden and many other useful resources.
Questions? Email LWC Director of Education Tracey Baroody.