Please ensure you’ve read and understood our registration policy before you book a virtual or in-person field trip, which includes:
Sign up for our fully outdoor school field trips and have your students thinking, caring, connecting and learning more about nature at High Park!
In-person field trips begin outside High Park Nature Centre located at 375 Colborne Lodge Drive. Each program will be completely outdoors (except for washrooms).
All programs include a hike, lively discussion and fun activities and games to get students thinking, caring and learning about the natural world all around us that we are part of!
*Please note the Nature Centre is not able to accommodate classes inside for lunch at this time.
Changing of the Leaves: Grades 1-6 (Available September to end of October)
Students will learn about the science behind the beautiful colours of the fall trees in Toronto. They will learn to identify common trees in High Park by their leaf shape, play games and explore how trees are getting ready to survive a cold Canadian winter!
Fall into Winter: Grades K-6
Join us in this fun-filled program to find out about the different strategies and adpatations animals use to survive the cold winter months! Students will learn about migrators, hibernators and residents and head out on a hike to explore the different strategies and try to see them in action!
Know Your Forest: Grades 6-8
Learn about the fascinating forest regions Toronto straddles and how it differs from the rest of Ontario! Students will head out in the forest and savannah to learn how to identify trees based on leaf or bud shape and use math in a simple, practical and hands on way to age various trees in High Park using the DBH technique.
How Does Place Hold Time: Grades 9-12
In this workshop students work together to build a two-dimensional timeline that captures the deep history of High Park including Indigenous presence, occupation, and stewardship. A hike will follow where students will come to experience how place holds time as they watch their timeline unfold. In small groups we'll look at published maps of the park to explore the concept of historical perspectives. Specifically, what is the dominant narrative presented by the maps and what historical relationships from the timeline are missing or distorted.
Keep on Trackin': Grade K-6
Which animals remain in Toronto in the winter? How do they survive the cold winter days? Learn about winter animals and their adaptations for survival by learning to decipher tracking clues left by Toronto's diverse winter animals!
Urban Biodiversity: Grade 4-8
Students will explore the amazing biodiversity of Toronto's flora and fauna. Students will gain insight on the roles critters and plants play in an urban ecosystem with a trivia game through the forest, stopping to look at the animal architects that shape the park and a food web predator and prey game!
How Does Place Hold Time: Grades 9-12
In this workshop students work together to build a two-dimensional timeline that captures the deep history of High Park including Indigenous presence, occupation, and stewardship. A hike will follow where students will come to experience how place holds time as they watch their timeline unfold. In small groups we'll look at published maps of the park to explore the concept of historical perspectives. Specifically, what is the dominant narrative presented by the maps and what historical relationships from the timeline are missing or distorted.
Savannah Stewards: Grades K-6
In this explorative program, students will learn about the three ecosystems in High Park: the woodlands, the wetlands and the globally rare Black Oak Savannah. Who are the first stewards of the savannah? What are the ways that savannahs have been managed for thousands of years? How has High Park managed to stay a green island in the middle of the city?
Students will learn about the savannah as a legacy of Indigenous stewardship and will become stewards of the park themselves by getting firsthand experience of the important diversity the savannah protects and by planting seeds or seedlings in the beautiful Black Oak Savannah!
Marvellous Mud: Grades 2-4
It's mud! Marvelous, mucky mud, sometimes known as soil! Students will learn about the importance of soil as it provides nutrients to plants, shelter for animals (including us!) and filters our water. Students will explore soil components through play, making mud, planting seeds or seedlings in the globally rare Black Oak Savannah, and identifying soil making invertebrate animals!
I Live in a Watershed: Grades 6-12
Through historical and current maps, hiking to some of the nine bodies of water in High Park and completing chemical testing of the water in the watershed system students will get an experiential understanding of what a watershed is, how they work, and why keeping watersheds healthy is critical! We will hike to learn about how they work and will test water in High Park for pollutants and other indicators of water quality: 1. Salinity (Sodium Chloride), 2. Nitrate, 3. Phosphate, 4. Oxygen, 5. Turbidity and temperature, 6. Acidity.
How Does Place Hold Time: Grades 9-12
In this workshop students work together to build a two-dimensional timeline that captures the deep history of High Park including Indigenous presence, occupation, and stewardship. A hike will follow where students will come to experience how place holds time as they watch their timeline unfold. In small groups we'll look at published maps of the park to explore the concept of historical perspectives. Specifically, what is the dominant narrative presented by the maps and what historical relationships from the timeline are missing or distorted.
All in-person programs will meet outside the High Park Nature Centre at 375 Colborne Lodge Drive.
Program Length
Weekly availability
Note: School programs will take place during the afternoon from 12:30-2:30 PM in the fall and spring seasons and during the morning from 9:30AM-12:30PM in the winter season.
Note for TDSB schools: Click here to view this infographic and understand how to pay for your school field trips.
We can accommodate up to 30 students a class (plus upto 6 adult teachers/volunteers). For more than 30 students there will be an additional class fee and we'll need to assess if we have additional staff available to teach. If you indicate more than 30, please note we'll get back to you to confirm if this is possible.
Teachers are expected to take an active role in managing behaviours of their students. Read more about our behaviour policy by visiting our registration policy page.
The High Park Nature Centre promotes awareness and respect for nature through year-round, hands-on outdoor nature education and park stewardship activities. We strongly believe that an important part of connecting with nature involves responsible, active outdoor play.
At Nature Centre programs, we do engage in activities such as exploring in soil, hiking in the forest and balancing on logs-this often results in getting dirty! Our leaders prioritize safety by establishing clear guidelines with all participants and supervising throughout activities.
If you have questions or would like to learn more about active outdoor play, please talk with us.
Learn all about nature no matter how far you are! Sign up your class for our fun, engaging and interactive virtual field trips and have your students experience nature wherever they might be! (Note: Virtual field trips are only offered for the winter 2023 season).
If you're interested in scheduling a virtual field trip for students from grades 7-12, please contact our School Programs Supervisor.
Our Virtual Field Trips consist of two parts:
1. A synchronous session:
Where students are led through a 1-hour STEM program by experienced Nature Centre interpreters through slides, pictures, short videos, discussions and games! Students will have lots of opportunities to engage with our Nature Centre interpreters.
2. The STEM learning package for teachers and students for Grades 1-6 includes:
Birds of the City: Grades K-6
Toronto has a huge diversity of birds! Learn about our feathered neighbours: which birds will stick around all through the winter and how they survive. In this program students will learn to identify common birds of the city by sight and by sound, as well as examine the amazing behavioural and structural adaptations that help birds survive a cold Canadian winter!
Note for TDSB schools: Click here to view this infographic and understand how to pay for your school field trips.
Program Length
Weekly availability
We can accommodate up to 50 students a class for our virtual school programs.
*Please place webcam/computer at the front of the classroom, but off to the side so that all or the most number of students as possible are visible to our interpreters.*
Check out our field trip programs for secondary school students and our At School in High Park program.
