6:00pm - 6:30pm Arrival and pick up your package

6:30pm - 8:00pm We are bringing in a variety of hands-on, interactive experience to support connection to each other and nature. Stay tuned for full list of experiences!

8:30am Welcome Christina Pickles and Devon Karchut

8:35am Land Acknowledgement and Welcome Crystal Many Fingers

8:45am Welcome address. Presenter announcement coming soon!

Shared Outdoor Play Spaces: Tips, Tricks and Tools with Brittany Spangelo

Through her work at Creative Seeds, Brittany hears a common frustration from educators: when multiple classes share one outdoor space, it can feel limiting—but it doesn't have to. This practical workshop explores how shared outdoor environments can become collaborative, creativity-filled spaces. Participants will gain realistic tips and adaptable tools, from scheduling strategies and loose parts management to team communication and co-created agreements. We'll also explore how venturing into local parks and community spaces can relieve pressure on shared yards. Walk away ready to shift from "not enough space" to "shared potential"—ensuring meaningful outdoor play, even when the space isn't exclusively yours.

Brittany Spangelo is an Early Childhood Educator with over ten years of experience and a Level Two ECE certification. She is the founder of Creative Seeds, a mobile nature classroom that supports children and educators through play-based, art-infused, and nature-connected programming. Brittany is passionate about outdoor play, documentation as advocacy, and creating meaningful learning experiences that build confidence, creativity, and connection to the natural world. Learn more about her here: https://www.creativeseeds.ca/

Earth Walks - Connecting Children with the Natural World with Christine Jenik

This session explores environmental and nature-based learning activities that spark hands-on exploration, imagination, and joy. Centred on sensory experiences and children's natural curiosities, these activities deepen children's relationship with the natural world through both feeling and understanding. With a focus on experiential learning, the activities promote well-being, foster community, and grow an appreciation for nature — reinforcing what research continues to show: time in nature is good for us.

Christine Jenik retired from the Calgary Board of Education after 34 years as a classroom teacher, outdoor education specialist, and school administrator. Through running environmental programs across Canada and the US, she has witnessed nature's power to inspire and support learning. Since retiring, Chris became a certified Forest Therapy Guide and serves as Prairie-Mountain Rep for the NFTC. She works with schools, education centres, and mental health organizations offering Forest Therapy walks and outdoor wellness programs to deepen connections with nature.

Splish Splash with Mary Roy

Enter into a world of water play! During this session you’ll learn how to provide a sensory opportunity that builds children’s fine motor, gross motor and social skills by just adding water! You will learn how the tactile nature of water allows children to explore concepts of volume, textures and also give them opportunities to create through imaginative play. Activities include: puddle play, stream building, nature soups, pouring, splashing and cooperating to create memorable moments with water!

Mary Roy and has been teaching with the Calgary Board of Education since 2007. She has a passion for early learning and outdoor education and has found a way to incorporate both into her everyday teaching. Through playful inquiry, children develop a deep love for the beautiful world around them that is carried on throughout their lives. She believes that children have a natural desire to learn about the world around them and the best way to do that is to get them outside and play!

Writing in the Woods: Taking Fine Motor Skills Outside with Lisa McBride

Learn the essentials of how children develop from building basic body awareness, to mark making, to printing letters, and how we can facilitate this and make it way more fun outdoors! We will try at least three teaching games and activities aimed at preschool and kindergarten, based on Nature Play's Writing in the Woods program.

Lisa McBride is a pediatric Occupational Therapist who loves those unexpected, fully delightful, laugh till you cry moments you get to enjoy when your job involves playing outdoors with kids! She mostly work with children between the ages of 4-12 years old, and is currently running an outdoor nature-based therapy group for 6-12 year olds with Nature Play, and working in a specialized kindergarten Cochrane. She enjoys wandering outdoors, reading, and snuggling with her kids and cats. Learn more about Nature Play here: https://natureplaykids.ca/

Understanding Indigenous Values and All Our Relations with Crystal Manyfingers

Crystal will read from her children's book "Creator and the 7 Animals" and show how each of our relations (animals) represent values that help the Niitsitapi (real people) should live by each day. In this interactive session, participants will have a chance to share which animals they relate to and the value it embodies.

Crystal Manyfingers is the daughter of Dr. Helen and Wallace Manyfingers and the mother to Patricia and Alexander Soop. Her tri-pod family have lived in the City of Calgary (Mohkintsis) for over 25 years. Crystal and her family are all members of the Kainai Nation of the great Blackfoot Confederacy who signed Treaty Seven in 1877.

Crystal holds a B.A., B.Ed., and a Master’s degree in Education from the University of Calgary. She has been involved in the field of Indigenous and Adult education for many years. She has written numerous magazine articles, published a children’s book and was a TedX speaker in March of 2020.

Spark Curiosity in the Outdoors with Jennifer Usher

In this workshop, we will look at children’s curiosity close-up, specifically how the aspect of novelty plays a part in how children’s interest blossoms in the outdoor environment. We will share examples of how children exhibit their curiosity and consider how it takes children’s play from surface-level to a deeper, more innovative type of play. Participants will experience the cycle of curiosity and look at ways to document this cycle in their early childhood environments.

Jennifer Usher is a program coordinator and ECE instructor at Medicine Hat College, holding a Masters of Elementary Education from the University of Alberta. Her participation in a pan-Canadian Outdoor Pedagogy Research Project transformed her perspective on outdoor learning. In 2025, she co-founded Landscapes of Learning: An Outdoor Pedagogy Collective and received a provincial Innovation in Teaching award. Jennifer hopes to inspire early childhood educators to take children outside and confidently nurture their curiosity.

Songs of Nature with Tasha Werner

If you don't sing with children, but you would like to sing, this session will give you the basics to inspire you and get started. Tasha will present the benefits of singing with children, especially outside. You will also learn how to build your own list of songs, how to present songs and when to pull each song off it's shelf. This is not a session for singers! This is a session for people who work with children and would like to learn an enjoyable method to calm, inspire, regulate and get the attention of a group of young children.

Tasha took piano and voice lessons as a child. Most of that technical knowledge went out the window. And so did she! Tasha spent as much time as she could outside - singing to the trees, birds and bugs. She’s lucky enough now to be employed by Nature Play where she shares her love of making joyful sounds with children. Experience has allowed her to develop a special sensitivity to energy shifts in groups of children. Through trial and error, she’s found songs to quiet, energize, inspire and teach. The trees approve too.

Creepy, Crawling Creatures with Mary Roy

There's so many tiny, wonderful creatures if you take time to look! In this sessions we will take time to look closely, look under objects and look around to see a world of bugs that exist all around us! Through games, songs, exploration, sketchbooks and student guided inquiries, you'll learn how to incorporate bug exploration into your classroom and program.

Mary Roy and has been teaching with the Calgary Board of Education since 2007. She has a passion for early learning and outdoor education and has found a way to incorporate both into her everyday teaching. Through playful inquiry, children develop a deep love for the beautiful world around them that is carried on throughout their lives. She believes that children have a natural desire to learn about the world around them and the best way to do that is to get them outside and play!

Stories of Connection with Dave Verhulst

Humans are the "storytelling animal." Since the beginning, stories have shaped us — weaving feelings, experiences, and ideas into threads of meaning. Stories are among our most powerful tools for inspiring curiosity and guiding children and adults toward a deep connection with nature. Drawing from Forest Play and interpretive guiding experience, this workshop explores how stories create powerful learning experiences, how life-stage transitions build meaningful narratives, how to rediscover child-like wonder for the natural world, and the essential routines that ground and reconnect us with nature.

Dave believes nature is one of our most powerful teachers. In 2011, he co-founded Forest Play in Canmore, drawing on Forest School and 8 Shields Mentoring models. With over 20 years of guiding experience, he facilitates programs for children ages 2–14 and leadership programs for the Banff Centre and Pacific Centre for Leadership. Dave holds a Master's in Recreation Management, is an accredited Master Interpretive Guide, and a Wilderness First Responder. Learn more about his work here: http://www.forestplay.ca/

Blackfoot Creation Stories with Crystal Manyfingers

The Blackfoot people have stewarded this land since time immemorial. Crystal will discuss the origin of the Blackfoot people through the Creation story and the time when Napi (Old Man) lived on the land. Hear the story of Napi and the Rock, the Celestial Sky Beings, the dinosaurs (grandfathers to the Buffalo), and many more.

Crystal Manyfingers is the daughter of Dr. Helen and Wallace Manyfingers and the mother to Patricia and Alexander Soop. Her tri-pod family have lived in the City of Calgary (Mohkintsis) for over 25 years. Crystal and her family are all members of the Kainai Nation of the great Blackfoot Confederacy who signed Treaty Seven in 1877.

Crystal holds a B.A., B.Ed., and a Master’s degree in Education from the University of Calgary. She has been involved in the field of Indigenous and Adult education for many years. She has written numerous magazine articles, published a children’s book and was a TedX speaker in March of 2020.

Lunch time! Lunch will be available at the church.

Curiosity P.L.A.Y. Compass: A Navigation Tool for Outdoor Play with Hester Laubscher

Curiosity is more than a spark—it’s a powerful navigation tool that guides how educators tune into, interpret, and extend children’s learning in nature-based environments. This fully outdoor, interactive session invites educators to explore their personal Curiosity Personality and discover how it connects to four key play direction

Hester Laubscher is a Level 3 Early Childhood Educator, consultant, and founder of Early Years Mentorship & Consulting and Teeny Tykes Home Daycare in Calgary. With over a decade of experience, she advocates for seasonal pedagogy, outdoor play, and curiosity-led learning. Hester developed the Curiosity P.L.A.Y. Compass™ — a reflective framework empowering educators to navigate children's interests with purpose. Her work invites educators to honour children's wonder, trust their intuition, and explore learning through nature and play. Learn more about her work here.

Staying With It: Learning Resilience Outside with Brittany Spangelo

This workshop encourages educators to reflect on their own limits of comfort and discomfort, and how these experiences shape the way they support children’s learning. Through guided reflection and discussion, participants will explore how embracing uncertainty builds resilience, confidence, and empathy. The workshop will then connect these insights to outdoor learning, examining how time spent outside offers rich opportunities for risk-taking, problem-solving, and resilience—supporting educators in thoughtfully and confidently bringing children into outdoor spaces.

Brittany Spangelo is an Early Childhood Educator with over ten years of experience and a Level Two ECE certification. She is the founder of Creative Seeds, a mobile nature classroom that supports children and educators through play-based, art-infused, and nature-connected programming. Brittany is passionate about outdoor play, documentation as advocacy, and creating meaningful learning experiences that build confidence, creativity, and connection to the natural world. Learn more about her work here: https://www.creativeseeds.ca/

The Magic of Wandering with Dave Verhulst

There is magic in forests, streams, fields and hollows — places we're guided to by curiosity and our senses. A bird's call, trickling water, a new scent, or an iridescent bug can heighten our wonder. When we release specific agendas, we open ourselves and the children we work with to deeper connection with nature, ourselves, and others. This workshop offers the experience of wandering, exploring how questioning, storytelling, and sensory activities can work together to awaken children to the natural magic surrounding us every day.

Dave believes nature is one of our most powerful teachers. In 2011, he co-founded Forest Play in Canmore, drawing on Forest School and 8 Shields Mentoring models. With over 20 years of guiding experience, he facilitates programs for children ages 2–14 and leadership programs for the Banff Centre and Pacific Centre for Leadership. Dave holds a Master's in Recreation Management, is an accredited Master Interpretive Guide, and a Wilderness First Responder. Learn more about his work here: http://www.forestplay.ca/

Inspiring Wonder and Curiosity Through Nature Based Art with Cheyenne Jackson

This workshop invites educators to explore how nature-based art and outdoor play can foster wonder, curiosity, and connection with the environment. Participants will learn practical ways to use loose parts and natural materials to create playful, open-ended art experiences that support child-led exploration and creativity in outdoor learning spaces.

Cheyenne Jackson is the founder of Clay Nest Art Studio, a Calgary-based creative space rooted in nature-inspired, child-led art. With a background in art, community building, and working with children outdoors through nature-based play, Cheyenne designs programs that blend natural materials, open-ended exploration, and connection. Her work supports children—and the adults around them—in growing confidence, curiosity, and creative expression. Learn more about her work here: www.claynestartstudio.com

Big Beautiful Leaves: Playing with Rhubarb with Karen Gummo

Rhubarb is a paradox — a bold, tropical-looking plant that thrives in the coldest climates. With enormous leaves and thick crimson stalks, it invites curiosity and imaginative play in equal measure. Those great big leaves become capes, hats, and crowns, transforming children into forest royalty, while fibrous strings pulled from the stalk open up a world of weaving and making. Come ready to play, wonder, tell stories and see the familiar in a whole new way.

Karen Gummo is a long time storyteller, artist and eldest of six children, mother and grandmother to three who loves best to take things outside. She is of Nordic extraction and has discovered that we are all related! Karen takes her lead from Frigg, norse goddess of wisdom and grace who gave her name to Friday. She likes to listen to the birds and other wild things who have so many tales to tell. Learn more about her work here: Karengummo.com

Nature as Co-Regulator: Supporting Educator Well-being Through Outdoor Play with Julia Davies Dawson

Early Childhood Educators face increasing stress and burnout, yet their well-being is foundational to responsive care for children. Nature offers a powerful, accessible co-regulator supporting nervous system regulation, creativity, and resilience — for educators, not just children. This session explores how everyday nature connection in urban and semi-urban environments can intentionally support educator well-being. Drawing on research in nature-based well-being and trauma-informed practice, participants will engage in embodied nature-based practices, reflect on their relationship with outdoor spaces, and discover how to embed micro-moments of nature connection into routines and team culture — reframing nature as a partner in sustainable, joyful practice.

Julia Davies Dawson is a health and well-being coach and outdoor play educator focused on nature-based well-being, urban nature connection, and trauma-informed practice. She works with educators and community organizations to integrate nature, movement, and reflective practice into professional well-being and pedagogy. Her work blends research-informed approaches with lived experience and emphasizes accessible, inclusive nature connection in urban contexts. Learn more about her work here: https://www.wayfinderhealthwellness.ca/

Forest Bathing Walk ~ The Nature in Well-Being with Christine Jenik

Join us for a "sampler" Forest Bathing Walk, followed by strategies for bringing this practice to children. Forest Bathing — also known as forest therapy — is grounded in research demonstrating numerous physical and mental health benefits, including reduced stress and enhanced emotional wellness. You'll be guided through a sequence of invitations designed to slow your body and mind, tune into your senses, and deepen your connection with the natural world and yourself. It's an invitation to step away from mental chatter and simply arrive in the moment — a gift of time to slow down, reflect, and recharge.

Christine Jenik retired from the Calgary Board of Education after 34 years as a classroom teacher, outdoor education specialist, and school administrator. Through running environmental programs across Canada and the US, she has witnessed nature's power to inspire and support learning. Since retiring, Chris became a certified Forest Therapy Guide and serves as Prairie-Mountain Rep for the NFTC. She works with schools, education centres, and mental health organizations offering Forest Therapy walks and outdoor wellness programs to deepen connections with nature.

Building Confidence Through Risk: Outdoor Adventures for Young Children with Rochellie Lywin

This workshop equips educators with hands-on tools and strategies for incorporating risky play into their settings. Through role-playing, navigating rough terrain, balancing, and group discussions, participants will learn how to balance safety and freedom while supporting children's physical and emotional development through risky play in a natural setting.

Rochellie Lywin is a certified Lead Forest and Nature School Practitioner and a Level 3 Early Childhood Educator. She is the founder of Three Pines Outdoor and Nature Play, where she works with children, families, and educators to support child-led, nature-based learning. Rochellie’s practice is grounded in relationship, play, and thoughtful risk-taking, with a focus on fostering confidence, resilience, and emotional well-being through outdoor experiences.

Tiny Steps, Big Stories: Supporting Language and Belonging Outdoors with Jenn Doeve

The early years can be pure magic — watching young learners discover the curiosities and delights of the world around them. But endless demands pull us away. What if instead of doing more, we created space for what is truly foundational: meaningful experiences in relationship with people and places? In this session, Jenn Doeve will show you how to use outdoor time for mini-adventures that invite children to observe, notice, and speak alongside each other. You'll learn storytelling techniques that sink experiences into children's memories for retelling again and again, nurturing language and communication through lived experience. This session involves light walking.

Jenn is a former bilingual teacher and the founder of Yellow Steps where she designs and facilitates place-based school residencies. Born and raised in Calgary, her local residencies reconnect students and teachers to their surroundings, creating shared learning experiences that are memorable, meaningful, and aligned with curriculum outcomes. In her free time, Jenn loves trying out new recipes, reading about local history, and adventuring with her family. You can learn more about her work here: www.yellowsteps.ca

The Power of Scent Outdoors with Amy Bye

This workshop explores the power of scent and how plants and herbs can intentionally calm and support the nervous system. Participants will learn how aromatic plants have traditionally been used to influence mood, reduce stress, and promote balance through the sense of smell. Blending traditional plant wisdom with evidence-informed understanding, the session offers simple, accessible ways to incorporate aromatic herbs into daily rituals for emotional regulation and relaxation. The workshop encourages a mindful connection to scent as a gentle yet effective tool for well-being, closing with a 15-minute breathwork practice inspired by the scents of the forest.

Amy is a Certified Aromatherapist and Holistic Practitioner, and the founder of Luna Rose Remedies—a wellness brand dedicated to supporting mental, emotional, and physical well-being through plant-based remedies. With a deep respect for traditional plant and herbal wisdom and a modern, evidence-informed approach, Amy is passionate about educating others on the powerful benefits of the natural world for holistic health. Learn more about her work here: https://www.lunaroseremedies.com/

Wrap-up and prizes!

Join us at the church to wrap-up our day together. We have some amazing draw prizes and you have to be there to win!