Curriculm Resources

Winter 2009 Exploring New York's Waterways

Leave No Child Inside

One of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) priorities is to connect New Yorkers to nature. Conservationist for Kids has been created as one aspect of DEC's Leave No Child Inside program. Our goal is to encourage children to go outdoors and explore natural areas and to develop an interest in environmental stewardship.

Using Conservationist for Kids in the Classroom

Conservationist for Kids, and an accompanying teacher supplement, is distributed to public school fourth grade classes three times each school year (fall, winter, spring). These materials are also available at the DEC website in both HTML and PDF formats. Teachers and students may e-mail questions and suggestions to us at Conservationist For Kids

Information and activities in Conservationist for Kids encourage readers to explore outdoors. Read the magazine as a class exercise or have your students read independently. The activities in the magazine may be completed by your students at school or at home. Additional activities and resources can be found in this teacher supplement and on DEC's website (Look for Conservationist for Kids under the Education heading.) If you receive more copies of Conservationist for Kids than you require for your students, please share the extras with your school library, curriculum specialists and other teachers.

MST Curriculum Connections

The activities in this issue of Conservationist for Kids have been correlated to the New York State Math, Science and Technology Learning Standards for fourth grade, below. Connections to other learning standards are also valid.

What's Your Watershed Address:
MST2. Information Systems 1-3
MST4. Science: The Physical Setting 2
MST4. Science: The Living Environment 6
MST6. Interconnectedness 1, 2

Water Words:
MST4. Science: The Physical Setting 2
MST4. Science: The Living Environment 6

More Great Stuff

Printable activity sheets and links to other resources can be found on our website look for Conservationist for Kids under the Education heading. You will also find back issues of Conservationist for Kids and the activity sheets and teacher supplements associated with them. The answer key to the "Water Words" crossword from the Winter 2009 issue is here as well.