GRASP: Instincts for Survival

Hillmount Public School students create a quilt based on their experience at Mono Cliffs

A few of the grade five and six students that made the quilt hanging on the wall pose with Hillmount Public School’s former Principal Jo-Anne Weinstein and Teacher Cathy Jones. The animals represented on the quilt are herbivores, omnivores and carnivores researched by students before their visit and then role-played while at Mono Cliffs (in the Instincts for Survival activity). The animals on the quilt are shown in their habitats using creative techniques of collage, colour and stitching. Students gained a greater depth and breadth of their experience at Mono Cliffs by doing these activities before and after their visit. The school also was able to use this work as part of the Eco-Literacy section of EcoSchools certification. A second quilt from another Hillmount class has since arrived. The quilts are now proudly hanging at Mono Cliffs Outdoor Education Centre.
Students from Willowdale MS reflected on the life of the animal they
researched and played during Instincts for Survival by writing a monologue from the perspective of the animal. See samples of student work as: an opposum and as a wild turkey.
Instincts for Survival has been our most successful program used to make strong connections between the city classroom and Mono Cliffs Outdoor Education Centre. Following the format of GRASP, students research an animal before their visit to Mono Cliffs, play that animal in our simulation activity "Instincts for Survival" and then complete a follow-up activity (or culminating task or product) back in their school classroom. There have been many different examples of the culminating task as seen in the examples below.