Thousands of elementary students from across the region recently converged on Kelso Conservation Area for the 16th annual Children's Water Festival.
Co-hosted by Conservation Halton and Halton Region, this year’s event provided local schools with four, fun-filled days of learning from September 26-29.
“It was so great to see my [Grade 4] students learn about ecosystems, how they work and how to respect them,” said Pasquale Cerisano, Grade 4 teacher at Georgetown's St. Catherine of Alexandria Catholic Elementary School. “I’ve enjoyed all aspects of the festival, especially Highway H2O…the demonstration of water flow was amazing. It mimicked real-life water systems on a smaller scale for students to see how it works.”
Children interacted with 60 unique learning stations, such as ‘Wildlife and Water,’ ‘Regional Waterscapes,’ ‘Bucket Brigade,’ and ‘Highway H2O’. The stations provided curriculum links to classroom topics across four thematic areas: water and society, water conservation and protection, water health and safety, and water science and technology. More than 500 high school students participated as activity leaders and Waste Ambassadors, contributing over 2,500 volunteer hours to the festival.
“We got to do lots of activities and fun stuff with water,” said Sakshi, a Grade 3 student at Maplehurst Public School in Burlington. “The best part is being in nature because I love plants. I also learned how to recycle and went on a school bus for the first time.”
The festival also ran a virtual module for complementary in-class learning. In total, 28 local schools took part in the four-day festival’s in-person and in-class components.
The Halton Children’s Water Festival 2023 partners and supporters included both Halton school boards, Conservation Halton Foundation, City of Burlington, Town of Halton Hills, Town of Oakville, Wilfrid Laurier University, DSEL, GEO Morphix, and R.V. Anderson Associates.
