Educational Materials Lending Library

Understanding our water - how it moves and is stored within the environment, how we and nature rely upon it, and how it is affected by our activities - is how we learn to care for our most precious resource.

Since 2014, the Drinking Water & Watershed Protection Program has offered educational initiatives throughout the region to promote youth water and watershed understanding and awareness. We have curated a large collection of water education tools, activities, and resources to support in-class and in-field learning for elementary level teaching.

Water and watershed Educational Materials are available to Regional District of Nanaimo teachers, educators, and organizations for temporary loan to support local education initiatives and hands-on learning!

For more details and to request the loan of any of the materials outlined below, email watersmart [at] rdn.bc.ca (watersmart[at]rdn[dot]bc[dot]ca) with the requested material(s), lending timeframe, and affiliated school or organization.

Please note: materials are limited and available on a 'first come, first served' basis.

Educational Materials:

Watershed Field Trip Kit - Teachers Guide, Map, and Activities

A complete teachers kit to accompany Team WaterSmart Watershed Field Trips or as a stand-alone educational suite. Includes a Teachers Manual with activity description and instructions, an activity kit with all necessary materials, and SD68 or SD69 full watershed map. Please indicate if you are applying from SD68 or SD69 upon requesting the loan.

Project WET Educational Resource

The Project WET Activity and Curriculum Guide is full of water-related games and activities! Activities such as The Incredible Journey, Drop in the Bucket, Macro-invertebrate Mayhem, Water Web and more are fully detailed within this comprehensive book. 

The Incredible Journey Game

Water makes an incredible journey through the environment! This hands-on learning experience involves movement, interaction, and the creation of 'take-home' beaded bracelets.

Drop in the Bucket Game

Freshwater is a finite resource. How much freshwater is available on Planet Earth? Discover how precious our water resource really is in this hands-on lesson.

Macro-invertebrate Mayhem Activity

Small insects and critters within a stream can tell us a lot about water quality and stream health! Learn to collect and identify macro-invertebrates species. This in-field activity requires access to a waterway.

Water Mystery Bag Game

In what ways do we use water on a daily basis? The Mystery Bag contains items that symbolize the activities we do every day that use water, including brushing our teeth, cleaning our dishes, and watering our garden. 

Construct a Watershed Parachute Game

How is a watershed shaped? Students are asked to work together to create mountains and valleys out a large parachute to construct a watershed. Wiffle balls represent precipitation and show how water moves from mountain peaks to collect in waterways within a valley.

Water Cycle Race Game

This relay style race game includes buckets of water and water squirters, students race to take water from one bucket to the next while demonstrating the water cycles stages of evaporation, condensation and precipitation. 

Water Web Activity

Water connects us all - individuals, communities, and the environment - in an intricate balance. Students weave the needs of communities and the environment to discover how we all depend on surface and groundwater. 

Tree Cookie - Water Connectedness Activity

This activity explores the intricate ecological relationships between wildlife, insects and invertebrates, fungi, trees and plants, and water.

Journey through a Watershed Puzzle Activity

Drinking water makes an incredible journey - through the water cycle, watersheds, and infrastructure - to get to your tap! Recreate the steps water takes from the environment to your home or school with this puzzle activity. 

Solomon the Salmon Puppet

Solomon the Salmon is an ambassador for clean and healthy watersheds! Who better to deliver water-related lessons to students in a fun and engaging way?!  

Watershed Model

What is a watershed? How does water move in a watershed? How do human activities impact healthy watersheds? Explore these concepts with an interactive watershed model!

Watch Team WaterSmart's Capri demonstrate the Watershed Model 

Groundwater Model

How does freshwater infiltrate the layers rock, sand, and gravel deep below our feet? What do aquifers look like and how do wells work? This cross-sectional model shows how groundwater is stored and moves beneath the surface!