The Haliburton-Muskoka-Kawartha Children’s Water Festival (HMKCWF) has, for 13 years, been an annual outdoor Fall event that informs and inspires elementary students of this region to become water stewards in their homes, classrooms and communities. Children have fun while visiting a variety of hands-on activity stations where they learn about all things water, while making ecological connections to the natural world around them.
Since 2012, we have provided information, guidance and resources for Teachers to use in integrating engaging water stewardship lessons into their classes throughout the year. In 2021 we developed Water Week: an updated set of such resources, all available under the Teachers tab.
We are adapting our programs through the pandemic and climate change; in 2022 we revived our in-person Fall event with updated safety protocols and have started to develop and launched a series of water festival outdoor activities for families, such as storyboard walks at public parks and community events. We continue to combine experiential activities with messages relevant to youth's daily lives, through which they can 'soak up' knowledge on the properties, uses, connections and importance of water through these and our Waterheroes on-line programs.
Our programming has been offered free of charge since 2005, thanks to the generosity of volunteers, partner programs and sponsors. Please contact us for more information or to get involved!
The Haliburton-Muskoka-Kawartha Children’s Water Festival and its parent organization, Friends of Ecological and Environmental Learning (FEEL), were recognized for the valuable role that this fun and unique festival plays in water education when they received the2010 Haliburton Land Trust Enviro-Hero award for Education. This is a wonderful honour and the…
