Eco-stories—also called Awesome Alerts—are brief, engaging tales that focus on the wonderful and dramatic aspects of different living things. They are designed to engage students’ emotions and imaginations in learning.   They employ principles of Imaginative Ecological Education.

Eco-stories can…

engage students’ sense of wonder with the natural world,

increase students’ knowledge and awareness of different plant/animal species,

challenge stereotypes (e.g. Bugs are gross.),

leave students with a deeper sense of the interconnectedness of the world, and

make students laugh—the author (the voice in the stories) is a loveable, positive, easily-sidetracked, quirky story-teller.

Each eco-story is followed by some suggested cross-curricular activities that can be used to elaborate and extend the ideas in the story.   Follow-up activities can easily be modified to suit different ages of students.

For example, one ongoing feature of the eco-story activities is the “Cultivating Creative Conversations” piece in which students are asked to use challenging words from the text in imaginative ways. Learning in this as in all activities employs the learning tools of the imagination to most engage students.

We welcome your feedback on the activities and would love your suggestions for additional activities! Please contact us.

 Try out an eco-story about Ants, Aphids, & Ladybug below. Please note, the story and activities are for your use, not for distribution. Encourage other educators you know to visit our blog.

Or read this post:  The Not-So-Humble Pigeon. (Download the colouring page!)

If you would like additional eco-stories entitled Water Bears and Mantis Shrimp please subscribe to our blog and we will send these to you.

Gillian & Adelle

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