A local teacher has been taking the classroom outdoors and across the county.

Non-profit Adventures with Nature has been making its presence felt in area splashpads, parks and other outdoor settings.

Founder of the organization Chris St Peters was at the Fergus Splashpad last Sunday, with lessons revolving around sustainability and the environment.

His first Fergus appearance was back in May. While the turnout varies based on the event, St Peters says he's seen former students and new faces alike turnout to his lessons.

While all ages are welcome, St Peters says mostly youngsters make it out to the lessons.

St Peters, who has been a supply and long-term occasional teacher in the Upper Grand District School Board for five years, is often one to look at how to shift away from traditional lesson plans and teach about the earth.

"You can sneak in a lesson really easily about how to save the world and you can also change your lessons up a little bit while still following curriculum expectations like I am," St Peters said.

"For example, maybe I take a math lesson and I teach it as Bermilda the Bumble Bee or Barry the Beaver, and then while I also teach the curriculum expectations, of the math lesson today, they also learned about why a beaver makes a dam," he added.

St Peters says his interest to become an outdoor educator began following an experience in which he met several people of a similar mindset at a First Nations conference in Sudbury.

Ever since, St Peters has offered lessons with Adventures with Nature, spanning across Wellington County.

At the Fergus Splashpad there's been a great reception, he said, and he is itching to do more.

"I'm going to continue this motion of showing up when I can to different parks around the Guelph region, Fergus region, Elora region, Aberfoyle and try and teach people a little more about the natural world and how they can save the natural world just in their backyard," St Peters explained.

"If we just make choices together, like what you bought today, how does that, what you bought effect the world?" he asked.

St Peters often wonders what the world could be like if we turned childhood cartoons into real actions.

"We were raised this way with Disney. When I say Disney I mean we all watched really cute shows where it was like love and kindness, the power of friendship," St Peters stated.

"Why don't we actually try it, but with animals? Animals lived on this planet way before us and we're animals too! We're just really smart animals. If animals were the caretakers of this planet, let's learn from the animals," he continued.

"So that's why I do these fun little lessons with these guys," St Peters concluded.

St Peters says he hopes to make his visits fun and engaging, and that a scavenger hunt is in the works. He will be back in Fergus at the Fergus Multicultural Festival Sept. 23.

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