Photo of elementary students with hands raised taken from the back of a classroom

School programs

Types of programs

Grades 5 and 8: Zero Waste Place Workshops
Grades K to 7: live shows
Grades K to 5: worm composting workshops

Students who learn about waste avoidance and litter reduction at school develop positive environmental habits that are brought home and impact the entire family.

We've partnered with environmental educators with the aim to increase waste literacy in the classroom and help empower young leaders to inspire others.

Grades 5 and 8: Zero Waste Place Workshops

We've partnered with Elements Society to deliver environmental education programming, Zero Waste Place, to grade 5 and grade 8 classes.

About Zero Waste Place
Zero Waste Place is a free program aimed at educating students about the City’s zero waste goals. Its purpose is to increase waste literacy among young students and to foster positive, action-oriented behavioral change.

Each class receives three workshops plus additional activities between workshops. The interactive sessions cover topics such as:
- Litter prevention
- Strategies for properly sorting items
- Avoiding waste
- Designing and managing a project that addresses waste and litter at the community level
During the 2018-2019 school year, over 170 workshops were delivered to 38 schools in Vancouver, reaching over 2,000 students

Learn more about the program
How to register
What Zero Waste Place achieves in schools

The Grade 5 class at Grandview / ¿uuqinak'uuh Elementary School was inspired to create an art installation showcasing the importance of keeping plastics out of our oceans.

Students used only waste and recycled materials to bring awareness to the issue of ocean plastic waste and created some wonderfully inspiring art.

For their efforts, the class was the BC Green Games Elementary School Winner of the sleepover at Science World. Read more about their full project.

Grades K to 7: Zero Heroes and Clean up Your Act live shows

We've partnered with DreamRider Productions to deliver two environmental-themed live shows – Zero Heroes and Clean Up Your Act – to elementary schools during the school year.

About the live shows

Performers use the power of song, story, and comedy to reach students’ hearts, minds, and bodies, and inspire them to go home and lead behaviour change in their families.

During the 2018-2019 school year, 29 Zero Heroes plays and 38 Clean Up Your Act plays were delivered to thousands of Vancouver students.

Grades K to 7: Zero Heroes

Zero Heroes introduces the concept of waste reduction, the importance of ‘The 3Rs’ (reduce, reuse, recycle), and composting to elementary school students. Zero Heroes inspires students to take action and change the way they think about consumption, how stuff is made, and what ends up in the landfill.

Grades K to 3: Clean up Your Act

Clean Up Your Act play focuses on reducing litter, vandalism, and graffiti. Students find out how to dispose of garbage and recycling properly and learn to take some personal responsibility for the cleanliness of our city streets and neighbourhoods.

Learn more about the shows .
How to book live shows

Grades K to 5: worm composting workshops

City Farmer is a non-profit organization that operates the Vancouver Compost Demonstration Garden in Kitsilano.

Since 1978, City Farmer has been teaching Vancouver residents how to grow food in the city, compost their waste and take care of their home landscape in an environmentally responsible way.

City Farmer provides composting education to adults and children.

About the workshops

City Farmer offers free worm composting workshops (“wormshops”) to elementary schools.

These workshops are tailored to kindergarten to grade 5 students and introduce the concept of turning food scraps into nutrient-rich compost using worms.

Students get a fun, hands-on experience learning about the science of worms. And they get to tour the magical fairy garden!

Learn more about wormshops
How to book wormshops