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!
They say when one door closes another opens.. Well in this case, one door closed and two opened! It is with appreciative hearts that the HMK Children’s Water Festival says goodbye and many thanks to former Coordinator Irene Heaven, who was the river, the ocean and the driving rain powering…
On November 9, 2020 we were finally able to present the 2019 Water Hero Challenge winners with the Big Splash Award! The award was presented to Principal David Crawford by Irene Heaven outside of Macaulay Public School along with a videotaped message congratulating last year’s students of Ms. Thompson’s. Mr.…
We are excited to announce that Macaulay Public School won the 2019 Water Hero Contest! This means that their school will be hosting the Big Splash Award until the 2020 Festival! This is Macaulay’s first year hosting the Big Splash Award! Congratulations! Here are some of the student’s awesome ideas:…
The 2019 HMK Children’s Water Festival was hosted at the Kinark Outdoor Centre on September 30th and October 1st. 966 elementary students from the Trillium Lakelands District School Board had fun learning about water with the help of 42 activity centres! Children enjoyed active learning while they laughed and enjoyed…
