Start with a local contest at your school
While following the Poster Contest Rules and Guidelines, your students will design their own Georgia wildlife license plates to include nongame wildlife and/or native plants. They then will compete at the local level in a school-wide poster contest. First-, second- and third-place winners should be chosen from your school’s entries for the local-level contest at your school.
All participating students can receive place award ribbons and a Give Wildlife a Chance certificate (refer to Contest Awards section).
Participating schools will choose one first place winner from each division and mail the winning entries to the State Botanical Garden of Georgia to compete in the state-level contest by the April 8, 2016, deadline. These entries will be comprised of the four division categories described in the Poster Contest Rules and Guidelines section. First-, second- and third-place winners will be chosen as state-level winners from each division level, and their artwork will be showcased on the DNR Wildlife Resources Flickr website as well as at the State Botanical Garden in Athens (May 11-17, 2016).
Classroom activities and resources
- Help kids to see that nature is all around them. Visit a garden, field or forest, or simply step outside your school. Post a chart within easy reach so students can record the birds, animals, and interesting plants they see.
- Discuss wildlife viewing ethics. Don't chase wildlife. Move quietly, slowly, and in plain view. Maintain a safe distance; use binoculars rather than your feet to get closer. Be respectful of nesting and denning areas.
- Use field guides (books or Internet to learn how to identify Georgia's native plants and animals, as well as invasive exotic species. Study the Georgia range maps. Learn how exotic species can displace native species.
- Raise money at your school for wildlife through a recycling campaign, bake sale, or another project. Donate the proceeds to creating or maintaining an outdoor classroom at your school, or give the funds to your favorite nature center, the State Botanical Garden or the Nongame Wildlife Conservation Fund .
- Ask students to observe the license plates they see on vehicles on their way home from school. How many are from Georgia versus other states? How many different types of tags did they see? How many were wildlife license plates? Make a graph showing the data collected. Research the different types of Georgia wildlife license plates and where the money they raise goes. Click here for Georgia DNR wildlife license plates and here to see all the other specialty license plates available.
Download the Give Wildlife A Chance poster contest brochure .