Activities For Outdoor Classrooms

An outdoor classroom can be used to teach many subjects that lie normally in a traditional classroom. These environments allow for children to explore the ideas and areas of development on their own and at their own pace. It provides the children a natural base to inquire about their surroundings. All classes can be taught outside and should be encouraged for all teachers. I remember when I was growing up and sitting in the classroom only staring out the window. I was always imagining and wondering how much better class would be if we could just go outside to play and explore. I felt that I never could grasp information and got distracted easily in the classroom setting. Knowing today that children have the opportunity to do their learning outdoors makes me want to be a teacher for this kind of learning even more! All areas of development and subjects can be found and used in the outdoor classroom environment. Educators need to focus on cross-curricular studies.

Here are some examples of subject areas and activities that can be used in these ares! 

Art: Use the soil as paint and create beautiful canvases. Or have rock piles for students to create rock art. Using natural elements such as bark and leaves are great for rubbings. Having an easel outdoors allows children to use nature as their image to create. Nature provides many free resources for children to explore with along with a great canvas to work with!

Science: Learn about the biology of the plants and animals found in your environment. You can include concepts such as habitat, life cycle and food webs. Experiments can be conducted outdoors using the natural resources provided as well.  

Math: Many students learn more effectively through tactile interaction. Use natural materials (rocks, leaves, branches) to demonstrate addition, subtraction division, etc.

Music: Organize an outdoor drumming circle or create music based on the sounds of nature (bird songs, wind, etc.) Have a musical wall or area for children to explore sounds using various materials from nature.

These ideas were found here by a document I found on Twitter. Click the link below to view more of their ideas and activities they have to share.

http://tinyurl.com/oddm3rk

All the pictures can be found on my Pinterest board, please click link to follow! 

http://tinyurl.com/n6u6rxu