Outdoor Learning Activities
This section assumes that you, and your class, are comfortable heading outside for learning. You have your class and risk management structures in place and well-practiced. If you don’t yet, I wouldn’t advise that you begin your outdoor learning pedagogy by jumping right into an involved activity. It is possible and even likely that things might not go that well and then instead of experiencing the benefits of the outdoor environment, you and your students will be frustrated. A while back, another teacher asked me if my outdoor learning class of older students could teach his younger students how to safely travel as a class on their bikes. Of course, I said yes. The day arrived and my students were hard at work going through the various things with his students and he was getting more and more antsy. Finally, he blurted out that we needed to hurry up because his class had to be at the library in half an hour. He had planned to bike with his class to the downtown library on their first day of training. I had to inform him that his class was not going to the library today. They would be lucky if we biked around the block. I made it very clear that there was a progression to follow for the sake of safety and success. In other words, don’t plan on jumping into the deep end until you can swim. Once you have your structures in place and you and your students are ready for more challenging outdoor learning activities, go for it.
Another great way to find outdoor learning activities is to search it up on Google. If you type in outdoor learning activities, you will find plenty. |
Thoughts on Creating An Outdoor Learning Activity
What follows below are some possible steps that an educator can take to modify an already existing classroom activity that is typically done indoors so that it could be done outside in the natural environment.
- Reduce the materials as much as possible especially things like worksheets and big bulky hard to carry items.
- Look for possible natural resources that already exist in the outdoor environment that you could use to take the place of materials in the classroom.
- Understand that you may get less quantity done but at a deeper more engaged level so reduce the expectations around quantity of things like math questions completed.
- Incorporate as much physical movement in as possible to take advantage of the open outdoor space.
- Reduce the amount or need for your direct control over every step of the activity or movement of your students.
- Build more play into it.
- Examine how your assessment could be done verbally or plan to do written assessments later on in class.
- Examine what kind of personal technology (smart phones) that your students have access to and can use effectively in order to take notes, record discussions, record and share photos and video for both project products and assessments.
Below are a list of activities that have been done by a group of outdoor learning teachers that I work with. I will continue to add to this list as they send them into me. I have not indicated the appropriate grade level as most activities are able to be done with pretty much any grade level with some modifications and they can all serve to spark new and interesting ways to utilize the outdoors in your teaching.
Wide Games
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Three wide games that can be played outside with a single class or multiple classes.
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Sidewalk Chalk Geometry |
Measuring using sidewalk chalk.
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Mindup Reading Response
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Reading Response
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Nature Sketch
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Art and drawing
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Helium Stick
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Work together as a group
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marble Tubes
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Transport a marble as a team
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Picture a Tree
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Visualization and writing exercise
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Skip Counting Hopscotch
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Number Sense and Representing
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Alphabet Scavenger Hunt
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Letters and Sounds
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Fall Wonder Walks
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Outside walk and explore
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Patterns in nature
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Creating patterns
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Water Testing
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Using aquarium test kits, test water samples
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Micro Hike
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Examining a small space to see what can be found.
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Water Bike Trip
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Research local community
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Pattern Scavenger Hunt
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Use natural objects to create and find patterns.
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Mindful walking and Writing
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A combination of wonder walking, solo time, and mindful writing.
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Water Table
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Digging holes to discover the depth of the water table.
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Walking Tour
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Go for a walk and do a local community tour.
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Found Art
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Making art from objects found outside.
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Map Making
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Make a map of the school year.
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Outdoor Place Value
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Learning place value with natural objects.
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Math Manipulatives
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Using natural objects as math manipulatives.
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Weather Station
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Make a rock into a weather station.
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And Then Story
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Using the outdoors to practice story telling.
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Snow Inukshuks
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Using snow blocks, students build their own inukshuks
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Wonder Exploration
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Explore something from the outdoors and find out the answers to some wonders about it.
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Sculpture Building
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Build snow sculptures.
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Walking math Journal
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Using regular walks outside to observe and record numbers.
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Mindfulness Micro Walk
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Practicing mindfulness techniques outside during short walks.
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Winter Fun Month
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A whole host of winter activities that can be done with students in a spontaneous way.
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Snow Unit
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A very comprehensive unit with a variety of activities focusing on snow and winter.
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