Jump into June with these outdoor learning ideas

Our redeveloped Primary Curriculum Framework places an emphasis on playful and active learning. What better place to do this than in the outdoors. Here’s hoping the sun will shine on us this Summer and we can enjoy lots of outdoor activities with our pupils. Guest teacher author, Aoife, shares what her class have been doing.

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‘They can’t climb the walls if we take the walls away!’

That is one of my favourite quotes! It reminds me that children love to be outdoors experiencing and thriving in the wider world. The new social and environmental curriculum also ask that our pupils be ‘active, informed citizens with an appreciation for the world around them’.

It only takes the thought!

No matter what lesson you are teaching, simply ask yourself, could I do this outdoors?

• If you are working on sight words in literacy – could the children make sight word hopscotch with chalk outside?
• If you are learning about 2D shapes in the environment – could the children go on a shape hunt?
• If you are studying data in Maths -could the children do a traffic survey of cars passing the school? Could they represent the data in different ways?
• Are there any wildflowers that children could draw as an art activity?

When you pause to ask yourself these questions, the possibilities are endless.

Developing our place based learning

Our new Primary Curriculum Framework places an emphasis on place-based learning.

What’s important for the pupils in your school to know about locally?

Consider what is within walking distance of your school – a park, a river, a historical monument?

There is a beautiful river and recently redeveloped green way near our school. I recently decided to take my class down to the River Dodder. Before we left, we checked our route on Google Maps. We observed man made features of the local area and made a checklist of things we would see on our journey.

We examined the path of the river on the map from its source in the Dublin Mountains to its mouth into Dublin Bay. We learned about the history of the river and its uses in the past. We explored the rich variety of flora and fauna that can be found around the river. By the time we left, the children were so excited!

We also created journey sticks together. Here is a lovely video which explains the concept of a journey stick:

Each child brought a stick and some elastic bands. The children absolutely adored this activity and were so excited to tell the story of their journey on return to the classroom.

The children also had the option to make a nature bracelet while on our little adventure. This was simply a piece of Sellotape wrapped around their (non-dominant) wrist. Children could pick up small leaves, petals etc and decorate their bracelet.

Here is a picture of the fruits of their labour!

I hope that when the children visit the river and the park at the weekends, that this knowledge will carry with them and they will share it with their families and friends.

So there you go. Some handy ideas that have worked for us for getting outdoors and embracing some cross curricular outdoor learning during those warmer summer months.

Perhaps you can share some of your own ideas for outdoor learning in the comments.

Looking for more ideas for outdoor learning?

Great ideas to explore learning in the outdoors

How about making their own microscopes?

Explore the microscopic world using just a drop of water!