Learning Outdoors

My passion! Taking learning outdoors.

I have had the privilege of taking a lively group of children out every Friday morning for the last 8 months. We are very lucky to have a seasonal garden right at the top of the school playing field. The grounds are also flanked by trees and hedges and we have some wild areas that have been allowed (unintentionally) to seed themselves into a wonderful combination of odd plants.

Here they are collecting natural objects for a language and then a maths challenge. First task is to group the collection. Next we create woodland creatures from the collections. The creature is given a name and an acrostic poem is written by the groups. Each group takes their own photo evidence and then makes a display inside, accompanied by the group's poem.

Next week, we will use the same objects. Each group will be given £5 in coins. The objects are now grouped in priced baskets. In relay fashion, one at a time, a group member must run up and purchase an object. This continues until there are no objects left or the group has run out of money. The group will create a 3D model using their objects. When finished, the groups will rotate round the exhibits, guestimating how much each creation cost. Points are given for those closest to the "price" and the group with the most amount of cash left at the end get an extra point!

Interestingly, this class have significantly lower absence rate than any other class!!!