3 Ways To Celebrate Outdoor Classroom Day

Everyone knows there is nothing we love more than the opportunity for children to take learning into the great outdoors.

Outdoor Classroom Day is just around the corner (May 23th). Built on the proposition that there is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong kit, our dream is to help enable every child to learn outside as well as at home and in the classroom. We have rounded up 3 simple activities you can do with your class to celebrate even if you do not have an outdoor classroom.

1) Making Magic Wands

This is a combination of story telling, craft and just roaming outdoors and can be differentiated for any age group.

1. 1. Take the class outdoors and tell them that today is about creating your own magic. The first task is to find a stick that will make the perfect magic wand.
   2. All the children hunt for a stick, bring it back to the circle and tell the rest of the class what they like about the stick they chose
   3. All the children paint/ decorate their stick
   4. For Early Years once the sticks are decorated each child says what magic power they would like and then the whole class says a spell together. For KS1 or 2 then each child can make up their own magic spell and tell it to the class.

2) Leaf art (and science)

Leaves are a great opportunity for combining art and science.

1. 1. Ask the class if they know the life cycle of a tree and explain this together in a circle next to a tree where you can spot the roots and trunks and leaves
   2. Ask the class to collect their own leaf and dissect it – chop it in half and look at the vein up the stem, peel the leaf apart and look at the membrane that absorbs the sun
   3. Everyone in the class can collect more leaves and complete leaf rubbings then use a tree book to look up which trees they belong to

3) Nature Scavenger Hunt

Nature scavenger hunt: to get children curious about nature and using their learning skills too then a nature scavenger hunt can be brilliant.

1. 1. Give every child a list of what they need to find. This can be themed to practice literacy, numeracy, shapes or colours e.g. find one item in nature for each colour of the rainbow, one item that starts with these letters, find 1 leaf, 2 sticks etc
   2. Gather all the children once they have completed their hunt and ask them to show their favourite finding and explain why
   3. Create a nature collage with the scavenged items

If you have more brilliant ideas that you are celebrating with your class let us know so we can share them with everyone too. Lastly we can’t forget about the waterproofs needed for any of the tasks above. We highly recommend a sturdy pair of childrens wellies and a super waterproof childrens rain coat to keep them dry and happy when they are out exploring.