The Outside Classroom

Outside Play is one of the most easiest things to do in schools. When it is summertime and the sun is out and it is all hot and stuffy in the classroom, the best thing for teachers to do is Outside Play. For one of my lessons in University, we did a alphabet treasure hunt, where you had to find pictures that matched up with your letter and you got a certain amount of points for each picture. First we had out treasure sheet:

And then we started to find different things for each letter. Some things were really easy to find such as A for Alarm

However some were very hard to find and we had to use our imaginations to think of them such as Z for Zip

and Q for Quavers

and finally, as there were no xylophone's around, we used our imaginations and got an X-shape

This is something that any age can do, with the younger years of Foundation Phase, then it may be easier to do a Scavenger hunt in groups so that they are supervised but having fun outside at the same time.

This is extremely significant to teachers, because they can set up an extremely easy lesson in 10 minutes. It also helps the children with questioning things. For example, when trying to find the letter 'Z', they will be asking the teacher can I use this? can I use that? etc. This gets the children questioning things and learning things all at the same time. This is exactly what the Welsh Government was trying to do when they initiated the Foundation Phase.

'The outdoors is the ideal environment for experiential learning, because it offers unique opportunities to be creative, to move around, to be noisy and to take risks. The outdoors is full of special stimuli such as weather, sounds, smells and textures which can enrich and enhance a child’s learning environment.
Being outdoors enhances all aspects of children’s development: social, physical, creative, cultural and personal. Children with these skills well-developed are better able to learn and to retain that learning' (DECELLS, 2008).

This is what teachers are to include in their teaching and are to try and get their children out to the outdoors as it is a ever changing place that will constantly fascinate children




Reference List
Wales: Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills, (2008) Foundation Phase: Outdoor Learning Handbook. Cardiff: Welsh Assembly Government.