. an outdoor classroom or outdoor learning facility. PLT’s Top Ten Tips for Teaching Outside – Middle and High School:   approach to learning are at the core of outdoor pedagogy. Outdoor-learning experiences offer a great deal in terms of these benefits. It includes creating “how-to” resources, frameworks and strategies designed to help schools and districts plan their outdoor infrastructure, expand to use outdoor spaces at nearby parks, consider new staffing models (formal/informal partnerships) and integrate additional school programs outdoors such as physical education, recess … Reach out to parents and community members to find volunteers who can assist with the outdoor classroom plan. Cynthia Freeman, a teacher at Dowling Urban Elementary School in Minneapolis, Minnesota shares her top ten tips and tricks for teaching outdoors and connecting Elementary-aged students with nature. Building Outdoor Classrooms: A Guide for Successful Fundraising: Outdoor classrooms create a gathering place for children when learning outdoors. Try flipping your approach to weather: Only go indoors during inclement weather. New lesson plans and professional development. Makes learning a multi-sensory experience. The Outdoor Classroom enhances and adds to the limited scope of activities available inside confined classrooms by providing for hands-on experiences, physical activity, social-emotional growth through peer interaction, and multifaceted approaches to cognitive development that connect children to nature and maximize their learning outcomes. Conduct PLT’s GreenSchools School Site Investigation with your “Green Team.” This will help you map your school site, inventory the plants and animals, and assess ways the school grounds can be used for outdoor learning. Both indoor and outdoor classroom environments are composed with thought and intention to create safe, comfortable, and inspiring opportunities for learning where children feel free to explore, create, … Outdoor classrooms also provide alter- 2. PLT’s Top Ten Tips for Teaching Outside – Middle and High School: PLT activity # 25 Birds and Worms found in PLT’s PreK-8 Guide, An Easy-to-Make Model that Explains the Inner Parts of a Tree, PreK-8 Environmental Education Activity Guide – Activity 51, Make Your Own Paper. There is a lot to consider for teachers taking students outdoors for the first time. The students were involved in many aspects of creating the outdoor classroom; from site planning and design, through installing bird feeders, planting native species, developing adopt-a-tree signs, and creating steppingstone mosaics. Thanks for your suggestion! Our approach is multifaceted and interdisciplinary. Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods and co-founder of the Children and Nature Network, coined the term “nature-deficit disorder,” which refers to children’s growing lack of exposure to nature. Obviously, transitioning to this approach comes with challenges in … Watch a video of the paper-making process used in this activity. The highlighted activities include: Here are some tips and lessons learned along the way: 1. Outdoor Infrastructure Planning Strategies for Taking Learning Outside as Schools Reopen NAAEE offers recommendations for schools to reopen or modify procedures amid COVID-19 restrictions and social-distancing, including ways for schools to repurpose and maximize outdoor spaces to be most suitable for instruction. Advances in technology make it relatively easy for students to bring digital technology with them when they leave the classroom, or for instructors to bring the outdoor learning environment into the classroom. Reach out to local businesses for donations of materials, such as building supplies, birdfeeders, wood chips, and so forth. Students investigate the papermaking process by trying it themselves. While, of course, this simplified statement can’t encapsulate the entirety of this famous Italian educational ideology, it’s in … The backpack materials feature some of PLT’s most popular activities to do outdoors, along with student pages and other supporting resources. the outdoor environment encourages staff and students to see each other in a different light, building positive relationships and improving self-awareness and understanding of others. We are in the process of updating many of our activities and will plan to add a “Did You Know” piece in the background – and an enrichment suggestion – to note that earthworms are nonnative to most of North America and how they affect forest ecosystems. Taking the curriculum outside can improve attainment, increase engagement, and develop a wide range of skills including problem solving, communication and resilience. This is an update to a previously published article. The Outdoor Classroom Project (OCP), an initiative of the Child Educational Center (CEC), in La Cañada, California, is founded on the belief that early care and education programs have the power to address these challenges by providing rich and engaging outdoor learning experiences. The engagement and communication skills teachers are taught transfer into everything that a … Outdoor classroom could be described as outdoor learning space that provides varying experiences and learning activities that could enhance students’ learning performances, particularly in Problem Based Learning (PBL) approach. The idea of teaching in outdoor spaces with covering for protection from the rain is an extremely promising one in his mind. Assemble a team. The environment is instrumental in a child’s educational experience. In this special feature article from the Children & Nature Network, author Jay Walljasper paints a picture of what Back-to-School 2020 could like all across America—with green schoolyards offering a safer, more equitable middle ground in the wrenching decisions over in-person vs. online instruction. The backpacks include ready-made lessons that incorporate bird, tree, and other nature themes and they are available for teachers to check out. 3. As the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted countless traditional learning environments, many schools and educators have begun to move classes outdoors. North American Association for Environmental Education’s eeGuidance for Reopening Schools: We are exploring how outdoor science and real world learning can help learners understand the fundamental concepts of science and sustainable development, and demonstrate practical methods of teaching and learning based on the outdoor classroom. We are developing guidance notes to support high quality outdoor learning. To help teachers take maximum advantage of the outdoor classroom, myself and Ms. Whitehead, a Littlewood teacher, organized teacher trainings for them. PreK-8 Environmental Education Activity Guide, click here to find your regional U.S. Forest Service Conservation Education Coordinator, Outdoor Learning A Solution for Schools During COVID 19 Expert Panel Recording, North American Association for Environmental Education’s eeGuidance for Reopening Schools, Turning Education Inside Out: How Green Schoolyards Can Help Make Schools Safer This Fall—and Improve Kids’ Lives Permanently, Outdoor Infrastructure Planning Strategies for Taking Learning Outside as Schools Reopen, Building Outdoor Classrooms: A Guide for Successful Fundraising, PLT’s Top Ten Tips for Teaching Outside – Early Childhood, PLT’s Top Ten Tips for Teaching Outside – Elementary. Recent data shows that kids spend at least two hours in front of screens each day. For example, contact your PLT State Coordinator and staff who work at local nature centers or parks. Invite PTA members and team with local agencies and organizations who can provide resources and expertise. 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