Spring will inevitably arrive in a few weeks — though the weather may not always cooperate with the calendar – now is a good time to plan some activities to get your classroom or group outdoors in the coming months.
Schools that invest resources into creating outdoor experiences for their classes have felt the rewards with physically, mentally, and socially healthier students. The benefits of holding class outside are numerous – students get a better sense of their community and their role in it, they learn to appreciate and care for their environment, and students can become more confident as many outdoor experiences give kids a greater role in their own exploration of concepts, just to name a few.
If you are interested in bringing your class outside to explore and enrich the adventure of learning, check out these resources and activity ideas to help get you started.
- Free activity guides full of ideas about how to bring students outside from the Green School Yards America organization. http://www.greenschoolyards.org/2015-living-schoolyard-month-activity-guide.html
- Videos providing insight into how one middle school embraced and created outstanding outdoor education. https://www.edutopia.org/school/hood-river-middle-school
- A resource roundup from Edutopia providing several resources about environmental and outdoor education. https://www.edutopia.org/article/outdoor-and-environmental-education-resources#graph2