The Outdoor Classroom

The outdoor classroom is used just as much as the indoor classroom in schools now within the 21st century. Children can learn and explore in numerous ways outside that does not have the limitations that a classroom can have. Children can inquire and explore many subjects that relate directly to the curriculum. One outdoor approach that can be used with children aged 5+ is orientation. This activity can be changed to make it suitable for the age group.

I have recently done this activity in university to demonstrate and understand what skills are used during this activity. During this activity we had to find objects around the campus to begin with each letter of the alphabet. If this activity is being used with younger children then they could have pictures of the objects they have to find, or if it is being used with comprehensive school age then they could do this method of orientation or as most schools do, they have numbers around the school, and they are given and map and they have to find all of the numbers.

This sheet was used to write down the objects that went with each letter and then to add up the scores, each letter was worth different points on how hard the letter was to find an object to go with that letter.

This approach is used within education today as part of the Physical Exercise curriculum. Although it is mainly used in comprehensive schools, it should be implemented into primary schools as well for the junior ages. This can give the children the chance to learn how to make decisions about how they learn and what they would like to be apart of the activity. Also it allows the children to use their creativity and enquiry skills. Children will be more likely to express their creativity outside as they will feel more free and confident because the outdoor environment enhances children learning experiences and allows them to feel like there's not as many limitations.

Creativity is used within the activity depending on what the children or student has to find, if it is finding objects as shown in this post then creativity is used to be able to think of objects that begin with a certain letter. Enquiry is also used within this activity as you have to be able to think about a logical way of doing this activity, the children or students will have to think of questions such as: What order will we find the objects or numbers in? How will we record what we find? What will be the quickest way of finding everything?. The aim of this activity is to teach children or students to take charge of their own learning, they need to decide what choices they make about how the activity will be carried out.