Taking a regular "lesson" and moving it outside...why?

Hi everyone!  This is a continuation of a post I did last week when I visited one of our amazing teams. (You can check out how they start their day here-  you won't regret clicking...it is awesome).

I wanted to share with you what happened after they had their outdoor reading time.  It was fabulous. Check out that photo below.   Doesn't that make you want to sit and join?  What an amazing invitation for learning! The mats can be found at Dollarama.  Each one fit 3-4 students.

Seriously....I'm on my way to buy some (any excuse to shop at Dollarama - ha!).

With intentional thought around the transition from reading time to this activity, they continued walking in their train and went right around the circle.  Each student stood in front of a clipboard (not their own...just whichever one was in front of them).  This allowed for a seamless transition. (LOVE that!  Not always an easy task ;)

Once everyone had a spot, the educators began to deliver an explicit math lesson.  Not gonna lie....I was caught off guard.  I was expecting a group discussion, something specific to nature  - but nope :)  These educators went right into a math lesson.  The students explored concepts of size: shorter, longer, size in relation to another object....it was a beautiful thing.  The first challenge was to take their name stick (a tongue depressor that they use for spacing when writing) and find something that was smaller than it.  When they returned to the circle (with their object) they found their correct spot and recorded their findings (note: the educators also gave the students very little direction for this.  They challenged them by saying "How could you record your findings?" They didn't tell them to write a sentence, draw a picture, use labels.  It was open).  The lesson went on to ask the students to find something longer than their name stick.








  They wrapped up the lesson by provoking the students to think about why student A's object might be longer than the stick, yet shorter than student Bs object.  How can something be "longer than" and "shorter than" at the same time?  GREAT QUESTION :)  I am sure that I could see the wheels spinning and their brains growing as they thought about that!








As I stood there watching I was struck at how reflective and intentional these educators were to use the outdoors as a tool for learning.  This lesson could easily have been done indoors, but by taking it outside the behaviours decreased, and the engagement increased.  As the educators and I had an opportunity to observe and reflect they were struck by one student in particular.  This learner struggled to engage in mathematics learning.  It didn't interest him, and as a result his behaviours often escalated during this time.  But here he was, so engaged in the task that he wasn't distracting by anything around him.  He was laying on his tummy and carefully recording his findings on his paper.  This was a significant learning moment for this child.  Can anyone relate?  Can you think of a student who struggles to engage?  Give it a try...take the lesson outside, and see what happens :)

note: this is not the child mentioned above LOL,
just a great shot of an engaged learner :)

Talk again soon ,

Carly

Starting the day and setting the tone for learning

I had the pleasure of spending the day with a fabulous team that I have not been able to visit yet this year. We had connected last week at a workshop, and we made a plan for me to visit and support inquiry-based learning.  While I was there I had the pleasure of seeing some of the things we learned at the conference in action.

Since the conference was all about inquiry, and specifically inquiry outside, it was great to see that they started their day....you guessed it, outside.

After the students had come inside for announcements, attendance, etc. they headed back outside for some reading time.  (Just my wonderings here: would it work to have the students stay outside right from the bell and meet them outside?  Would this allow for one less transition?) Anywhoo, each student was armed with a bag of "just right" books at their specific level, and the educators used a "train" to drop the students off at designated spots in the yard.

The educator is at the front of the line, walking around and pointing to a spot for each student to sit (under a tree, in a patch of sun, etc.)  The nice thing about this is that there is no running from spot to spot and no arguing about who gets to sit under which tree.  Perhaps this will allow for a gradual release of responsibility, and once the kids get the idea of spreading out and sitting in a variety of spots they can quickly pick their own sometimes.

Spending time in nature with a good book :)

This school is blessed with a wonderful treed area

At the end of the time the educator starts back at the beginning and picks up the students as the train passes by.  It was so funny for me to watch as the students very diligently waited for the train to pass by before jumping on.  When we did it at the conference with adults we were all hopping on the train at any point as soon as it came close to us ("budgging" if you will) - but not these kiddos.  Despite their friends calling out to them, they waited until the caboose had passed.  So cute!

I really liked this strategy for getting kids settled into reading (or whatever task they had been given...it could be many things: journal writing, drawing, etc).  It avoids the running and chaos of 30 kids trying to find a spot, and the inevitable time wasted switching spots.

As I watched this class engage in their morning reading routine a few things struck me:

1) It was quiet, calm and organized as 30 students moved into place
2) This opportunity to be outside in nature was a calming and grounding experience for the students.  We stood and watched the class for several minutes, all engaged in the task of reading, and loving it!  What a great way to instill a love of reading.
3) I believe this really set the tone for the learning that was going to happen immediately after (I          blogged about that here).  I believe that this is directly linked to how successfully the students were
 able to self-regulate and participate in the explicit instruction to follow.

What do you think?  Give it a try!  Amazing things can happen when you take the learning outside and give students a time to reflect and be still in nature.  LOVE it :)

Carly

Why take learning outside??

Today was one of my favourite days this year!  We were on an outdoor field trip and it POURED! I know, sounds like torture with 29 kiddos...soaking wet shoes and socks, drenched clothing...not to mention the awesome stage of semi-dry, sticky hot, muggy-ness (not a real word) when we got back to school.  None the less, I loved it!  And so did the kids.  Almost all of them said that getting wet in the rain was their favourite part of trip. LOL.  Love that!  I always say that it's us adults that have the hardest time with change and unexpected twists, kids just roll with the punches (so to speak).  So we had 29 soaking wet, happy kids when we got back to school :)

This is my favourite photo from the day.  Perhaps even my favourite photo from the whole year.  The student is so focused and engaged.  I am sure we could have spent a loooong time chatting about what he was looking at, what he was wondering, and what his thoughts were.  He was fascinated with using the binoculars, and with theBald Eagle babies he could see up in the nest (who can blame him!)

I have been hearing a lot about Nature Deficit Disorder and have wanted to do more reading about it.  I have had the Book "Last Child In The Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder" by Richard Louv on my reading list for a year now, but I haven't ordered it.  I have so many books on my list, my night stand is literally overflowing.  I am not sure where I stand on this issue, or whether I agree with everything Richard Louv has to say, but I am very intrigued by this idea and do think it is worth investigating and considering as an Early Childhood Educator.  I know that I believe children spend far too much time indoors, plugged in to electronic devices and playing with toys that prescribe their play for them, virtually eliminating the need for creative thinking (but that's a rant for another post).

If you are interested in reading more about Nature Deficit Disorder check it out here... 
(click here for link to Indigo.ca)

Back to our trip....
There is so much potential for learning outdoors, and the behaviours seem so manageable because the kids are engaged.  They are ready to learn and to explore, the trick is how to infuse the curriculum into these teachable moments.  This is an area that intimidates me...I think I need to jump in with both feet and give it a go.  I think if I stop to reflect and document our learning after each time outside I would quickly realize how much curriculum we are covering.  That was so often the case this year as we stepped into an inquiry based, emergent curriculum this year.  As I was walking around with my group today I kept thinking how much documenting and note taking I wanted to do so that I would remember all of the things the kids said, or asked, or discovered.  I knew I would never remember it all.

We are so fortunate in our area to have an outdoor facility that provides opportunity for outdoor education.  It isn't a huge facility, rather it is a chunk of land donated by a family and now being transformed into an amazing education center.  It has one full time qualified teacher, and many amazing volunteers (a lot retired teachers, or current teachers not employed full time).  They are just in the beginning stages of creating programming for classes, and we have been fortunate enough to be an unofficial pilot class for them as we were the first ones to ask to come back several times in a year (particularly once a season) to see growth, change and the many different learning opportunities this space provides.  I mentioned to them today about my dream of having "Forest Fridays" where my class would go every Friday for an hour or two and do all sorts of activities, some run by them, some run by our ECE teacher and myself.  Could you imagine?  Heaven :)

Here are some of the learning moments form today:

ZY was so proud that he used the legend to decipher what larvae he had captured from the river, and then used the insect book to discover what the bug would look like fully grown.  So much literacy and science going on here:)

Yep...that's me with the waders on.  I think it's a good look eh?  Not a bad day's work, trekking through the river digging up rocks and catching all sorts of critters.

Our learning tools today :)

Sifters, magnifying glasses, buckets, and identification books :)  All you need to explore the river.

One of our awesome Moms helping dig up the river rocks for critters.  I was joking with the Moms that it was hard to tell who was having more the fun, the parents or the kids LOL

Our guest teacher was showing the students a butterfly that had died, and then led a discussion about the similarities and differences between many butterflies.  

Another awesome learning moment.  On our Bird walk we went to see the Bald Eagle's nest that makes her home in the same spot each year.  Many of our SK students remembered last year when we visited.  Some students got to see the Momma Eagle fly overhead last year.  This year, both babies were popping their heads right out of the nest to say hello.  Students used their binoculars to get a good close look at them.  It was awesome!  If you look at the top of the photos, right in the center and down just a smidge you will see the nest in the tree.

Our guest teacher had a cool app on her phone that made the calling sound of each of the birds we were looking at.  I would definitely recommend getting this app!  I will try to get the name of it, and put it on this post in the next few days.

We found a lot of trees covered in Woodpecker holes.  Here a student is trying to see if she can hear the Woodpecker inside the tree.

I was doing some searching online for ideas of how to "do" learning outside (if that makes any sense).  I am a practical person by nature and wanted a "how to" manual to get me started.  I don't need a list of activities or lessons to copy, but I do want something to spark my ideas and some guidelines to help me know where to begin.  I came across this blog click here that seems to be loaded with great ideas.  I was particularly drawn to the review of the book titled "Dirt Teaching:A beginner's Guide To Learning Outdoors" By Juliet Robertson.  Looks awesome.  If anyone has read it I would love to hear your thoughts.  Should I add it to that enormous pile on my nightstand I was telling you about?

LOVE THIS :)