New resources for outdoor learning and play

We are delighted to share with you the first set of newly designed resources for outdoor learning and play. 

As a charity with curriculum-led outdoor learning at its core, we want to ensure our activities cover a wide variety of lesson objectives and that these are highlighted throughout our resources.  As part of the restructuring process, we had the opportunity to work with Oliver Caviglioli who challenged our thinking and helped us to see the importance of design for learning. We used this training to ensure our resources are as accessible as possible and continue to be a support and inspiration to educators. 

 

Our new activity resources will be sorted into the below categories.

 

1. Early years

These resources provide a fun, interactive idea and show the key play types, literacy and maths links, and ways to develop motor skills or self-directed learning. As shown in Disappearing Paintings, we will also suggest key questions and ways to check the children’s understanding of the activity.  

 

2. Primary 

For primary ages, we have developed two different types of activities:

• Subject specific
  The subject specific ideas, such as Descriptive Alliteration Poems, will focus on one key topic, with the activity providing direct learning outcomes related to that objective.
• Cross curricular
  Our other primary resources will be cross curricular. These will show how one outdoor task can be adapted and linked to multiple subjects and how it can be used as a stimulus for other areas of the curriculum. Learning outcomes will be provided for the main activity, but there will also be suggestions for how it could lead onto other subject outputs to show further learning. This is demonstrated in the new Blindfolded Exploring activity sheet.

 

3. Secondary 

The secondary age group resources will cover a specific subject area and provide in-depth ways to develop the activity to challenge pupils. To help ensure the lesson is successful, we have included information about the previous learning required before completing the activity and suggested ways to check the pupils have fully understood the concept. These sections can be seen in our new secondary physics activity, Making a Model of a Wave.

 

4. Play activities for all 

The play ideas in this section are simple, active, and provide creative ways for all ages to enjoy their outdoor environment, such as by making Lawn Decorations. These resources will provide fun ways to play outside more, and they suggest adaptations for ways to take the discoveries further.  

 

We hope you enjoy our new resources as much as we have enjoyed creating them! Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know when more activities are launched.