Get me outside!
Learning Outside the
Classroom
,
Objectives
•
To allocate at least 10% of each class timetable to learning experiences in
the outdoor environment and provide a full range of relevant educational
experiences.
•
Extend and support the themed curriculum within school.
•
Enable focus on more sensory teaching and learning, particularly kinaesthetic
to provide more suited learning experiences for boys.
•
Focus on developing personal goals and cooperative learning with strong links
to ICT.
•
Use examples and good practice from pilot classes to support and trial own
ideas with all classes.
Organisation
•MTP planning, daily planning (and could include themed days/weeks.)
Emphasis also on remaining flexible and opportunistic should learning
experiences present themselves outside of planning.
•Pupil involvement – give them the opportunity to say what they
would like to do within the unit. The types of activities or writing
they would want to do.
•Have end goal in mind and ensure outdoor learning is used to
support and scaffold this. Remember the reason for use is to raise
standards in literacy.
EYFS/KS1
Literacy:
•
Wanted Posters for the tiger
•
News report “Dangerous Tiger
Escapes from zoo!”
•
Instructional Text;: How to train a tiger/
healthy meals
•
Fitness booklet
•
Tiger came to school recount or story
Forest School:
ENGAGEMENT
Concerned zoo keeper visits
the class to speak to them
about a tiger that has
escaped from their zoo.
Science:
•
Healthy eating – making fruit kebabs /
sandwiches
•
Reversible and Irreversible changes
•
Materials changing state
•
Human body – heart beat etc.
PSHE
•
Looking after ourselves and people around us.
•
Respecting our things and each other.
•
Tiger Tea Party
•
Tiger Search
•
Den building for
the tiger
P.E:
•
Outdoor games,
children teach the
tiger how to exercise,
ball games to play,
athletics etc.
ICT:
•
Use of ipads – imovie/book creator
for healthy eating instructions of
how to exercise through outdoor
games.
•
PowerPoint ‘A tiger came to school’
Engaging reluctant readers
A Ks1 class was taken out into the forest with a range of books connected to
the new literacy topic – traditional and fairy tales. The boys were especially
eager to participate in these and loved the idea of reading in dens, sitting on
logs etc. Even the most reluctant readers were asking for more time to read
with their buddies.
Some year 6’s kindly took the time to read to some
of the children, showing them reading could really
be fun. After this a reading buzz continued
throughout the year in the classroom and guided
reading became the ‘favourite’ of many children's
subjects.
At the end of the year fantastic progress in
reading was seen with the classes APS of 6
Making writing real
To ensure ks1 were engaged and developed a
love for writing we gave them real life
experiences
For our fantast stories based around camping
brought in camping equipment and gave the
children the experience of camping within the
forest school. This was then extended with the
use of props and their ever developing
imaginations to adding in their fantasy elements
and bringing it to life through actions.
When learning about life
cycles and writing
information text on animals,
we provided the children
with the experience of
seeing chicks hatch from
eggs and be able to care for
them for a week after. The
children became fascinated
with them and could not wait
to write.
Year 6 – Highwayman
(acting scenes collaboratively)
Images representing different parts of the poem were
displayed in the forest, along with the WALT and WILF
Children could see the focus of the lesson throughout.
Children chose character roles and then got into groups
for their character. They were given the opportunity to
look through the poem and use images displayed in the
forest. Appropriate speech, feelings, actions were
discussed, noted down on A3 paper and pegged up for
reference.
Children had a range
of props to use as
they wished,
including a
music/sound mat.
When returning
to groups they
had a clear idea
of their
characters
movements,
actions and
feelings. After
collectively
producing a
play script for
their scene,
they were able
to act out in
greater detail –
editing and
adding to as
they went
along.
Year 6 – Highwayman
(story whoosh)
When working on the Highwayman, we took every opportunity to go outside and
use our surroundings to get into character.
A variety of techniques were used to help stimulate our minds and deepen our
understanding.
Initially a lot of us didn’t think we were going to like the
highwayman, as the poem seemed difficult to understand.
There were lots of unfamiliar, old style words that we didn’t
know.
After going outside and getting into character we were able to
start really thinking about what was happening – it felt like we
were really there.
Being a poem, there was no speech, so when thinking about turning it into a
play script it was difficult to know what characters would say and how they
would act. To allow us to get a good understanding for the poem we each took
on the role of different characters using story whoosh.
When using story whoosh you become the character at different parts
in the poem. This makes you think about their actions, feelings and
consequences that arise.
Bringing other characters into the scene allowed us to understand how
they were linked and related. It allowed us to have a deeper
understanding characters and doing this in a real life setting made it
more real so we could come up with great dialogue and character
movement to use in the play scripts.
Year 6 – Highwayman
(freeze frame)
To focus in on key parts
of the poem, children
used freeze frames.
They took the idea of
different levels to tell a
story and show emotions
and feelings. This was
then used for aid in
descriptive writing and
stage directions for
their play scripts.
Using freeze frame helped us
think of what we wanted to show in
the picture and how the
characters should look to show
emotions and feeling.
Year 6 – Macbeth
(group planning)
Made it real, gave it
more action – felt
like we were really
there.
Helped give a
clear picture of
the story.
Using different
levels helps us
focus on one part
of the story and
our descriptive
language.
Had to focus on certain parts,
so it made us think more about
each part and characters
thoughts and feelings. We got
to live the story and feel the
emotions
At first story was hard to
understand, going outside
and acting was fun and made
it easier to understand.
Going outside made it
more enjoyable, so we
understood the story
well and did not forget.
Year 6 – Macbeth
(ipads)
We went outside with particular scenes to focus on. Each group
had to find their freeze frame position to capture the important
elements of the scene. Characters were then tapped to come to
life at particular parts in the scene. Sometimes we would act
from our freeze frame in character, other times when the story
was being told we would whoosh into that time and either all
become that character through movement and actions or only
the character tapped would come alive answer questions or
discuss how they were feeling/ why they acted in such a way.
Each group was given an ipad to use independently to build
up their own story of Macbeth. A range of photos and video
clips were used as they deemed appropriate.
We chose scenes that we found difficult to understand to
work on and act out. These then became much easier and
helped develop our vocabulary and dialogue within written
stories.
Freeze frame
and character
talk
Higher level questioning would be
used to challenge children at
appropriate levels to them. They would
range with: What did you do when...?
Explain how you felt when…
Who contributed to…
What events caused….
Props for the forest
school
We were given props for the forest:
Swords, cloaks, daggers, cauldrons etc. to engage
with and help set the scene.
Acting scenes
independently
Storytelling
We told the whole story of Macbeth through taking it in turns to
walk through the forest and watch groups scenes. It was
interesting to see how all groups were different and we magpied
ideas for speech and describing character movement when writing.
We also worked together by giving each other targets on how to
improve so we could all get even better. By the time we had
finished we really wanted to write our stories and show how good
they would be.
Speaking Shakespeare
together
To get in role and experience the story the children wanted to
keep the Shakespeare language within their stories. This was a
focus they added to success criteria and would peer assess
when watching scene performances. To help with this all the
same characters made their own groups and came ups with
sentences and phrases they would use within their acting and
play scripts.
Year 6 – Macbeth and Out-out
(what we think)
Discussed what we
were going to say
outside so it helped
with dialogue and
speech during
writing
Talking about the story
and discussing it, as
well as using props and
discussion outside
made it easy to
understand
Have to show emotion
on camera – actions
speak, louder than
words – watching
back helped but
actions into words
Not just writing
we are actually
acting out how
they are feeling so
we understand it
We also worked on the poem out-out by Robert Frost.
more
After analysing and discussing what it meant, we made
trailers in the forest school based on the events that
happened in the poem. Here we used our knowledge to
draw out important elements and make an interesting
trailer for a movie. This work then helped us to turn
the events into a newspaper report.
Going outside make
you feel like you are
in that place…we put
ourselves into the
story.
Watching each other
discussing our scenes was
good. Giving each other
feedback helps gives us
something to work on to
improve.
Filming and playing
back made us more
independent, we could
watch, edit and learn
from our mistakes.
Year 6 - Change
Having the ipads makes us
more independent and we
could look back at what we
have done to improve and
give ideas for language in
writing.
Acting – we are not just sat
writing anymore it is fun and
give us a clear picture.
Learning is not just
sitting down we get to
do it outside and in
different ways.
We think our writing is
much better because we
know how to achieve our
targets and how to improve
We can write using good
description with feelings
and new punctuation
After doing all the acting
and discussion we wanted to
write it so we could create
our own and use our own
language.
Our writing is much better
because we know how to
achieve our targets and how
to improve
Whole school task in phases
•Plan a unit of work that involves outdoor learning linked to literacy.
•10% of the timetable should be linked to outdoor learning
experiences.
•The outcome must be a form of writing.
•Use at least two of the following (outdoors), within the unit:
- Freeze frame
- Acting scenes collaboratively
- Hot seating in the story telling chair
- Ipads for imovie/trailer
- Ipads for book creator
- Story whoosh!
- group planning
Outcome – EYFS – Nursery
(Three Billy Goats Gruff-ipads)
The themed topic was ‘traditional tales’ Nursery children worked on
the story of the three Billy Goats Gruff. They worked in groups and
used ipads to act out the story in the correct order.
Children enjoyed working together and pretending to be the
characters. They worked hard to change their voices to show when
the goats were scared and the troll was angry.
Outcome – KS1 Where the Wild Things
Are
(Acting Scenes collaboratively)
Children in year 1/2 used the forest school to work on their speaking
and listening before writing their own story of ‘where the wild things
are’ They worked on character talk – how characters felt at different
points in the story and what they would say as a result. This helped
them to use speech/dialogue in their writing.
They also had an opportunity to sequence the story through acting
collaboratively, ensuring they were familiar with the order when
writing.
Outcome – LKS2
(Mystery stories – freeze frame and group planning)
Children in year 3/4 made their own mystery stories based in the forest school.
Thieves had come in and not only stolen the gate to the forest school but also
one of the chickens. They had to use their detectives skills to find the thief and
develop a mystery story based around the work they did. Children used the
forest school for character talk. They transformed into their chosen character
in appropriate areas of the forest and spoke about their feelings and reasons
for action or thoughts. They then worked collaboratively in groups to freeze
frame each stage in their story to use in the group story plan they were
creating.
Outcome – UKS2
(Mini-beast documentaries – imovies)
In year 5 children were creating their own mini-beasts to film a documentary
in the style of David Attenborough. They researched their mini-beasts and
went out in the forest school where they worked in pairs to write a script and
film documentaries on the iPad using the iMovie app. These were then turned
into individual information text sheets.