Lexi, Brianna, Katy and Jackie did very well today for outdoor education. Their instant activity “Cite Possible” was very interesting and informative. We got to move around, interact with strangers and explore nature. I was in Katy’s group during discussion, and she led the summary and discussion very well. Instead of giving us a lot of information once, she used many questions to keep our attention and stimulate us to think about the textbook content. For the main activity, I loved all four stations. Katy’s lesson on Air was helpful; I learned about many properties or air which would usually ignore or take for granted. In Lexi and Brianna’s stations, we learned about the importance of team work and supporting each other. Finally, Jackie’s station was fun and meaningful, and it was clever how she tied it in with the aboriginal content. Making art with leaves, wood, and other objects from nature can be adapted in both primary and intermediate classrooms, either in art, PE or even science classes. Overall, I think the class today was very well done and helpful, and I will definitely use some of the lessons they taught in my practicum. Good job ladies! 🙂
Tag Archives: Outdoor Ed
Oct 14 Movement journal
Outdoor Education creates opportunity for students to learn through direct personal experience and offers extraordinary adventures that a regular classroom will never experience. In addition, students can build many relationships throughout outdoor education. First, is the interpersonal relationship between people; how they cooperate, communicate, and trust one another during social group interactions. Next, is intrapersonal relationships, which refers to how one relates to others. Due to the non-competitive nature of outdoor education, it offers students the opportunity to develop independence and self-reliance. In an outdoor environment, there can be numerous challenges students are facing, overcoming fears and attribute to self-confidence and self-esteem. Lastly, students will have a strong connection with the ecosystem.
Wednesday 14th Reflection – Outdoor Education
Hola!
I really enjoyed our class last week, as I’m sure most of us did! I think we could all collectively agree that we enjoy being outside, whether it’s just for a walk or rigorous exercise or sitting quietly and reading. One thing that always stands out for me when I was in school (both elementary and secondary) was when we got to go outside. Sometimes we even got to go outside for our silent reading block, which was awesome.
I really liked how the group teach mixed it up a bit and implemented a scavenger hunt (my favorite)! I appreciated that they incorporated a range of values/aspects into the scavenger hunt. For instance, they covered nutrition, teamwork, motivation and even looking after the environment (picking up a piece of garbage) within the hunt. On top of that, I loved that we continued walking to the beautiful forest AND even did our teaching summaries out in the sun at WesBrook Village. Thank you Steve!
It’s important to find times throughout the day where you can bring your students outside. Over the last 2 visits at practicum I have noticed two different occasions where teachers implement this. One teacher told the class that they were going to head outside and they voted on whether they wanted to either sit in the forest to be silent and reflect or head out to a viewpoint where they could see the ocean. AMAZING! The other example was a teacher taking her class out for 5 minutes to grab some fresh air and run a couple of laps around the field. I loved this because it allowed the kids to get up and move and get some fresh air. I think its healthy for children to clear their head a bit, especially if they have been sitting working hard at something for a long period of time. It’s a nice way to break up the day.
Being active and being outside is a huge priority of mine and as a future educator I will most definitely get my students outside at any opportunity I can.
See you Wednesday!
Tobi Watt
Week 6 Movement Journal
This week was my most enjoyed class of the year so far for this class. I realize that this is a big statement, and even coming from me being someone who loves playing sports and games in P.E. classes. But I loved the way that this group used the outdoors and proved the ousdoors are an effective way to teach your class, an outdoor classroom. It was also great way for us to get to know our campus surrounding better as well. For instance, the upside-down tree and the echo circle, the flag pole and the rose garden were all things we were able to see during our class outside. These are all structures which could be used to teach a lesson on, outside of the classroom and outside of Physical Education. For instance, the upside-down tree could be used in a science class to learn and understanding as to how tress are able to survive through this process. Or the echo circle could be used in a science class as well, learning the way in which soundwaves work. These are huge inquiry ideas as well, giving students the opportunity to wonder and ask questions to go and test it out for themselves and research it. Therefore, this group proved that teaching outside proves to help teach cross-curricular. Thank you so much to this group for their hard work and preparation on their group teach, and thanks for bring up the expectations :p