Outdoor 'welly Boot' Session

[Guest]

I am leading a free standing geography based outdoor session in the school field with a reception class of 25, who are a difficult class. Any ideas for a lesson which can stand alone without additional input through class time. The session is 1 hour and wil take place whatever the weather! Thanks!

[Guest]

Mmmm It seems you have set yourself abit of a task!

Not sure what you are looking to cover in the lessons, As it depends alot whats on your field is like! You suggest a geography based lesson in the foundation stage this is related to knoweldge and understanding of the world so you could do something along the lines of;

 

Notice and commenting on changes...could be linked to exploring puddles, mud, ice etc. Can they find something thats the same colour green?

Can you collect a range of materials and ask them to collect items looking the same ie stones, leaf. Like a treasure hunt you could make pictures of items for them tick off.

 

Exploring living things... not too many around at the moment though unless you fancy digging for worms! I have done this it if fab and would keep them occupied!

 

Finding our about their environment.. What bits do they like, is there alot of rubbish, Can they identify and record any landmarks or buildings.

 

What about using the weather.. wind, rain,

 

Hope these ideas give you abit of inspiration good luck

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply, I have narrowed down the theme to trees and leaves. I am going to try and have 4 group activities running, and they will rotate. Any ideas for activities about 10 minutes long each? Unfortunately it will take place come rain or shine, so weather friendly activities would be good!

[Guest]

What about

 

Bark rubbing; crayons + paper dosnt matter if it is raining.

 

Hold sheet under tree and shake and look at what u find

 

Observational drawings of trees/leaves

 

Digging around trees, putting in pot and examing

 

Collecting sticks/twigs putting them in order of sizes

 

If you have any leaves what about using them to make pictures

 

Not easy at the moment as you are quite limited in winter with what you can do.

[Guest tinkerbell]

Wednesday is wellie day and come rain or shine we all go out onto our school field and into our vegetable garden.Lots of great ideas have already been posted, these have worked for me and my class of r/yr1

 

kites made out of tesco bags(handles tied together so they dont put their heads in!)and lots of coloured wool ,strips of cloth,crepepaper, take a pencil and push it through thre bottom of the bag(push onto soft ground)and children to thread bits through tie on then run up and down...whose kite flies the best?

 

leaf pictures in the style of Andy Goldsworthy (take photos)

 

Treasure hunts each group to take small box and collect list of items,eg i large leaf, 2 small stones, 3brown cones, ....

 

we also made 'nestings' these are washing powder bags filled with wool,fluff etc pull bits through the holes poking through with a pencil then hang on the trees for the birds to use for their nests!

 

Good luck

[redbase]

If weather is dry, try taking pixies or roamers outside. We made big maps (Differentiated) and laminated them for our groups and all the children loved the activity and stayed on task which was just as well we had Ofsted Inspectors in.

 

We do Welly Boot Day once every 6 weeks where everything is done outside (except lunch) and we ask parents to help. (We have always got a good response.)Everybody just loves goiong outside and we rarely have any behaviour issues because outside is where most children want to be. I think your children will love the freedom of being out on the field but beware because they will be very tired afterwards (and you too!)

Good luck on the day

Trudie

Edited January 11, 2006 by Trudie