Orientate Yourself to Outdoor Learning: Outdoor Literacy Activities

These are the ideas and suggestions covered in the Outdoor Literacy workshop at the LTS "Orientate Yourself to Outdoor Learning" event at Glenmore Lodge on 25^th March 2011. The theme of the workshop was circles which links nicely to work on cycles in nature. 

Getting into a circle

Playing a simple game of Simon Says often warms children up to being outside and listening to and following instructions. Get them to run around touching different objects and using the game to explore the environment. After a couple of minutes say "Simon says line up behind someone else." If a straight line happens ask the children to consider how to ensure that everyone is lined up behind someone else. Eventually the group will deduce that a circle is needed.

Sticky circle bands

Put masking tape, sticky side up on sleeve. Everyone finds interesting objects to add to their band. Encourage children only to add a little part of an item such as one small petal rather than a whole flower. This activity can work well to help children learn expectations about what they may or may not pick up and use outside. Afterwards use the bands to set the scene for a story that takes place where you are working. Another possibility is to lay the band on card and use it to plan a story or re-tell a journey if the activity was undertaken as part of a walk.


Sticky bands have their limitations. They work less effectively when it's raining as it's hard to get things to stick and stay on. A useful alternative is to tie a piece of string onto a twig and wrap a sphere of clay around it to make a "clay ball". Objects collected can be pushed into the clay to keep them stuck there. With older children, using journey sticks works well. 


To end the activity and move onto the next one, I asked the participants to find a big sample of their favourite object on their sticky band.

Story circles

 Find an interesting object and bring to the circle. Tell a group story in a round using the objects in the circle. These can be stuck in a clay ball and passed from person to person. Variations including using story stones, creating a one-line “Pass it on” story or poem or acting out a scenario which uses 3 of the objects in the circle. Follow-up activities including making up individual or group stories. Playing “Kim’s Game” and other memory games that help with pre-reading skills

Circle poems

This is another simple poetry structure that can be found on Alec Finlay's website. The challenge is to create a circle poem with a maximum of 12 words. Those that work best can be read as an endless circle.

©Alec Finlay

 This poetry structure has multiple uses. I like the idea of brainstorming words and creating group circle poems in nursery. These can be laminated and attached to the wheels of bikes, trucks and other moving objects so children can see the poems moving round and round! I think they work well for outdoor work as children can observe and reflect upon cycles in nature, in our lives, how things come and go, etc. 


Many pupils will also want to create other shape poems and structures. From a design perspective, it can be worthwhile asking children to consider text, size, font, colours and presentations of the poems. Fun can be had following up this work through using tagxedo word clouds.

A three-circles-in-one variation by one participant!

Anyway, I'm rushing round in circles at the moment trying to finish up various bits of work before the end of the month. Thanks to all the participants for their ideas and contributions last Friday.

Where would you rather be?

Imagine you have been given the opportunity to attend a training event for free. Where will it take place? Think back to your last few training events. Have you ever attended a training session where you've passed the time day dreaming about where you'd rather be?

Today I had the privilege of offering workshops at a Learning and Teaching Scotland CPD event called “Orientate Yourself to Outdoor Learning.” It was based in the Cairngorms National Park at Glenmore Lodge. Participants had to locate their workshops through orienteering. 

Rather than being offered indoor accommodation and access to grass or tarmac, I was given an orienteering map which told me where to set up my gear for the outdoor literacy activities I was offering.

Off I set along a track…

Following the occasional sign...

Down a little woodland path...

Through some mud (no strange animal tracks noted)...

Around the really boggy bit (with no bog creatures spotted)...

Trip-trapping over a bridge (no trolls there, phew!)....

Jaunting along beside the burn...

Into the deep, deep woods of the Caledonian Pine Forest (no Gruffalo to be seen)...

Until I came to a clearing....

And an orienteering sign that told me I had reached my destination...

So the transparent tarp was set up....

Ready for participants to arrive....

At the moment a Mappiness research project is underway. This involves 36 000 participants using their iPhones to map where they feel happy. Preliminary results suggest that people are happier outdoors in green and natural environments than in cities, even after controlling for a wide range of other factors such as weather, companionship, activity, time of day and day of week.

Generally, outdoor learning courses get very positive ratings from participants. I'm certain a lot of this is due to participants being able to spend time outside, often in natural settings. What a change from a stuffy room indoors! Next time you attend a course, think about where you'd rather be...

A Harry Potter Hunt

OK. Imagine the scenario. You arrive at a class to support an outdoor learning session and it's not happening. Do you:
a) Nip off to the staffroom for a quick cuppa?
b) Join in the planned (indoor) activity?
c) Set up an impromptu Harry Potter hunt?

Generally speaking I'm not a big fan of trails outdoors as I have too much experience of spending hours setting it up for it all to be over within a few minutes. However a couple of years ago I put together a Harry Potter trail based upon the puzzle Hermione and Harry encountered in their quest to find the Philosopher's Stone. It a useful comprehension exercise with a bit of deduction thrown in for good measure. The rhyming puzzle was split into 16 clues, e.g.:

These were cut out, laminated and then posted around the school grounds at top speed. (Run, teacher, run!). On a map I marked the approximate location of the clues. The beautiful map below was drawn by a child in the Primary 7 class which was quick to photocopy for each group. Whilst it is not drawn to scale, the slight inaccuracies add to the challenge. 

Like orienteering,  the children were set the task and then had to copy the numbers onto their own map using the master. They had to consider the most efficient strategy for collecting and writing down the clues.

Some groups stuck together. Other groups chose to split up and seek the clues independently bring the results back to a record keeper.

Most groups realised that collecting the clues in order wasn't necessary.

And the map was frequently consulted.

Once the clues had been located and collected, the groups began the task of putting them together in the correct order and working out which bottle contained which potion on the table below:

I found it interesting to observe the children undertaking this part of the task. One or two children in each group got really into the puzzle. The rest opted out. Having a task to engage the opter-outers at this point is useful. The actual hunt appealed highly to the whole class. It was an unexpected surprise to be sent outside on a balmy spring day to do this.

Because I had kept my original cards and had a map readily available, the activity took exactly 20 minutes to set up. It's worth spending the time, when creating such activities to make them easily replicable with another class or site. In the past I've done this activity as a series of clues to guide children to the next place in the school grounds. This removes the need for a map but does make the activity site specific.

Finally, for those practitioners interested in geocaching and its application to trails in school grounds, then have a look at this post by Jen Deyenberg. It's a lovely way of enhancing a hunt using gps and talking tins.

Messy Maths Outdoors

Grounds for Learning - the Scottish school grounds charity held it's national networking event last week.  It's become quite an annual tradition in the Scottish outdoor learning calendar and it was lovely to be part of this positive event. When the film clips come out, I'll post them!

The weather was wet, sleety and blustery. Combined with the soggy grass, this was the ideal combination for my messy maths workshops. There was a LOT of mud. The aim of messy maths is to give children, especially those who lack confidence in maths or have disengaged, an opportunity to learn outside building on from play-based experiences. It works well for classes who need to reinforce concepts and skills learnt indoors in a practical context outdoors. Here's some of the ideas, in case you missed them!


Outdoor Master Chef in a Mud Kitchen. 
This is an extension of the popular mud and outdoor kitchens that have been popping up on pre-school blogs world-wide. It requires putting out a few pots, pans, and kitchen items in a place where children can access a bit of mud, leaves and other natural materials. The group has to invent a recipe using natural ingredients to hand. The rest of the class must feedback to the group on:

• Their ability to demonstrate how the product was created. 
• Their accurate use and frequency of mathematical tems especially those related to quantity and measurement
• The aesthetic look of the final product.
• Dramatic performance - the audience want to be entertained (NB No F-words or other uncouth language)

The workshop participants undertook the challenge with vigour. The "kitchen" was set up near to a supply of natural materials. I brought along the kitchen items and a few exciting extras such as coloured water, syringes and plastic piping.

The final products almost looked good enough to eat. The mud mousse looked very realistic!

Find out what factors affect the speed or flow of water

At the Scottish second level, children are expected to know and use the formula Speed = Distance ÷ Time.  The aim of this activity is to get children to apply this to practical work. Fair testing is a real consideration:

Rope work

Another group was challenged with the task of making a maths activity that involved using a big old climbing rope. We had some great ideas including making fractions with the rope, a huge clock and undertaking group team challenges to make different shapes using the rope and being blindfolded.

Create a water clock that accurately measures one minute

This produces some very interesting designs as the participants had to work out what materials would work best and how to measure one minute.

Sand sculptures

The final activity was using sand and tarp to make three sand sculptures. One had to have the largest volume, the next the largest area and the final one the largest perimeter. Below is the sculpture with the largest area. It has lots of knobbly holes to increase the surface area!

The volume sculptures were almost always the tallest structures. The perimeter sculptures definitely had the most interesting and complex edges.

Messy maths is not textbook maths. It takes the concepts outdoors and applies them in a playful and challenging way for any child. The activities work well for children working together of different ages. It makes a nice series of "master classes" for schools who operate this within their weekly timetables. Alternatively, it can be a Golden Time option. Most importantly, it makes maths fun.

More Masking Tape

Every piece of masking tape tells a story. From where it first came off the roll, how long it was made, where it was stuck, how it was gathered and where it came to rest. Most importantly it is the story of play with creativity, exploration, investigation and imagination mashed into moments of joy.

A few weeks ago as part of the Aberdeen City Outdoor Nurture Project, I put out some masking tape. At first the bag was ignored as there was lots of other exciting activities going on. However after a while, I took out one roll, attached it to the fence and waited to see what would happen. Here is this story:

A couple of children got to work, declaring that the slide was dangerous and needed to be sealed off.

The masking tape did this job beautifully. The slide was very carefully covered too.

However, it is hard to ignore something that you are "not allowed" to do or enter. Very soon, the girl who had sealed off the steps, decided to venture past the tape and went up the steps.

Meanwhile, the area continued to get sealed off by children experimenting and seeing how long the masking tape could go without breaking.

Back at the slide there was a problem. Three children were now up at the top of the slide. They couldn't go back down the steps or down the slide. They were stuck. I waited to see what they would do.

Eventually the girl decided enough was enough and carefully started to climb down the slide, trying to keep the masking tape intact but this simply wasn't possible. It broke. Oh no! OH YES! 

When she realised that the masking tape could be broken the girl was delighted. Immediately she went to the steps and broke past the masking tape there too. 

And the boys followed suit.

After that the focus was on breaking masking tape for a while.

Now this frustrated one child, who rather liked the lines of masking tape. He asked me if he could use sellotape instead and fetched it from inside.

On his own, he started to restore some of "the damage".

Although a lot of masking tape was used, the depth of play and focus shown by the children were great. Masking tape makes me realise why learning through play is what it's really all about. For all of us!

The Magic of Masking Tape

Generally I'm quite tight with my money. I don't like buying stuff that rapidly disappears. I go for longevity and robustness. So my love affair with masking tape is an exception to this self-imposed rule.

Masking tape is amazing. For a strip of sticky paper it is remarkably versatile. Making a sticky-side-up bracelet works well for collecting interesting colours or common weeds.

I've also got children to attach it to the soles of their shoes and to walk through a meadow or long grass in late summer. The seeds of plants sticky to the tape and then can be carefully planted to see what grows.

Very young children get the point of masking tape. It is easier to tear or cut than Sellotape so sticking things is important. For example, masking tape is used to attach material to objects when making dens.

Or simply for decorating posts! I think the sound of masking tape adds to its attraction as it comes off its roll.

This girl is in the process of making windows for the dens. 

However, before long, a child discovers that masking tape doesn't need to be cut into little pieces. It can be used to wrap up big structures.

This child got completely absorbed in the process.

It caused quite a bit of discussion and commentary from other children...

Who then realised that this could be a lot of fun to play with too...

Surprisingly the masking tape wasn't broken. I think that was part of the challenge the children set themselves.

I really want to introduce bandages next...!

Sadly the masking tape had to come down as the older children use this space at their break times. The making tape can be washed and used for messy printing. Scrunch the making tape into a bundle, dip in paint and have fun printing...