28th June 2024

Take your classroom outside this Summer!

Warm weather is finally here! It’s time to get inspired for lesson planning and think about what you can do to take your classroom, outside. We wrote a blog on this last year and wanted to provide you all with even more options that you can use this summer. It’s so important that you’re providing variety to students when teaching, and acknowledging that everybody has different learning styles. What better way to do this than planning outdoor activities that are still centred around learning and development.

Here are our top 5 outdoor lesson ideas for 2024.

#1 Mindfulness

Practising mindfulness isn’t just something that you should do in your adult life, it should also be encouraged amongst younger students. Mindfulness doesn’t just allow us to be more in tune with our thoughts, feelings, and emotions, but it’s a good way to connect with nature, too.

You don’t have to provide a whole lesson on mindfulness, instead, you can spend the last 20 minutes of your designated lesson to take students outside and explain to them the importance of sitting in nature whilst also taking care of their mental wellbeing.

You can get all students to lie down on the grass (providing you have a large enough patch of this in your school) and guide them through a short 2-3 minute explanation of mindfulness and meditation. You can then guide them through breathing in and out with their eyes closed and getting them to listen to the sounds of nature around them. Get them to observe how they feel and to try and connect with their thoughts. Use the last 3-4 minutes to be in complete silence.

#2 Nature word search

This can be great both for Science and English teachers, as you can adapt this to encourage students to learn and practise new words (English) or make it biology/plant based if you’re a science teacher. Bonus points if students can find the answer in the outdoors as well as in the word search!

You can create a word search for free here.

#3 Short stories about nature

For English teachers, this can be an excellent way to broaden your students’ vocabulary and get them writing about different topics. Spend the first part of your lesson getting students to pick 3-5 things they can see outdoors in nature, and then get them to create a short story (1 side of A4) about it. You can then select students to read theirs out to the class and encourage positive and constructive feedback from other students. 

#4 Herb & Spice garden (with recipe creation)

For home economics or food technology, it’s time to get creative and get students to nurture their own herb and spice garden. You can then create additional lessons that encourage students to design their own recipes with the herbs and spices that you are currently growing. If you don’t have the capacity to grow them in the school’s garden, look at indoor herbs and spices that you could put in pots and leave outside the classroom! You will be able to assess student’s creative abilities with recipes whilst also teaching them about flavour pairings.

#5 The Sun

Science teachers, this one’s for you! Take your students outside on a sunny day and teach them all about the sun. Whether you take the route of talking about outer space and understanding the sun as a planet, or you want to talk about the sun and what it does for the earth (as well as the positive and negative effects that it has on the earth and also for us as humans) – it’s completely up to you! Get creative!

We hope you enjoy these outdoor lesson ideas and that you’re inspired for the summer! Looking for more inspiration? Check out our other blog posts here.