I'm a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here!

Space blankets

2012-01-25T17:31:00.000Z

One of my favourite pieces of material has to be a space blanket. Technically it's a piece of life-saving equipment one keeps in a rucksack. But more often than not mine usually end up out of the packet and being played with. I often end up wrapping them around trees. The one below is part of a sensory rope trail:

I think space blankets are one of the most multi-sensory man-made pieces of plastic ever invented. I can't get over the fact that you can look through them - they are actually transparent. The noise made by shaking and scrunching space blankets makes them a worthy musical instrument in their own right.

They are light so little children can run around with them.

At some point the super-hero inside each of us makes an appearance and the space blanket becomes a cape...

Some children love tossing the space blanket into the air. On windy days I tie this to a pole or fence to stop it blowing away yet allowing the wind to catch it.

Space blankets are a useful additional to den building. Look at the posh house which can be made with a space blanket, a plastic poncho and some masking tape.

Naturally any Christmas shop will be given an extra sparkle through the use of a space blanket.

Some children just like the lightness and brightness when sitting on them.

And others find that they really do keep you warmer when all wrapped up!

So how have you or your children used space blankets? I hope they have been a useful emergency play resource for you too!

BtC Outside and In: What's special about the outdoors?

2012-01-22T08:09:00.000Z

This post is the second in a series that looks at the statements outlined in the vision statement for outdoor learning in the document Building your Curriculum: Outside and In. The second statement is...

Values
All children are able to experience and enjoy the essential and special nature of being outdoors.

This is a statement which can be discussed amongst staff at any primary or secondary school or pre-school setting. It can aid understanding about why children need opportunities as part of their learning to be outside.

Being outside should be more than simply any old indoor activity taken outside. For example, taking a maths textbook to a table outside is not truly capitalising on the outdoor environment and the benefits of playing and learning out there. Jan White sums this up beautifully in this article, by stating:

"...we must hold in our minds that the outdoors is different to indoors: these differences are what makes it special and important. We need to be clear about how the outdoors differs from the indoors, why children benefit from being outdoors and how the outdoors responds so well to the ways in which (young) children learn. This thinking then gives us the key to for what to provide and how to plan for the outdoors... The special nature of the outdoors fits the way (young) children want to be, behave, learn and develop in so many ways. Perhaps this is why children love to be outside so much. It certainly gives a strong rationale and justification for developing rich outdoors provision and building in as much access to it as possible." Please note that the brackets around the adjective 'young' are mine. I feel this advice applies to children and young people of all ages.

So what makes being outside essential and special? I'm sure if you asked your colleagues, friends and parents they would come up with a similar (and better) list to mine...

The weather and seasons
Even in an urban jungle, with only a concrete outside patch, the weather impacts on every outdoor activity. Children and young people can experience the weather wherever they live. It is ever-changing and creates a multi-sensory experience. In Scotland we are lucky enough to have four distinct seasons that add variety in terms of nature, weather, colour and amount of daylight available.

Multi-sensory learning
Beyond weather and the seasons, other factors create a multi-sensory learning experience. The different surfaces underfoot, the range of natural settings available even within an urban location and the smells, sights, sounds and feelings associated with being outside are unique. For example, taking children on a blindfold walk through their school grounds will create quite an impact. The review sessions can be powerful after such an experience. Plan and provide for all the senses and don't just limit this to a sensory or wildlife garden.

Biodiversity
This is about the range of flora and fauna within, across and between species, habitats and climate zones. It is a sad fact that children are more likely to know about different animals in other countries than native Scottish wildlife. I regularly meet children who do not recognise daisies or dandelions. Our native plants provide folklore, an alternative perspective on history and help wildlife flourish. There are also many little games and activities associated with our native plants. For example, making daisy chains and tattooing our hands with the milky sap of dandelions. Looking at a photo of a child blowing a dandelion clock is a far cry from experiencing this for real.

A sense of freedom and space
This is so often forgotten by adults but very important to children. Several years ago I did a small scale research project with 200 P6 children in Aberdeen. When asked what made an activity different when it took place outside, "freedom" and "space" were the most frequent answers given without any prompts. If you show children a range of photos of school grounds, it is interesting to see which prove the most popular. The ones where open spaces can be seen are often picked. Hmmm....

It's fun!
I know this may not be a number one priority for the Scottish Government, but in EVERY course I facilitate where reasons for learning outside are discussed, the participants put this down as a key component. Teachers know, and children too, that learning needs to be enjoyable. I look forward to the day when our school inspectors rate the fun factor as well as attainment levels in every school. I bet there's a correlation!

Physical activity
Children need to be able to move, run about, climb, walk and learn with their whole bodies. Research from the Forestry Commission Scotland demonstrates that children are more physically active on days where they undertake Forest School than on days when they have a PE lesson. One of my saddest experiences, was witnessing an 11-yr old child unable to walk up a small hill as he had never had this opportunity before visiting the outdoor centre where I worked.

Developing a sense of place and belonging
This is about our society valuing children and also children learning to love and value the places where they live and belong. The only way to do this is to get children out and about in their local area seeing and getting involved in the life of a place. It's also about the community learning that children's presence - being seen and heard - can be a positive indicator of social and community togetherness.

Developing a connection with nature and natural spaces
Children will not learn nor understand important concepts such as sustainable living and climate change without frequent contact within nature. Ecoliteracy can only be developed through first hand experiences of playing in wild places. If we want children to develop pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours then ensuring children have free play opportunities in nature is needed.

I know this post just gives a taste of the possibilities. What do you think? Some useful reflective questions include:

What makes being outside special and unique for you and your children?
How can we capitalise on the use of our school grounds and local area within the time children spend in school regardless of the age and stage they are at?
How can we use the unique and special nature of the outdoors to provide better learning experiences?
What do we need to do to improve our school grounds to ensure it adds value to the learning and teaching within our school?

The next post in this series is "We value the contribution of all staff to ensure children maximise the potential of the outdoors."

Building your Curriculum: Outside and In - Values Part 1

2012-01-19T13:52:00.000Z

Earlier this year, Education Scotland published the BtC:Outside and In. It's a strategic document that outlines practical steps a school can take to embedding outdoor learning into its curriculum and overall approach to learning and teaching.

On page 2 there's an illustration of a vision statement for outdoor learning which can be used when a schools asks "Where do I want to be?" in terms of ensuring that learning outdoors is a frequent and regular occurrence for every child. Knowing how busy senior management and teachers are, the aim of this series of blog posts is to look at each statement within this vision and expand upon this with some practical suggestions. So let's begin...

Values
Our school is a place where children have a right to work and play where it most suits their learning needs.

This statement is deceptively simple. Firstly it mentions the rights of children. This is something every school should check - whether or not their children actually have this right.

Many children enjoy learning outdoors and find that being physically more active or having more space gives them the opportunity to think, reflect and concentrate better. Thus, it's important that teachers observe their pupils and work out who really benefits from outdoor activities. The next challenge is to decide how these children can have more chances to work outside.

A lovely example of a class teacher enabling this to happen occurred last year at the school where I work. A P1 teacher realised that her class would enjoy playing and learning outside. She reorganised her classroom so that when she was working with groups, her seat gave her a view of the inside class and the area just outside her classroom. In conjunction with the children she set up a system where children could help themselves to resources to use outside. The pupils knew they had to stay within the designated area and behave sensibly. If they didn't then they lost the privilege of being outside during class time. When minor disputes arose outside, initially the children would come and tell their teacher. She gave them the choice of sorting it out independently or coming back inside the class. This quickly gave children greater responsibility over their choice about where to learn and play and to sort out gripes themselves.

I have also seen many teachers simply decide to undertake more activities outside with their whole class. I've also used classroom assistants to take children in groups outside for specific tasks. Years ago, when I first started teaching I had a very challenging P2 class in a tiny classroom, which was barely large enough to swing a hamster, let alone a cat. As well as increasing the amount of outdoor activities, the children who were able to demonstrate that they could complete tasks independently were given the choice as to whether they wanted to work outside the classroom or in. This had the knock-on effect of ensuring that being sent out of the class was a positive achievement and not a negative consequence of poor behaviour. It's also an example of how remote supervision is doable with young children.

Secondly, some activities are better taught outside. For example, learning about farming is more effective if children get to visit a farm, talk to a farmer and have a chance to see what a working farm looks like. It's even better if they get to grow their own crops, harvest them and make food from their produce. A good example can be seen in this case study about the Waldorf School in Prague. It's great to see that increasing numbers of schools are looking after hens and other animals too. That's real world learning which involves caring for animals, money management and even having to make life or death decisions.

I hope this post is helpful. Please let me know if you have done any thing to enable your children to work and play in a place that most suits their needs.

The next post in this series is "All children are able to experience and enjoy the special nature of being outdoors."

2012: Outwith the Old and in with the New!

2012-01-16T21:47:00.000Z

Today is a bit of an epic for me. For the past 4 years, the official Creative STAR website has looked like this:

But it has had a radical makeover and now looks like this:

Please go and have a look and explore! It's considerably bigger and more interactive than the previous version. Over the next few months and years, the aim is to slowly move material from this blog over so that eventually I don't need to manage two sites.

To kick start the new look, I'm doing a short daily-ish blog post on the new website in addition to posts on here. Just little snippets and ideas. Please do add comments, suggestions and feedback. It would be much appreciated.

Happy New Year! Happy New Website!

PS Apologies for the blogging break but this has been the reason.

Try Before you Buy

2012-01-04T00:16:00.000Z

Happy New Year Everyone!

As usual, a holiday gives me time to dream and scheme. I'm currently in the middle of revamping my website. It's a substantial job and when it goes live will only represent a small fraction of my vision for what I ultimately want it to be.

One of the things which will change is that I will have advertising on both this blog and the new website. I'm trying to make the social enterprise aspect of my work more transparent. The aim is to put the money raised into some kind of outdoor clothing scheme as I feel if children are properly (or better) dressed for being outdoors then they are able to get outside more often.

My original plan was to offer small scale grants to organisations and schools. However, I'm now wondering whether setting up a "Try Before you Buy" box would be more effective. The aim would be to create a box with:

A selection of different clothing from different companies. For example trousers, dungarees, all-in-ones, some with elastic cuffs, others with velcro, some with poppers, some with zips, possibly a cape or two and a range of colours and sizes.
Advice sheets about factors to consider. For example, the Swedish Civil Defence League advocate very young children being dressed in bright colours, with some reflective material and elastic cuffs on waterproof trousers to keep the warmth in and the wet out.
Suggestions for involving children of different ages in putting together criteria for testing and deciding which clothing is most effective
Suggestions for acquiring clothing and fundraising
Some simple outdoor ideas to try whilst testing the clothing!

The idea is that the box could be loaned to a class for a few weeks to try out. Whilst there would not be enough clothes for a whole class, it would be a good positive focus on the benefits of wearing appropriate clothing. I think it would generate discussions and enthusiasm for getting outside using an enterprising and interdisciplinary approach.

The idea has grown from my experience of working with different groups of children. I have a box of clothes that I make available to classes with which I work. What has been interesting has been observing which clothes the children choose and why. For example, red clothes and yellow clothes are most popular with children who like to pretend they are fire fighters or have other jobs. I also see children mix and match jackets and trousers/dungarees. As my own son grew up he switched preference from red to navy blue but remained fussy about the texture of outdoor clothes and how they feel.

I'm interested to know your thoughts. Do you think would work well? Do you have any questions? Any drawbacks or concerns?

Many thanks.

PS All the clothes worn in these photos come from Raindrops Clothing, in case you were wondering! I've always like the range and choice offered. However lots more outdoor clothing companies are springing up, often set up by parents with young children.

Progression in Using Places for Learning and Playing Outdoors

2011-12-29T21:54:00.000Z

At this time of year, I think I tend to be quite reflective about where I've come from and what the future may hold. This year is particularly poignant as five years ago, I stopped working as a head teacher, with little idea about my future.

Since then I've progressed quite significantly in my thinking around the impact of being outside and using the variety of places, spaces and experiences (planned and spontaneous). It used to be a jolly nice thing. Now I believe it's a fundamental right and necessity. With the best will in the world, classroom based learning does not provide authentic learning experiences about the real world. Digital technology can help us connect with others around the world and open our eyes to all sorts. Nevertheless it lacks the multi-sensory experience of managing the weather, unexpected happenings and the connection to nature that we as humans intrinsically crave and seek. We are change-seekers. And we get our kicks from changing events in the natural world and celebrate the constants that come hand-in-hand with this.

However like most educators I'm on a learning continuum when it comes to exploring the potential of creating and using outdoor experiences. Progression is a theme that naturally dovetails with taking learning outdoors.

Firstly, as creatures of habit we all tend to favour a particular place. At the moment, as a matter of convenience it tends to be the school grounds. And within the grounds, my classes tend to use a wildlife garden and a far corner up a hill.

At one school, we spent huge amounts of time going off-site simply because the grounds were too small and the local community had attractive amenities including a stream, river, pond, railway, village hall and small woodland. We also had a lot of time visiting other schools and doing things further afield.

In terms of place, there is progression in terms of being able to flexibly use all the places available to us. Here in Scotland, it is rare for young children to have overnight or residential experiences. Yet in a number of progressive school I encountered in North America, the overnight camping trip at the start of a new year is considered really important to allow new children and their parents to settle into school and also as an opportunity for recent leavers to re-visit and share their experiences of moving on to a bigger school.

We also have a big focus on "Forest School" activities. Whilst woodlands are wonderful places, the opportunity to explore other habitats can add value. This is recognised in Sweden where the outdoor nurseries and schools tend to be located near woods, an orchard (for eating fruit), pond or lake (ice skating, paddling and pond dipping) and a hill (skiing and sledging).

What cannot be over-stated is the value of repeated visits to different local places. Throughout the year, this allows children to witness the seasonal changes that happen. This can include cultural and community changes in urban areas too. For example, shop windows change according to different events. There's Valentine's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Halloween and Christmas that all get "showcased" by shops in Scotland. Aside from observing changes, re-visiting local places gives children opportunities to do things in a different way with different expectations and involving different people.

Walking known routes helps children identify key features in their local community and develop an affinity with the place in which they live. The value of walking to and from school is huge. Often it's a chance for children to play en-route with their friends. As a young child, although I didn't especially enjoy the afternoon walks with my mum, I liked the chance to run up to each of the gates at the side of the road. I knew which ones were good for swinging on and which weren't.

Basic knowledge and skills also arise. I remember once accompanying some 13-yr olds on a mapping activity. The teenagers in my group did not know that the streets all had names which could be found at the end of each street. They were astounded when they realised that houses on one side of the street were numbered odd and the ones on the opposite side were all even numbers. Without frequent opportunities to walk around, concepts that were assume become second nature to people, aren't acquired.

As my step-father tells me, "Where there's no sense, there's no feeling." When we lose our sense of place, we lose our feelings for place. We lose out on our place in the world.

The photos in this post all come from this case study I wrote about Seattle Nature Pre-school whose daily walks help children develop strong links with their local area and a great sense of place!

2011 - The Popular Posts

2011-12-26T21:11:00.000Z

For 2011, the most popular posts on my blog were ....

1) Stones - Plain or painted they still remain a popular resource. This is the second year of being the most popular post!

2) Big Outdoor Musical Instruments - Bespoke and bought examples from different schools and settings in Scotland along with some practical tips to help you think before you buy.

3) Outdoor Play at Cowgate Under 5's Centre - An inspirational pre-school centre in the heart of Edinburgh. This is the second year it's been the 3rd most popular post.

4) Echt School Outdoor Instruments - A rural Aberdeenshire School has created some beautiful big tuned percussion instruments.

5) Recycling books for use outdoors - All your favourite books can be given a new lease of life and survive the weather too.

6) Outdoor Sandpits - ROAR! This post digs deep into the issues around sand play.

7) Leaf Loving Literacy Activities - Lots of ideas for using leaves for creating group poetry and other talking activities.

8) Creating a Writing-Friendly Outdoor Environment - It can make a difference and it's a lot more than a bunch of tables...

9) The Fibonacci Sequence and Nature - One of the best mathematical discoveries of all time...

10) Willow Structures in School Grounds - If your climate allows you to grow willow then this versatile plant is a massive "must" for any playspace.

So what will 2012 bring? As yet, who knows! Watch this space.

It's all about Stuff! Part 2

2011-12-22T20:48:00.003Z

Following on from my last blog post, the children in the P1-3 class at Crimmond School really got to work. They reviewed the materials with which they had played and decided what they felt they needed. The class wrote to lots of local businesses and companies asking - quite literally - for stuff.

Most of the companies were intrigued. One local DIY store wrote back saying...

"As I am sure you appreciate we receive a large number of requests almost on a daily basis for donations / support for all manner of projects but it would be fair to say that we were delighted that the pupils took the time to write themselves and so it ended up as an agenda point at our weekly manager meeting that Monday which I can assure you is a first ! – so tell them well done ! "

The letter concluded with an invite to visit behind the scenes!

Needless to say, a lot of parents and relatives were extremely helpful and gave the class plenty of useful stuff. One grandparent donated an old boat, which makes a perfect play feature...

Another very popular item has been this big plastic drainage tube. It is extremely robust. Everyone enjoys crawling inside it and being rolled around.

Being a fishing community, there were also lots of fish boxes donated....

The school has made some changes to practice. Firstly, the lunchtime staff do not lead the play that is happening. They facilitate instead. If a child needs assistance they are there, but as much as possible the children are encouraged to make the dens, tie the knots and build up the skills required to do this independently.

The lunchtime staff have also organised themselves so that one of the two of them is near where the stuff is. The other floats between the playground and the field at the back of the school. The photo below is taken from an ideal vantage point where they can see the whole part of the main playground yet are closest to the place where the riskiest play happens.

The staff have found that the older children who do feel confident and able will climb on the walls and swing off the ropes, etc. Those who aren't confident don't. Sometimes a little caring intervention is required but this happens only when necessary. For example when a child doesn't follow the rules which the P1-3 class devised.

Another significant change is that the area where bushes grow has been opened up for play purposes. This has proved highly valuable because the trees can be used for lots of den building and rope work, especially by older children. Also if you look at the photo below, the change in height has really added to the range of opportunities. One time when I went to visit, the children were using the guttering as a sliding post box for blocks of wood being passed from the top to the bottom of the wall.

The den building has continued to be popular. When the winter months arrived and more wet days came along, the sheets were replaced with tarps which don't need drying out as much. Again, this is a change of practice, in that the children are allowed to play with the stuff when it's wet and rainy outside.

Because the bush area is now available for play, the school bought some trowels and forks. Also if you notice, the stuff is available for all age groups. There is no segregation of age ranges. The older ones model ideas and good practice, and more often than not, the opposite happens.

The Primary 1-3 class initially kickstarted the project, but within a couple of weeks, the older classes had also been "trained". This was done in exactly the same manner as before. The stuff was taken out during class time. The rules were negotiated with the children. The staff observed the play and audited what they observed in line with Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes. This was an interesting exercise. At first glance it would appear that through the informal play opportunities many EOs are covered. However, because most include discussion and reflection, there is a need for this to happen, perhaps, within a Circle Time session in class time. Either way, this needs more consideration before big claims about curriculum coverage are made.

The staff and children all say lunchtimes have become more interesting. The football area is going to be moved to another part of the school to allow for more tarmac space to be used for the stuff. Some children rush to eat their food as quickly as possible so they can get out and play with the stuff. This is even after three months of the project being up and running.

In terms of creativity and imagination, there is both abound! As the lunchtime staff said, "Every day, the children do different things. It's never the same. We don't know what each day will bring."

Although, initially there was concern about letting children play with sticks, blocks of wood, pipes and ropes, so far the children have been really sensible about using it all appropriately. But then there's been a lot of discussion, practice, support and expectations around the use of the stuff. This project hasn't happened in isolation. It is part of a wider ongoing commitment to learning and play outside. For the past three years or more, the school has been continuously developing its grounds as a place for play and learning, as shown in this lovely video.

The biggest issue has been around the storage of the stuff. During the past few months it's been stacked up in a corridor near the outside door. This isn't ideal. The school are about to get an outside shed which will mean that it's much easier to take out and tidy up the stuff. A trick worth remembering is to buy a shed with double doors that allow quick access by more children. A long narrow shed will slow down the process.

The tidying up of the stuff is also a matter to be agreed with the children. At Crimond, everyone helps. Also, (and it's just a personal opinion) I think having larger items such as guttering and tarp are quicker and easier to tidy away than the little loose parts such as noggins, shells and itty-bits. Whilst these have high play value,too many little bits is a fiddle to tidy up.

If you want more information about this project, please do contact me directly. There are also plenty of organisations and other people who can provide the free play training for staff along with advice and support on how to develop this sort of project. For example:

Michael Follet, a former play adviser in Gloucestershire has a consultancy, Outdoor Play and Learning which has a specific package of support based on years of trialling play improvements in schools. This has been the subject of a highly respected report Supporting School Improvement Through Play published by Play England
Marc Armitage runs a play consultancy and was involved in the evaluations of the Scrapstore Playpod approach
Grounds for Learning ran highly successful Natural Play Project which also took a holistic whole school grounds development approach that included natural loose parts
Look up the organisations mentioned in this previous post about Scrapstore Playpods and Free Play in Schools.

It's all about Stuff!

2011-12-17T10:48:00.000Z

This past few months I've had the privilege of being involved in a wonderful and spontaneous project about stuff.

The children exploring the materials for the first time

It happened as much by chance as by intent. Every year, Grounds for Learning and Exxon Mobile have a small project called "Greener Grounds" for a few schools in Fife and NE Scotland. There is usually a theme. For example, one year it was numeracy outside, the next it was a film project and this year the focus was on natural play.

The materials were moved freely around the playground and grass area

Two staff members, a teacher and a classroom assistant (who also does other jobs including playground supervision) attended a course back in June about nature play. This covered the basic principles of play, the concept of free play especially in a natural setting and the practicalities of developing an outdoor space for improving play. This was followed up by a couple of support visits to the schools involved.

We used a mix of natural materials and sale price or scrap items. I've blogged about the purple tubes before

At Crimond School, the Primary 1-3 class were developing the play project. I went along one morning in August with my portable playground containing a variety of natural and scrap loose parts.

We began with a quick discussion about practical aspects of playing with the stuff I had brought along. The bottom line was simply, "be sensible". A couple of reminders about how to use ropes and sticks were also raised as part of this discussion. And then the children played.... and played.... and played.

This child has used the sticks as tent pegs

Whilst the children played, the school staff and myself had ongoing discussions about the play we were observing. The children were clearly highly engaged. There was lots of cooperative work and socialising happening. There was also many children happy to work alone on specific projects.

Initially the children ignored the suitcase of materials but when they saw how easy it was to make a den, they never looked back!

The creativity demonstrated by the children as they solved practical design and construction problems was very high. We saw and heard much imaginative play as children transformed wood cookies into X-boxes and created shops from sticks and crates.

If you notice the containers that I had stored materials in are also used - upturned buckets, etc.

From this session, the children were highly motivated to have this sort of 'stuff' at their school. They compiled lists of the materials they particularly enjoyed and then wrote to local companies to ask for their scrap materials.

Rope is extremely useful and well used

The story continues in the next blog post...

All I want for a natural Christmas is...

2011-12-14T08:42:00.000Z

The festive season is well underway and I've not had time to rush around the shops. Instead I've been compiling my own wishlist of natural goodies...

On the first day of Christmas, all the trees gave to me...

Lots of sticks

On the second day of Christmas, the deciduous trees gave to me...

Lots of leaves

On the third day of Christmas the planet Earth gave to me...

Lots of stones

On the fourth day of Christmas, the ocean gave to me...

Many beautiful shells

On the fifth day of Christmas, the ocean also gave to me...

The most beautiful sea glass

On the sixth day of Christmas, the birds gave to me...

Feathers found on a field

On the seventh day of Christmas, the sheep gave to me...

Wool gathered from hills and moorland

On the eighth day of Christmas, winter gave to me

Snow, ready for play, learning and laughter (Copyright Frode Svane - THANK YOU!)

On the ninth day of Christmas, the trees gave to me ...

Nuts of all shapes and sizes

On the tenth day of Christmas, the earth and sea gave to me...

Sand, because we all love beaches!

On the eleventh day of Christmas, the earth also gave to me...

Mud, for messing in

On the twelfth day of Christmas, a little sikta sapling gave to me

Joy!

What ever you are doing, natural materials make being outside the special place that it is. Happy Holidays!

Reflections on Ropes

2011-12-11T10:02:00.000Z

This has been a ropey session since August. There is something about rope that just makes it fun and appealing to children of all ages. The more I use it, the more I learn about its potential, particularly for group and cooperative work.

The boys in the photo below are experimenting with rope...

They started out making dens. Thanks to the use of rope, these can become quite complex structures...

I'm into the easy life. Even in Sweden, I liked the comfy side of rope work...

Many children simply like unraveling rope and making snake-like pattern movements with it. Others will just go for a walk with a rope...

Children quickly learn to make and use simple swings...

...and more complex ones. It took two sessions before the children had learned to chuck the rope over the high branch accurately...

Rope bridges require a lot of trial and error when creating as it's easy to make the rope too slack...

And talking of slack, even the teachers enjoy a chance to walk on a slack line...

Fastening a rope to a tree is good for winding and binding...

But somehow Fred the Ted got bound up too! He hadn't even been naughty so I think he just wanted to be rescued...

I've discovered that one class rather like holding the rope in a line. When we get to the top of the hill, making a circle with the rope is easier than without!

Older and younger children enjoy an impromptu game of Tug o' War...

Fred the Ted really likes getting caught up in the rope! Here he is again! He climbed up and then got stuck! Fancy that!

Finally rope webs can be a simple or challenging activity depending on the ability of any child. For this girl, simply managing to step through the web from one side to another was an absorbing challenge.

I've blogged previously about ropes and sensory trails made of ropes. Enjoy browsing! Oh and tell me about the adventures your children have with ropes... there's many more to come right here.

All I want for my reusable Christmas is...

2011-12-08T11:59:00.000Z

Is this the time of year when you become aware of all those things you never knew you never needed? Well don't despair! Instead look to pass on all those items to a school or early years setting. Here's some of my favourites that have been passed on to schools...

On the first day of Christmas, a builder gave to me...

A beautiful drainage tube for rolling

On the second day of Christmas, a parent gave to me...

A boat that was no longer fit for the sea

On the third day of Christmas, my old office gave to me...

An outdoor office (at Alfreton Nursery)

On the fourth day of Christmas, my empty wine bottles gave to me...

Lots of corks - gathered over a long time!

On the fifth day of Christmas, a fisherman gave to me ....

An old net (thanking you in advance, Inverallochy School - I'm being paid in nets for my next visit)

On the sixth day of Christmas, a rock climber gave to me...

An old climbing rope

On the seventh day of Christmas, the grocer's shop gave to me...

Some little crates (bread and milk crates are great too)

On the eighth day of Christmas, my attic gave to me...

Lots of material tucked away in a bag

On the ninth day of Christmas, a tractor gave to me...

A tyre for play, painting and planting

On the tenth day of Christmas, my old bunk beds gave to me...

Lots of wooden planks

On the eleventh day of Christmas, a kind forester gave to me....

Lots of tree tubes which are short biodegradable guttering pipes

And on the twelfth day of Christmas, my postman gave to me...

Lots of boxes

And all that's for free! Happy Christmas Everyone! Gift the gift that's no longer needed!

Please Vote for Taking Children Outdoors to Play and Learn

2011-12-05T11:50:00.005Z

The 8th Annual Edublogs Awards have officially opened and voting begins today. More blogs have been nominated than ever before and the competition is fierce!

You can vote once every day until Tuesday 13th December. Click on the logo!

I'm quite amazed that I'm a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here! has been shortlisted especially in the Best Ed Tech/Resource Sharing category (thanks everyone who nominated this blog). Whilst I don't go for self-promotion, I'm keen for the blog to get votes to raise the profile of learning and playing outdoors within all sectors of mainstream education.

Here's why...

Very often, educators forget that there is a real world beyond the four walls of their classroom which can be used each and every day to make learning fun and relevant for all children and young people. School grounds, local area and visits further afield can deeply enrich the education we offer children.

Very often, schools fail to remember that fresh air and free play outside is helps children concentrate better when back in class.

Very often, those building schools and running them do not realise that natural playspaces and beautifully developed school grounds reduces incidents of playground bullying and violence.

There's heaps more reasons... have a look at the links in the research section of this blog.

I'm a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here! is my way of providing remote support, ideas, advice and information to educators, parents and everyone and anyone who wants or needs to get children outdoors.

The more who know about this blog, the more children who get a chance to experience learning outside with their hands, hearts and head in this wonderful world. And that's precious!

You can vote once every day until Tuesday 13th December. Click on the logo!

"We are not saying 'Goodbye' to our classes. We are opening them up!" Simon Beames

Finally I'd like to flag up lots of other blogs and bloggers and educators using social media to positively spread the word about learning and play outdoors. Where there's more than one outdoorsy blog in a category, click on the header link daily and vote in rotation...

Best individual blog

Amy Ahola - Child Central Station

Catherine Oehlman - Squigglemum

Jennifer Kable - Let the Children Play

Best individual tweeter

Jennifer Kable @preschoolplay

Best group blog

Play Based Learning

Childhood 101

Best new blog 2011

Exploring the Outdoor Classroom by Kristin

Learning for Life by Kierna C

Flights of Whimsy by Karen

Best Ed Tech/Resource sharing blog

I'm a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here!

Irresistible Ideas*

Most influential blog post 2011

Thomas Hobson - That's Teacher Tom!

Best twitter hashtag

#playoutdoors

Best educational use of a wiki

METASAGA**

Best Teacher Blog

Teacher Tom

Best educational use of a social network

Teach Preschool***

*Donna and Sherry are great friends and nominated this blog. I'd be a very happy runner up to these two.

**This wikki is wonderful outdoor leadership idea for all ages. It was developed by Kate Coutts, HT at Uyeasound Primary School on Shetland. It's Britain's most northern school. Sadly on 21st December, this school will close forever. Please vote and make this award part of many tributes to this amazing little school.
***Whilst Teach Pre-school is not especially outdoorsy, Deborah J Stewart has created the most remarkable Facebook and blog network. When she flags up an outdoor post, it reaches many pre-school educators who may not think about taking children outside. And here's her own thoughts:

"If you look at my school, we have nothing but trees and rocks. It is still beautiful and after learning ideas from you (and others), I started looking at my yard with new perspective. I used to think that until I could add playground equipment, I couldn't say I had a good play yard but I no longer say this. My kids love playing out in my yard and in the woods behind us and they never have asked me once for toys or a slide:)"

And that's the impact of a blog! So go on... vote!

Scrapstore PlayPods and Free Play Systems

2011-12-04T01:33:00.000Z

At the 2011 International Play Association Conference Wales, there were many references to Scrapstore PlayPods. The video below tells you more....

Having spotted the above video a couple of years ago, I've been a strong advocate of this approach. The executive summary is a useful handout. In the summer, not only did I get to hear the perspective of the organisation about its success, I also had the privilege of seeing one in action at Ledbury Primary School.

When a school signs up for a Scrapstore Playpod, it is more than a shed full of stuff... although this is what one looks like...

One of my favourite aspects of the playpod is that the resources just get heaped back inside. Very little sorting happens, if any. So it's not like an ordinary outdoor shed :)

Another clever move is that the loose parts are all large. So the tidy up process is quick. There's no hunting for 100 shells scattered across the playground. Or time wasted as 20 skipping ropes get untangled.

The Scrapstore Playpod team come and top up the resources on a regular basis. The children can write down requests for specific items.

The Scrapstore Playpod project is much more than simply dumping a shed load of stuff in a playground. There is extensive staff training for lunchtime supervisors about facilitating free play.

Nets are much-loved and used for all sorts of purposes including making dens and hammocks...

The wooden oars are so popular that the children have ordered some more...

There's a lot of clean scrap that businesses no longer need, but children enjoy playing with...

And of course, every school needs guttering for play

I liked the availability of accessories such as bags, hats and belts. I'm also a big fan of wheeled suitcases as children love pulling them around and filling them up.

Also, a good tip is to use old adult clothing as dressing up rather than specially bought outfits. A child in a skeleton suit is almost always going to be a skeleton. But an old blazer fits most jobs...

I liked the use of broken parts too such as hoops....

And parts of hoses....

In one school where I was head teacher, we had a big shed and unwanted stuff was used by children in their play. I remember the children loved playing "school" at break times with the blackboard, tables and chairs being set up. Below, the set up is a tardis. Keyboards are another scrap essential!

Around the world, the benefits of free play using loose parts is being recognised with a variety of schemes and approaches now up and running...

From the USA come Imagination Playgrounds. These are really interesting in that its parts can be housed in mobile units and driven from playground to playground. The materials work particularly well in combination with water, sand or mud. Thanks to Kaboom! for their work on promoting this system...

From Victoria, Australia comes the Play for Life Project which is similar to the Scrapstore Playpod.

And in Scotland there's the Play on Wheels (P.O.W.) Project. This is a mobile playbus that has lots of open-ended loose parts for visiting children to use. It's been very successful in Dundee and now there's a second bus for a Fife-based early years project.

If you know of any other play projects near you that pride themselves on encouraging free play with loose parts, then please let me know. I plan to blog more about this in the near future but I'm keen to gather a few useful links in this blog post.

The 2011 Edublog Awards

2011-11-26T17:27:00.000Z

The website is open and the nominations too! There are many educators blogging, tweeting and sharing their ideas, thoughts and resources from all over the world piling in to acknowledge the hard work and efforts by all.

Click on the logo to find out more!

However, I'd like to give a shout out to those who continue to flag up the benefits of learning and playing outdoors. At the moment, these remain predominantly early years educators, which strongly suggests that perhaps other sectors still need to wake up to the value of learning outside. In recognition of these efforts, I'm nominating the following:

Best teacher blog: Let the Children Play by Jennifer Kable

It was the outrage of last years Edublogger awards that this blog did not make the nominations shortlist. Please, please, please do one thing and submit your own nomination for this friendly and inspiring progressive preschool Australian blog which has captured the hearts and minds of tens of thousands of pre-school educators across the world. Nominations close on Friday 2nd December - HINT! HINT!)

Best individual blog: Child Central Station by Amy Ahola.
This blog highlights the contributions made by the wider education sector. Remember those homeschoolers, childminders, after-school carers who add value to, around and beyond the formal education sector. Amy's blog illustrates that these education professionals ensure children come first and that outdoor experiences really matter.

Best ed tech/resource sharing blog: Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning by Sherry Hutton and Donna Ridley-Burns
This duo have continued to attract huge followers, not just of their blog but their Facebook page too. They truly understand the power of pre-school practitioners to provide and share support, advice and ideas. They actively promote outdoor play - just look at the photos on their blog's header. Social media marketers could learn a thing or two from Sherry and Donna.

Best new blog: Exploring the Outdoor Classroom by Kristin from California

This blog has exploded onto the pre-school blogging world with mouth-watering photos, tasty ideas and recipes for outdoor play only previously dreamed of. It is lovely to see the passion ooze out of each post from a self-confessed "nature nut"!

Best twitter hashtag: #playoutdoors

Supporting children with play and learning is a shared task. #playoutdoors represents educators, parents, individuals and organisations who recognise this. It's a true education community providing information, support and ideas to each other via the medium of Twitter.

Best individual tweeter: DavidMiller_UK
This was a tough decision for me. I decided to step out of the outdoor category because this guy truly understands the purpose of Twitter as a tool for reaching out to, and engaging with, others. Firstly he is highly responsive to those who get in touch. Second, he provides a stream of wider thought about education in a way that can only be described as verbally tactile.

Best group blog: Pedagoo
This was set up by Fergal Kelly as a direct result of a series of tweets by a huge number of Scottish educators from students and probationers to ex-directors of education and former HMIe inspectors. It's an ad-hoc selection of posts submitted by these people who are standing up and saying "We're educators and we want the best for children and young people in our schools." It's moving things beyond rhetoric and negativity around initiatives in education.

Most influential blog post: Teacher Tom and his post Spoiled Brats
What I like about Tom Hobson is his willingness to question and write about wider issues within and beyond education yet link it to events and activities at his pre-school. He is not an Alfie Kohn echo or wannabe Ken Robinson and both would learn a lot from his personal take on educational matters. Spoiled Brats was shared over 2000 times on Facebook alone just after Tom wrote it and apparently it's still getting daily hits.

Finally there are many wonderful blogs and bloggers out there who haven't been mentioned. I wish there was space to include you all - especially those who are part of the amazing and supportive pre-school bloggers network - you know who you are!

Outdoor literacy: Letters from Sticks!

2011-11-25T18:13:00.000Z

Okay, last week I blogged about sticky letters. This week it's letters made from sticks. I blame one child. I passed him in the corridor whilst I was carrying a pile of sticks. His face lit up and he asked if they were for his class. So I told him that the next time I was there, the sticks would be with me too.

We began with the story of Stick Man. This set the scene for choosing our own stick from the pile I'd brought along. Each person (including Fred the Ted) had to find the letter that matched their name and attach this to their stick. Each one has a hole drilled in it at the top - they came like this from Cosy - an education resource company (tel: 01332 987005)

To get across the message about holding sticks carefully, we came up with the chant "Sticks are down. Down with sticks." This seemed to make a difference as the children enjoyed tapping out the rhythm as we walked along.

When we came to a stopping point identified by one child, it was time to try and make each letter using sticks. I did have a stash in my bag owing to time pressures, but gathering sticks would work better as the activity would have more relevance to each child and give them an opportunity to explore their environment. However, this is a bigger challenge for another day.

This was a challenging activity for all the children. The idea of making letters from sticks was novel and new. With support they managed this activity.

Back inside, we followed up this activity by making the same letters but using lolly sticks instead. The twigs we did gather were used as decoration and the display left on the table. This was to allow children to make crayon rubbings later on that day if they wanted to.

Toulcuv Dvur Nursery in the Czech Republic

2011-11-22T20:11:00.000Z

Toulcuv Dvur is best described as an urban environmental education centre. It is situated in a built up suburb of Prague.

The nursery is in the far left corner

The founder, Emilka Strejikova, was an early years teacher who strongly believed in nature “imprinting” and the need for children to have daily contact with nature.

Thus she established an on-site nursery for forty children aged 2.5-7yrs. The children have daily access to the rest of the grounds that make up Toulcuv Dvur in addition to the 15^th Century restored farm buildings which can be seen in the photo above. In many ways, the location could not be more perfect for a pre-school. Have a look...

Firstly, right outside the nursery itself, are the ponies that belong to a riding charity. You can get a better sense of the urban location in the photo below.

The children help take care of this garden, where they grow vegetables. It seems so spacious compared to many nurseries!

Nearby, they also help feed the farm animals such as these cows...

This alluvial woodland was so beautiful the morning I visited, with the sunlight filtering through the trees...

Imagine being able to visit this on a regular basis! There are more diverse and interesting habitats including a wetland, agricultural land, flower meadows and an alder grove. Children from Prague schools visit Toulcuv Dvur for environmental activities. This class was learning about animals that live in woodland habitats.

There are outdoor ovens the children use within a short walking distance. I'm surprised these have never become popular in the UK. Every nursery would have so much more fun when it came to outdoors snacks! Imagine the smell of freshly baked homemade pizza!

The children are not unfamiliar with being outdoors. Parent and toddler groups meet at the environmental centre twice weekly for nature-based activities and walks. The nursery itself has a waiting list of 300. Here's the outdoor space - this is the view children get when they step outside...

The children make dens with the large branches lying around...

Like children everywhere, the mud patch is a popular place to play. The covered square in the background is the sandpit.

This is the view of the nursery from the horse field. The children go out and about beyond the nursery outdoor space daily.

There were various structures which interested me such as this raised cubby...

This shelter was still in the process of being constructed - a big space for shade and shelter.

This climbing wall, net and platform look exciting...

The teepee is a popular gathering place....

I hope these posts about pre-schools in the Czech Republic have been interesting to read. I love hearing about practice in different places and would welcome information about outdoor play from all around the world.

Outdoor Literacy Activity: Sticky Letters

2011-11-19T19:55:00.001Z

This term I have been asked to undertake literacy activities with one class. This has provided an ideal opportunity to work on lots of ways of doing this outside. I've blogged about creating letters from natural materials previously. However, we're going back a couple of steps before getting to this stage.

Last term we spent the sessions acclimatising to being outside. Fred the Ted helped us all enormously and now we have a routine that's based around moving from place to place in the school grounds and undertaking short, sweet activities including songs or games at the different stopping points. This remains organic in that the stopping places can vary. It's the journey and the joy of discovery that counts. Usually we end up at the wildlife garden which is a popular spot with all the children.

So a couple of weeks ago, I decided that sticky letters would be a start. This involves cutting up a few pieces of cardboard and sticking double sided sticky tape onto them. We used the initial letter of each child's name.

I was a little worried in that when the yellow paper is removed, the children would not be able to see the outline of their letter. This did not seem to be a problem. It was a dry day so the material stuck to the cardboard quite nicely.

My other concern was whether the children would recognise a rough-and-ready letter rather than a beautifully drawn example. When I handed these out, it was a relief to see that most of the children did indeed recognise their letter.

When the children are playing in the wildlife garden, I'm interested that the books and clipboards remain an attraction. I think it provides a focus for a little quiet reflection and contemplation. But I'm not sure. Often a couple of boys will walk around the garden making notes and looking important.

For me, I'm just pleased that the children are enjoying and responding to literacy outdoors. I can't think of a more natural approach...

...........................................................................................................................

This post is part of the outdoor play party link up

Education Scotland Outdoor Learning Resource

2011-11-17T10:43:00.000Z

"We're not saying goodbye to our classrooms, we're opening them up." Simon Beames

This is the blog post I've been wanting to write for months. Earlier this year Creative STAR gained the contract to write an outdoor learning resource pack on behalf of Learning Teaching Scotland (now Education Scotland).

To quote the introduction, "The purpose of this resource is to provide practical, accessible and straightforward advice for teachers and practitioners to engage children and young people with learning outdoors. It is part of achieving a wider objective of supporting the implementation of the guidance document Curriculum for Excellence through Outdoor Learning.

The resource introduces practitioners who are not familiar with outdoor learning to exploring ways of taking children outside. It provides a route into continuing professional development and suggestions for embedding outdoor learning as a whole school approach. It serves to illustrate the potential of outdoor learning as an effective approach to learning and teaching within the context of Curriculum for Excellence."

It's a pretty sizeable piece of work with links to many different aspects of education. I'm particularly pleased because the resource demonstrates how learning and play outside can make a positive difference to so many aspects of children's lives and add depth and value to their experience of education. It flags up the benefits of free play, especially in natural places and the need for children to experience risk, challenge and adventure. Please don't sanitise school experiences any longer!

If you are not based in Scotland, there's still lots of useful information. Jump to the back of the document to have a look at the training activities that are designed to help adults understand the benefits of outdoor learning and play. This includes building towers with stones and lego, drinking tea and eating chocolate!

The second part of the resource is much shorter. It's called Building your Curriculum: Outside and In. It's created to help schools and centres think about where they are in terms of embedding outdoor learning and where they need to be. On the second page there's a far-reaching illustration of this which clearly demonstrates it takes a whole school community to raise a child...!

It was not a lone job. Owing to the tight timescales, a team was put together to write different parts of the document. This is a chance for me to publicly thank everyone involved including:

Daniel Raven-Ellison - one of the founder members of the Geography Collective and co-author of the Mission Explore series of books.
Lynnette Borradaile - environmental education consultant
Jill O'Reilly - a part time primary school teacher and outdoor learning consultant
Mark Baker - former Outdoor Learning Development Officer with Learning and Teaching Scotland. He's now in the middle of undertaking a PhD.
Ollie Bray - who write a popular blog about digital learning and technologies. He's a secondary DHT on secondment to Education Scotland
Sandra from Canada - a principal teacher of science, who I've known and kept in touch with since an exchange-visit to Canada many years ago
Kirsty Robertson - the music teacher who runs Pandemic, the youth steel band at Bucksburn Academy in Aberdeen
Margaret Hearne - a retired drama teacher who does all sorts of creative activities within North East Scotland
Grounds for Learning - the Scottish schools grounds charity in particular Alastair Seaman and Caroline Standring

Many thanks are also extended to the many individuals who took the time to read parts of the draft, comment and give their feedback. The timescales were extremely tight. Finally thanks too, to the LTS and Education Scotland staff who did the editing, layout, photos etc. In particular the Outdoor Learning Development Officers who worked behind the scenes enabling these documents to be published.

Nature Kindergartens by Claire Warden

2011-11-14T03:01:00.003Z

Ensuring that children have quality time in a natural space is being increasingly recognised, not just as a "jolly good thing" but as a right and necessity for their healthy growth and development.

In this busy world of structure and routine, even time spent in nature is an add-on to this compartmentalised lifestyle so many of us lead. The growth in movements and concepts such as Green Hour and Forest School are welcomed, yet it is possible they are simply another ball to juggle in our lives. In terms of fast food, it's the equivalent of asking if we want lettuce with our burger.

As the slow food movement is growing roots and shoots, ensuring that people think more holistically about their food, the educational equivalent, arguably, are nature kindergartens. The trouble is, most of these have developed in European countries where English is not the first language. Thus there has been limited information and knowledge about nature kindergartens and their pedagogical approach. This has led to misassumptions, as illustrated in this comment I received recently from a father, after blogging about his daughter climbing up a tree:

As an Englishman living here in Sweden I had initial reservations about the what I considered "Hippy and Liberal" outdoor schools, how wrong I was! The fear of the unknown I think I can blame for this. I cannot praise the system and school enough, I'm sure you experienced the staff dedication during your visit. I am anxiously awaiting my second child attending the same school.

In 2010, Claire Warden wrote Nature Kindergartens, which for me is one of her most interesting books to-date. Since becoming a freelance education consultant I've been quite picky and critical of many books about outdoor learning and play because I feel the dots aren't being joined. The role of pre-school education within the context of wider societal issues is often omitted. In particular the need to consider the importance and impact of place.

I can remember opening her book for the first time and feeling a warm glow of satisfaction as I scanned the contents page and lost count of the number of times "place" was mentioned. Furthermore, the theme of the book is about the relationships between people and place and the activities that happen as a consequence of spending extended periods of time in a natural setting. It's about allowing children to make connections and learn through playing and being in nature, all year round and in all weathers. It's about the role of the practitioner to facilitate this through skilled observations of, and interactions with, children.

This diagram is now part of the definition of learning used in the Outdoor Learning:Practical guidance, ideas and support for teachers and practitioners in Scotland, published by Education Scotland, 2011 and ghost written by the Creative STAR team!!!

"So what?" you might be asking. Well, it came as no surprise when Mindstretchers Nature Kindergarten at Auchlone was inspected earlier this year and received "Excellent" ratings in all five areas. This is unprecedented. Gaining "Excellent" in one area alone is a huge and rare achievement within the Scottish inspection system. It was quite a visit, apparently, with a troop of HMIe inspectors staying significantly longer than usual and being particularly thorough.

For me, it was visiting the I Ur och Skur pre-schools and primary schools that changed my way of thinking. At the first Rain or Shine pre-school, I dismissed my observations of children, excusing their superior physical skills, dexterity, social and communication skills, high levels of creativity and imagination down to their good parenting and nice middle-class backgrounds. After a further five visits, I had to admit that the commonality of the approach had to have some impact on this.

Creating a firepit at the meadow

In Nature Kindergartens, Claire explains the rational and the approach succinctly. The book begins by looking at some of the research into the benefits of children spending time in nature. Next, the influence of Montessori, Froebel, Reggio Emilia and others is considered in relation to the work at the Mindstretchers' nature kindergartens. The importance of collegiality and the development of a warm, family community is highlighted. There are frequent, positive references to similar international examples.

The chapters move on to look at how children need to experience a variety of wild places and lead risk full lives as part of developing their sense of belonging. Playing in wild woods is often more transformational compared with a garden area. However, a sense of wildness can be gained even in a small patch of urban greenspace for young children. The concept of affordances is examined. The abundance of large and small open-ended materials for play makes natural areas a place that stimulates creativity, imagination and deep thinking about many issues, especially around sustainability and caring for the world in which we live.

Finally Claire stresses the need to allow for time. This is where nature kindergartens add so much value that other nature-based approaches do not. Being outside, daily, all-year round in all weathers in natural settings allows children to make connections at their own pace, to take the time to absorb, process, reflect and re-visit ideas and concepts at a depth which simply isn't possible in a once-a-week visit to a nearby wood.

Time to rethink pre-school provision here in the UK? Yes. And this book will help everyone do this.

Making Maths Sticks

2011-11-09T07:29:00.001Z

Here in the UK we are leaving autumn and definitely heading into winter. Whilst many teacher believe that this means more time indoors, I tend to see the opportunities to do activities which can't be done at other times of the year.

One example is aspects of tree work. Winter is the season for planting trees, establishing willow structures and general pruning. At the weekend I was visiting relatives, who happened to mention that they had coppiced some hazel (see the above photo) and just left the long shoots to be burnt on the bonfire.

I couldn't help, but take a look. To my delight I found lots of material just ready to be cut into measuring sticks of different lengths.

This is a practical maths activity in its own right. There's a lot of measuring required and careful attention is needed in order to choose the straightest parts of the hazel shoots.

I tried to use as much of the shoots as possible. Hazel is a beautiful wood and the poles it makes, amongst other things, are ideal for stick work. In the photo below is the material gathered from about 4 poles: long and short sticks, twigs and noggins.

As a rule of thumb, I'm finding that a class pack of sticks tends to involve 72 x 30cm sticks, 72 x 60cm sticks, 36 x 1m sticks and now I'm beginning to build up a collection of 120cm sticks. That's exciting and makes for a good winter challenge. If you don't have the good fortune to have access to land with ready-to-coppice trees, then order sticks from Muddy Faces.

The Comedy Carpet - Outdoor Literacy at its Best!

2011-11-06T11:48:00.000Z

Doing literacy activities outside is no joke... or may be it should be! This weekend I was able to visit the recently-opened Comedy Carpet in Blackpool.

It's a tribute to British comedians who have performed in Blackpool, the traditional entertainment capital of Britain. Set in a specially made bright white concrete are approximately 180 000 letters that spell out their known catchphrases, gags, punchlines and jokes. The black and red letters are granite stone. The blue ones are made from cobalt-coloured concrete.

Above the title is perhaps the most famous catch phrase of all...

It has to be one of the most absorbing public works of art I have ever seen. There is so much to read... and laugh about! It can be a challenge to work out who said what, for someone like me who doesn't always keep up with the entertainment world.

Whilst children and visitors from abroad may not understand nor recognise every clip, the sheer size of the work is enticing... the text, font, colours and layout all celebrate what is best about British entertainment. Blackpool is all about how we play in Britain... and this artwork definitely turns words into play...

The Comedy Carpet is easily accessible by everyone and anyone. At any one time, it was possible to see people of all ages wandering about....

It is smooth enough to dance on, or wheel a buggy about. This is quite an important feature as the Carpet is sited on the headland which will regularly host live events for 20 000 people.

The design construction involved making sections, most of which are 2x4m in size. The design for each section was printed out backwards and the letters and typographic decoration laid out on top. The concrete was poured over and left to set in the mould. After that, steel supports were put in using more concrete. When the section was eventually removed from the mould, the surface was ground to create a uniform finish... just perfect for a group of children scooting around...

... whilst ignoring some of the cheekier comments...!

Whilst some of the language is definitely on the uncouth and un-pc side, I think it's part of the appeal. Many children rather like looking for lots of swear words which have little asterisks to make them permissible... there were quite a few in Billy Connolly's section! For pre-readers, there's a lot of fun exploration too, such as simple designs...

And lots of alliteration and rhyme....

Cyclists even stopped for a look...

And most people were completely absorbed by the work or enjoyed just passing some time of day there...

The Blackpool Tower is at the foot of the Comedy Carpet. You can climb up the first couple of levels for free to get a bird's eye view. Sadly the Council did not allow the work to be completed. It was meant to extend across the tramway. However, I think there was concerns about this causing accidents.

The artists and construction workers and everyone else who was involved all have their names written in stars around the title too...

The Comedy Carpet was created by Gordon Young in partnership with Why Not Associates - a British graphic design company. He's done many interesting public artworks and it's worth looking at his website for visual art and literacy inspiration. For more information about Comedy Carpet, then the actual website tells you much more about the artist, the designer and the carpet of concrete.

Inside an Outdoor Pre-school in Sweden

2011-11-05T10:16:00.001Z

With such a focus on playing outside, it is interesting to see what the indoor space can look like. For me, all the outdoor pre-schools and schools I visited had the feel of a field study centre or adventure activity centre.

Firstly the cloakroom areas are always well thought out and organised. This system of 4 coat pegs, storage space for wellies below, accessories above and a basket of spare clothes is common place.

At Mulleborg I Ur och Skur, children who come in from outside, must remove their outdoor shoes or boots before hopping over the bench to hang up their clothes.

The displays around the rooms clearly reinforce the sustainable approach. Recycling of cardboard, for instance...

Natural materials are prevalent in much of the work on the walls...

Much furniture is made from wood. Interestingly I saw a lot of bits and pieces from Ikea!

Look at this shelf crammed full of natural materials and artefacts! Irresistible!

The children's work is valued and displays are accessible to children to touch, pick up and investigate.

Now for some of the rooms. Here's the kitchen in one private I Ur och Skur nursery. The chef even takes the lunches into the nearby woods for children to eat outside on some days.

The dining room is multi-purpose. The display on the wall is the four characters that feature in the Skogsmulle approach to connecting children with nature (I'll blog about this in due course)

As well as outdoor sleeping space, there's usually a room where the younger children can take their nap each day.

Here's the toy room which is bright, fresh and appealing. Generally I found a lot of bright rooms in some places and warm, dark woody rooms in others.

I liked the small cane furniture in this room and comfy sofa.

Generally the outdoor nurseries and primary school I've visited have a warm, welcoming and homely feel. I'd like that for any child going to a nursery, wouldn't you?

Outdoor Music Wall

2011-10-28T20:06:00.000+01:00

There have been many outdoor music walls created and blogged about over the past couple of years. I have been telling participants on my courses about these and finally, not just any nursery but the one in the school where I work, has created this little beauty...

This was not the work of the nursery staff. In line with recognised good practice, they worked with the children to think about the sounds they might like and the materials which could be used.

Then the parents were asked for their input...

I think this helped as unwanted items were brought in from home such as pans....

.... and plastic buckets

.... and even an oven rack. Yay!

The school janitors are extremely helpful and were able to assist with the making of this wooden xylophone...

... and this pvc piping instrument...

Some old triangles also were added and I think that's a cowbell on the right...

I rather liked the wooden spoons being used as beaters too!

This wall is such a doable project, that takes up little space and can be varied as new sounds are discovered and added to the mix. If you want further inspiration, I strongly recommend visiting Child's Play Music. Watching this video made by Alex is an absolute must too. It's taking homemade instruments to a new level!

This post is part of an outdoor play link up happening over at Learning for Life, Greening Sam and Avery and Mama Peapod.

Czech Pre-schools - A Forest Project for All

2011-10-26T08:15:00.002+01:00

Whilst in the Czech Republic in October 2008 I had the opportunity to visit three nurseries which had undertaken very different approaches to getting children outside and ensuring frequent regular contact with nature. This is the first of three blog posts about my experiences. I realised back in the summer that I had never actually written any thing about this trip.

In the Czech Republic, a German model of forest school is being given serious consideration by environmental organisations. Just under a year ago, the first state approved forest nursery school opened where children play outside all year round in all weathers. Last Spring, the Association of Forest Kindergartens was established which ensures that such ventures are legitimate alternative education approaches.

Background information

Children attend nursery school from the age of two and a half until they are six or seven years old. The nurseries often open at 7am and have children attending until 3pm or even as late as 5pm. Nursery staff do not require teaching qualifications and so the salary is lower than that of primary and secondary teachers.

The children then begin formal schooling. From play based learning children enter a very formal system with rows of desks and predominantly secondary learning experiences. Like Scotland, the Czech Republic has a variety of primary schools. Some are large urban schools. Some country schools take children aged 6-15 years and then the children move onto a technical college or high schools for 16-18 year olds. There are also small rural primary schools which cover grades 1-5 (P3-P7), with children moving onto high school afterwards. Most of the children that enter small village primaries continue their studies at secondary grammar schools in a bigger settlement and a minority make it to high school after that.

Children in a state primary school

A forest outreach programme

In 2005, a state-of-the-art forest school, Jezírko, opened on the outskirts of Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. This day centre provides a range of practical and hands on forest activities for children to develop their understanding of natural ecosystems, environmental awareness and forestry production for 3-18 year olds. The children travel by coach to the centre and spend two or three hours undertaking an activity led by one of the centre staff.

The centre staff realised that nursery staff needed more support, beyond that which could be given directly by the children coming once per year to Jezírko. For the 2007-08 academic year, a series of monthly activities were developed specifically for the kindergartens in the Southern Moravian area.

Nursery staff were able to visit a forest near their nursery and undertake the activities based upon a puppet gnome who lives in a chestnut tree. In addition to a teachers’ guide, equipment for planting flowers was included. The teachers could contact the Jezírko staff whenever they wished to get further advice and ideas.

My friend Michal Medek holding the felt puppet that was used in the project

The programme was advertised through the Markev Markvička, a local kindergarten network. Out of 86 nurseries in the network, 50 signed up for the project.

There followed a series of short meetings with the nursery staff coming to Jezírko to find out more about the projects. At the end of the year there was a conference where everyone shared their thoughts and ideas and gave informal feedback to the Jezírko staff.

Thoughts of the participants

I visited the nursery in the small village of Krásensko, 25 miles north of Brno. Here the staff worked with children aged 2.5 – 6.5 years old. There was 1.5 FTE staffing for the nursery which opened at 7am and did not close until 5pm. As there were less than 20 children, only one staff member needed to be on duty. The 0.5FTE teacher mostly worked in the afternoon.

The nursery teacher

The nearest wood was about a mile-long walk through the village. Prior to the forest outreach project, the staff had rarely taken the children beyond the confines of the village.

However as a consequence of participating in the project, the teacher now takes the children to the woods or the meadow beside the woods every week all year round.

She was very happy with the project and the type of activities suggested. There was follow-up work to be completed back at the nursery too, which for the older children, sometimes included a worksheet. She thought that some tasks were quite challenging but the positive impact of the woodland visits and activities was overwhelmingly clear. She now saw that the children needed to have first hand experiences of connecting with nature and this programme worked. The children learned a lot about woodland animals, plants and seasonal changes. The routines for going to the woods are now established and all the children looked forward to their weekly visit.

The ratio of staff to children is much smaller with only one adult required to supervise 25 children. The Krasensko teacher takes all 14 children in the nursery by herself, through the village and into the woods where deadly nightshade grows and where poisonous snakes and wild boar live. When asked if she was worried about children getting hurt, the teacher smiled, stated that there had been no incidents last year and “touch wood” there would be none this year either. Parental help was not an option as the nursery provides child care and parents work.

The Krasensko teacher had signed up for the second year of the project. In 2008-09 session, the materials were based around two children who get lost in the woods and have to acquire practical skills and knowledge of woodland plants and animals to find their way home. For example, in the month of September the children picked rosehips to make tea.

In October the children needed to find the sorts of food squirrels collect and store over winter and leave any collected in the woods in order to help the squirrels. Each month, despite going out weekly, there were more activities given than the teacher had time to do with the children. So she used her discretion over deciding which tasks to do and whether to amend them to suit the needs of her children.

The weekly outing was clearly integrated into the play experiences planned for the children. The teacher was fond of artwork and created displays to promote the woodland visits to parents and visitors.

What impresses me is the interest and uptake of this programme by such a large number of pre-schools in South Moravia. Here in Scotland, the only equivalent I have seen is in Fife, where almost 80% of local authority nurseries ensure children have frequent and regular access to woods, beaches and other natural habitats. For more information about the Fife Nature Kindergartens Project, read this case study.

Lessons in life principles from the Okanagan people

2011-10-23T09:48:00.000+01:00

When it comes to blogging, I have a mix of posts. Some are written completely spur-of-the-moment based on an event or activity. Others are written on a Saturday night in front of "Britain's Got Talent" or the "X-Factor" as a semi-social activity. Some are a work-hibernation stash. This means they are written over a holiday period to allow me to post even during very busy work times or when I'm away on holiday. Then there's the ones like this which were begun months ago and added to little by little. Piece by piece.

These are usually posts which require me to think a little more carefully. Or that have content that's particularly close to my heart. Or both. This is one of those posts. I'm actually rather nervous in that I would hate to misrepresent a traditional community's philosophy and approach. I apologise in advance and welcome corrections!

The Okanagan people know that their total community has to be engaged in order to achieve their sustainable lifestyle. This is true of any community. Dis-engagement leads to breakdown of support and trust, and a negative spiral can begin which can be hard to reverse. Thinking of a school community in terms of its engagement may be a good indicator of the sustainability and true success of a school's vision, values, principles and actions.

The Okanagan people have life principles which underpin the decision-making processes within their communities...

Firstly each individual may be gifted but their full human potential is only actualised through their physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual well-being. These four aspects of well-being rely on external things.

The Getting It Right For Every Child programme in the Scottish education system puts the eight well-being indicators at the core of any plan that is constructed or reviewed. They are used to summarise the child or young person's needs that will be addressed. It is very much emphasising that external support can make a positive difference to a child. What an interesting parallel to the first life principle.

Second, each person is part of a family, regarded as the powerful life blood of cultural transference which ensures the well-being of each generation.

The positive local and school cultures need to be nurtured, recognised and celebrated. Each person has a vital role to play. This is often most noticeable when there is a vacancy such as the need for a janitor or long-term teacher. Perhaps this is a key question to ask all those who are part of a school, both in the short and long-term. What part do they envisage playing within the whole school community? What legacy do they hope to leave? When do we ask this of children, young people, families and staff? If we did, what would the answers be?

Third, the family system is the foundation of the community which is regarded as a living network. This spreads its life force overs centuries and across physical space, acquiring collective knowledge. This helps secure the well-being of all.

Thinking of a family system, and immediately the learning community of Teacher Tom's Woodland Park Cooperative Pre-school and other such establishments spring to mind. The warmest schools are those where parents are fully involved and their input is truly valued. They are establishments that leavers return to, either as volunteers, staff or as parents. A positive cycle of belonging is in place. Puget Sound Community School also embrace a community and family ethic (and also happens to be based in Seattle). The I Ur och Skur schools of Sweden also expect a high degree of parental involvement with many volunteering to support the school during and outwith school hours.

At the moment I'm not so sure within Scottish education that we think about our role within a long term context that is needed to ensure a living network that is sustained, nourished and manages to grow within our ever-changing society. I still feel that at a societal level, schools have yet to fully embrace the true potential of parental involvement.

Finally the community is regarded as a living process that interacts with the land. Much of the Okanagan belief system celebrates life and regarding the plants, fish, birds and animals as relatives who share their lives with the human community. It's about the inter-connectedness that exists and our responsibility to every living thing that we are connected to.

Such a holistic view of any human community seems an alien concept within our society which is so isolated and disconnected from the natural world to which we belong. Yet there is now reams of evidence that suggests that direct, frequent contact with the natural world is vital for our health and well-being. Whilst we continue to keep ourselves apart and fail to consider the environmental impact of our actions then arguably we are failing our children and setting them up to fail in the future too.

This was exemplified years ago when I attended a meeting as a headteacher to look at sustainable development within schools. The subject of school buildings came round and I suggested that perhaps if the group and the local authority were truly serious about sustainable development then the construction of new schools would be based upon the principles of earthships and other eco friendly dwellings. It was the equivalent of admitting that I was a member of a far-out religious sect. My suggestion was treated with suspicion and ridicule.

There is always debate about the effectiveness of school systems. Perhaps the trick is to look beyond the traditional boundaries of education and consider approaches based on learning to live healthily, well and lightly on the land.

Measuring Sticks

2011-10-20T10:03:00.001+01:00

During this past term, I've always taken a stick with me when going out and about. I stuck masking tape at 10cm intervals. This means that children can measure the size of anything when we are out and about.

I haven't made this a prescriptive activity. I model measuring and often the children rather enjoy following suit. The girl in these photos particularly likes finding things to measure. All children seem to enjoy being measured by the stick too. My plan is to see if they will be up for a horizontal measurement using cones or other natural materials out in the school grounds.

The stick is also used as a sign of respect and responsibility. Only children who can handle the stick properly get to take it from place to place. Many of the children with whom I work, prefer to drag the stick rather than use it like a walking stick. That's fine with me. I just like children enjoying being with a stick.

I'd like to thank Niki Buchan for the inspiration behind this idea. She is an educational consultant with Awe and Wonder, who writes the Precious Childhood blog. She also pointed out, that a measuring stick has more purpose and meaning to a child who has cut or found their stick and made it their own. I think this is an important message in this consumer world of stuff. I did give the children in this class the opportunity to do this, but at the moment they just seem to prefer using my stick.

The real objects we truly understand and treasure often have a personal rather than material value. We need to give children more opportunities to make meaningful connections with the world around them.

A Portable Water Wall

2011-10-16T09:09:00.000+01:00

I always enthuse about water walls to participants on all the many outdoor play courses I run. Many bloggers across the globe have posted enthusiastically about their versions including:

Let the Children Play
Teacher Tom
Child Central Station
Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning
and many more!

I work in an area where a lot of practitioners tell me they cannot leave equipment out overnight. Usually storage space is pretty tight too. Thus I wanted to look at ways of creating simple, portable water walls which children could create themselves.

This year I'm doing class cover in a large city school with mainstream and additional support needs classes at every primary stage. I never feel I'm in a big school with 21 classes and an 80-place nursery. The Primary 6 ASN class I'm working in have been really up for these practical design experiments.

Firstly we tried a water on a static lattice frame bought from a local garden centre. The beauty of these is the diagonal structure. This means that all the pipes and bottles tend to be fixed quite naturally with a lean on one side. Interestingly, the children opted for the animal tubes most of all from a range of materials offered. I think the bright colours appealed!

We put the lattice frames back-to-back so that the nursery children could access a water wall as well as the P1 ASN class and in the hope of generating some collaborative work through the fence. The children worked hard to ensure interesting designs. We also use a stretchy, flexible willow lattice frame. This is particularly portable as it squashes tight. It's not as wide though...

The children collected water from the nursery who are very tolerant of our constant interruptions. The children did not expect that water would be so heavy to carry.

However, all was not well. No child from either the nursery or the P1 class really played much with the water walls. The P6 children worked out why. The structures were simply too tall. So the following week, the lattice was set up horizontally and much closer to the ground. One boy spent a long time putting the water wall together that you can see below...

And hey presto! The wall got used for quite a while that afternoon!

The children used a variety of fastenings. I had foam-covered wire, soft anodised wire, plastic washing line and velcro straps available for children to use. The wall does take some continuous maintenance as children help themselves to the hoses and pipes during break and lunch times for their own play purposes, but no-one seems to mind this :)

The tripod made from guttering

2011-10-13T23:13:00.000+01:00

Every good idea is worth sharing. When I was undertaking my Skogsmulle training course, we were shown how to make a tripod very quickly and easily, in less than a minute...

The trick is to put your three poles on the ground and loosely weave the poles together with a piece of thin rope. It's not unlike peg loom weaving on a large scale. To create the tripod, you lift the middle peg up and over the other two. It creates the tension needed to hold the structure together. You need to wiggle the legs about to get the positioning just right.

The resulting structure was very solid and can be used for campfire cooking etc.

To help me remember what to do, I practised with some little sticks. This is worth doing until you've got the hang of it.

Now in my current setting, I work a lot on asphalt. So I decided that as I already had guttering, this would do nicely for poles. It's lightweight and a lot of the children are very much into cause and effect play. They like to knock things over to see what happens. When this play happens, a child won't get badly hurt should the whole tripod come crashing down.

I tied a bottle of water with some leftover paint I found sitting in a sink. This was used as a pendulum. A lot of children came over and had a play with it. This boy liked what he saw but had a better idea.

The sheet was wrapped around the tripod to become a parking place for his car. This made the tripod more robust.

Another child came to visit in his car too, but there was only room for one, carefully reversed car.

Undeterred, both children went off to find a more suitable place for parking at the other end of the playground. There also happened to be a car washing facility there where cars could be washed for £5 with leaves.

I love how ideas can be cross-pollinated, used, changed, adapted and turned through play into all sorts of explorations. That's the beauty of learning through play.

The Story of Fred the Ted

2011-10-11T08:20:00.000+01:00

Many educators who work with children with additional support needs have a very real and genuine fear of children running off when undertaking outdoor activities. From the outset, I decided this was not going to deter me from letting children explore the grounds. I knew that in order to engage children and keep their minds on other matters, I would have to ensure each session was planned around the children's interests. So here I enlisted the help of Fred the Ted. Here's the story of his first visit...

Fred the Ted was new to the school. He did not know the grounds and wanted to explore them. Could the children help him? They thought they could. In turn, the children took him to different parts of the grounds.

We started off going to a bench made by Primary 7 children. We sang "I know a teddy bear" especially for Fred. The next child saw some yellow flowers - ragwort - across the field and that was our next stop. We smelled, sniffed and rubbed the flowers and threw them in the air when we realised they didn't smell so good.

After that another child led the way through the rough grass and shrubs to a hawthorn bush. The children looked at the berries and wondered if they were raspberries. We worked out that they weren't and would give us a sore tummy if we ate them.

The next child took Fred the Ted to the patch of feathers on the field. We all wondered what had happened here.

One child then led Fred the Ted to the steps. We estimated the number of steps and counted them. There were lots more steps than we thought.

We ended up at the place with lots of tyres. Here Fred did a Very Naughty Thing. He went into a litter bin. Imagine that! Some bears like foraging for leftover food.

The child who had been looking after Fred was quite surprised when I insisted that Fred should sit on a bench and have a think about what he did.

After a couple of minutes, Fred the Ted said he was sorry about going into the litter bin and went to play in a tyre.

The next week I laminated the story of Fred the Ted. The children used this to re-trace their journey around the grounds, working out which places they had visited. We explored the area in different ways - mostly due to the excitement of have fresnel lenses.

Interestingly, the children have always asked to bring Fred's book along with them to look at. They are less interested in books about other subjects but like stories about themselves and Fred. So this is one "avenue" into literacy.

Since then, Fred the Ted has not misbehaved. The children enjoy having him accompany them. One child writes a letter to Fred's mum each week - the result of which, Fred now has outdoor clothing including pink boots to wear. It was a useful tip I picked up as a ranger whilst working alongside a professional puppeteer - if a puppet or masked character misbehaves, then it is the character and not the child who is admonished. I apply this to soft toys too and find that it's a helpful positive behaviour strategy for many children and a springboard into discussions about what behaviour is and isn't okay.

And no child has run off either! We let them walk or run at their own pace to different gathering spots. Usually one adult keeps up with the active ones and another adult ensures no-one is left behind.

Water play with blue tarp and tyres

2011-10-08T11:38:00.002+01:00

I have been having a lot of fun experimenting in recent weeks. I have a Primary 6 class with children who have additional support needs and they have been helping to set up a bland outdoor space for the Primary 1 class of children with additional support needs.

The first time we made a tarp and tyre water feature, we used just 4 tyres and decided to stick the water tray in the middle. The P1 children like to do a lot of pouring and we thought they might like to transfer water between the tyres and the tray. Surprisingly, the amount of water a tyre can hold is tiny, so it takes very little time to fill.

However, it was a warm afternoon and all the children wanted to do was paddle. Tyres always work well as seats in paddling pools.

This outdoor space is used by the whole school during breaks and lunch times. This means that lots of children come and go to freely play. Interestingly the tarp and tyres structure didn't get changed or removed altogether. It wouldn't have mattered it did because the whole thing takes all of two minutes to set up.

Owing to the interest in paddling, this week the P6 children put together more tyres this week. One child from this class has been helping out the P1 children so he let the others know what was working and what wasn't.

The girl in the photo above, doesn't often choose to go outside. At lunchtime she had seen this structure which had piqued her curiosity. She spent a lot of time stepping from pool to pool and very happy to do this.

I think the potential of tarp and tyres has only been scratched by this class. They've yet to add in props and objects or transport water or bring guttering into the equation.

In terms of the practicalities. The tyres were free from a local garage. I've a previous post about tyres which includes care information. The blue tarp came from a local DIY store. It was the biggest size I could find - the bigger the tarp the more "rockpools" of water that can be created. It cost about £8 a couple of years ago. Again, I've blogged about blue tarp here and here.

Bringing nature into a Czech Nursery

2011-10-06T00:27:00.002+01:00

Three years ago, I visited a rural nursery class which was part of a small school, in Lovčice village. I was able to view the outdoor spaces and see how natural features and materials were integrated into the design the outdoor area and impacted on play. Here's one part of the grounds...

This is another part, with seating. The shed has an alpine turf roof. Have a look at the boulder scrambling area to the right of the shed...

The miniature cage in the photo below is for the paddling pool, which comes out on hot days for the children to use.

There was no fenced off area for the nursery children. They shared the same outdoor space as the rest of the school. The school grounds are not public areas for community access outwith hours unless prior agreement with the school has been sought.

In the Czech Republic, sandpits must be covered with a net or other material.

The nursery teacher was particularly interested in outdoor work and developing the grounds. This was evident from the features which were very play centred. She had begun in 1998 with the help of her husband, who is a forester, parents and funding from the village community. Several years ago she succeeded in setting up an agreement with the local technical college which means that the grounds are used for practical construction projects for students.

This tiny house is part of a miniature world area. The water wheel actually works thanks to the students creating it with pumping system.

Over the years students have built almost all the large structures to practise specific construction and landscaping skills. Another source of funding has been securing charitable status.

Some structures are on the wacky side of normal but this was used as shelving too!

At the entrance to the school the fruit and vegetable faces made a welcoming impact for parents and visitors. Each week the class had a different theme and this frequently referred to nature. Recently there had been a carrot week, when carrots were harvested. The previous week it was a potato festival.

The green potatoes which could not be used for cooking were made into creatures which lived on the zen stone garden. The whole school each year has a shared theme across all classes. This session’s project is water.

Outdoor activities continue to permeate all aspects of school life. The nursery children are always outside for a large part of every day, regardless of the weather. The school day begins in the garden. The children really enjoy gardening and always ensure the grounds are kept free of litter. When Council staff come to mow the lawn, and do grounds work, the children assist.

This is a little rope trail that is much loved by the children

They also look after the little orchard which is within the grounds. The teacher described her methods as “situation learning” with children reacting naturally to events, seasons and what’s going on in the world around them.

Making apple juice and drying apples are common activities, similar to North American cider festivals

Traditional customs and festivals are celebrated and shared at times with the local community. For example on International Children’s Day last year, the whole school dressed up as story characters including the adults and a story trail was set up through the local village. Overnight sleepovers in school create great excitement!

This is where the potatoes used to grow - right beside the path leading down to the playground

Every project is carefully planned in accordance with the local education guidelines. The staff document each theme and keep visual records to share with children, parents and visitors. Some projects may last a few days, others several weeks, depending on the children’s interests. Owing to transport costs, the children have just one annual school trip such as visiting a zoo. Thus very good use is made of the school grounds, local area and the skills and knowledge of the wider community.

This is one of my favourite features - a seating area with a sprinkler that can create a little paddling pool.

The parents of nursery children do not receive annual or termly reports. Every child has a portfolio of work which includes records of likes, dislikes, progress in achieving key competences. The curriculum areas are: child and body; child and spirit; language and social skills; imaginative play.

These are the curriculum guidance documents, laid out for me to see!

Inside the school and nursery, there were clear signs that the world beyond the four walls was valued. There were natural materials used in displays. Children were able to use nuts and cones as part of their play indoors as well as outside and were expected to sort them back into their correct boxes at the end.

And here's the outdoor equivalent. The sunken boxes were put in deliberately to allow children to walk over the natural materials in their bare feet.

Over the past 3 years, I have used these photos extensively during presentations, speeches and courses. This teacher met me at 5pm in the afternoon, such was her delight that I wanted to see the school's outdoor space. The dedication and love that is put into an outdoor space like this one reflects the inner commitment of those involved to ensuring children have the best provision possible.

This is an outdoor shelter with an oven for baking!

An unofficial natural playspace

2011-10-05T08:00:00.002+01:00

In the summer I visited the Lake District and popped into Rothay Park in Ambleside. It's a lovely well-maintained place and has a little play area which looks like this...

It's a fairly standard affair for young children and to be honest, I found it a rather dull spot. However, because of its official presence I suspect the rest of the park has been left unintentionally exciting for children of all ages. I think the real play park is around this play park! And here's why...

At the entrance there were some inviting puddles...

Right beside the play area is this massive rock outcrop. It provides a great climbing experience for teenagers who are too old to use the play equipment.The bare rock in the photo below is where children slide down. It's been quite worn over the years.

On the other side of the rock outcrop is a steep cliff providing more risk and challenge. I've seen the local after school club visit the park and the children playing all over and around it.

There were several smaller rock outcrops throughout the park with more shrubs and plants left to grow. Here's another popular natural slide...

Tree stumps provide miniature world spaces for play. Or for children to use as bases where they can't be tagged or caught. There were several around the park.

This is the River Rothay. Part of the park borders this river with steep drops into the water. Not all of it is fenced off.

This artificial stream and bridge keep children entertained every time I pass by. A child politely stepped out of the way to let me take a photo!

This sculpture is a more "recent" addition to the park in 2000. It's called "Turning Point"and despite looking fragile, is robust.

There's lots of woodland glades surrounding the rock outcrops around the park, mostly near the rock outcrops and edges.

There's privacy and space to play alone, out of sight.

And lots of wide open grass for playing football, rounders, practising gymnastics and other games.

I've always found paths with roots fascinating. As a child I used to like balancing along the roots and deciding which "path" to take. This is one of the rootiest paths I've ever seen!

For me, it was a real trip down memory lane. I used to attend the nearby school in the Seventies. Back then we were allowed down into the park to play every lunchtime. So it was nice to see children still playing in the spaces I used to, getting up to the same sort of activities. Interestingly, the school playground hadn't changed much in 35 years either...

No wonder I value natural play spaces as an adult!

Where was your favourite place to play as a child? What long term impact have you derived from playing there? How can you enable your own child or class of children to have similar positive experiences of playing in nature?

Outdoor learning, Eco-Guilt and Portable Seats

2011-10-02T09:01:00.000+01:00

I'm facing an eco-dilemma. The cheap portable outdoor seats I use with courses and classes are wearing out after 2.5 years use. They are not environmentally-friendly as they are aluminium covered bubble-wrap. You buy a roll of the material for £33 and when carefully cut up, 36 seats can be created.

The air bubbles are getting flattened and the aluminium is looking worn :(

The seats are cheap and portable. They can be folded up and tucked under an arm or down the back of a rucksack, making them ideal for off-site visits and all ages. Each child can easily carry their own seat. If they are taking a packed lunch, the insulation properties of the material make it ideal for wrapping around the lunch boxes providing an extra layer of insulation. I like versatile resources.

I enjoy the way they reflect light and stand out on any surface.

On a dark day they brighten up the outdoor area!

They work well on top of wet benches - no excuse for not using the fixed outdoor seating!

As a path or stepping stones, these seats make an attractive path into a den!

Do you see that this child used her mat to chalk out her rectangle? Nice work!

A path? A boundary? A seating line? I've no idea but there's an order to these seats!

However I want to increase the lifespan of this resource. I'm looking for ideas and suggestions as to how to re-use them.

What would you do to re-use these seats? I did think of using them like stencils and letting children cut out shapes, patterns and pictures. Or adding them to the art corner. Or creating an interesting piece of outdoor art work. But I could really, really do with your thoughts and ideas... thank you in advance!

Story Stones and Thinking Skills

2011-09-29T07:54:00.002+01:00

My painted stones remain a much treasured resource that I continue to adapt and refine. Children like them and are happy to spend time looking and talking about the simple illustrations.

Some are themed. Below is my minibeast collection. Here is is fairly easy to work out what is what. Each stone has a fairly fixed definition. The ladybirds will always be ladybirds, for example.

I have a lots of stones, where the illustration is more open-ended. For example, children may surmise long and hard about what type of animal made the paw-print. The yellow dot could be the sun or it could indicate something else. The eye has been used to suggest someone is watching another character or event. It may be God's eye. It might be an adult one. Can you work out what's amiss with the footprint?

I also have some abstract designs. When these get pulled out of the bag, initially there's confusion over what the patterns mean. People have to decide their meaning. This calls for a little bit of imagination.

I find having open-ended illustrations makes for much more interesting story telling that has twists, turns and variations. And there's power and control here too. For suddenly a child has to attach their idea to the stone. It becomes what they want it to be.

A little stone can give a lot of empowerment in a funny sort of way. Little tweaks can transform an experience.

Developing Thinking Skills with Leaves

2011-09-26T19:15:00.000+01:00

Autumn is well and truly here, so once more, leaf activities are a must-do with children at the moment. I've been putting together a course about fostering creativity through learning outside and whilst doing this, the following thoughts popped into my head...

What can a leaf be used for?

How many would fit into a match box?

Challenge children to find a leaf with the most colours on it. Some of the ones below do a fine job...

Think of 3 ways to improve a leaf...

If you asked a tree about losing its leaves in Autumn, what would it say?

How many questions could you ask about a leaf?

What other thoughts might you have about leaves... Leave a comment here (Geddit?)

Outdoor Art: Using Peg Looms to Weave

2011-09-23T10:38:00.001+01:00

I am into wool in a big way at the moment. My mum has recently off-loaded all her unwanted fleeces onto me. I'm busy experimenting and having fun whilst doing so. She introduced me to peg looms which have "Kid-friendly-must-do" written all over them.

Peg looms come in different sizes. Below is my 24-peg loom. I've got a 12-peg one too. Basically it's a wooden block with dowling stuck into it. This one has the pegs set quite far apart so it can deal with bulky material such as tufts of wool, long grass or strips of plastic.

The warp is the thread used to set up the loom and as the basis for weaving material into it. I used Hebridean wool from the Flying Flock! Because I was using the whole loom, it took almost a whole ball of wool. It needs to be strong wool, or string or other yarn that won't easily break. It's also fine with children just to use 3 pegs, for a very quick project that can make a scarf or mini wall hanging.

Next, I took out the washed Hebridean fleece from one of the compression bags. Storing wool in compression bags is best otherwise they take up far too much room under one's loft bed.

Many people tear off strips of fleece and weave them into the peg loom. I gave this a go, but found it easier to card the wool roughly first. (See the carders behind the peg loom in the photo below).

It's really quick work and very simple. Wool is woven in and out of the pegs, When you come to near the top of the pegs, you take them out, one at a time, pull the warp thread through a little and put the peg back in its hole. The Hand Weaving Company have a video clip and more advice. Here's a close up look at what goes on...

Even with washed wool, I found the work to be messy. Bits of grass and gunk are still in the fleece and these get scattered. Tufts of wool fall off. At the very least it's a shed job. If you are using super-posh mega-clean wool, then I'm sure it would work just fine in your living room or classroom if you don't mind a lot of hoovering. Bear in mind that all tufts of wool can be added to a compost bin, if you have one.

Many years ago, when I worked in an outdoor centre in Canada, we had a loom set up. Every class made a simple rag rug during their week-long visit. In the children's free time they could go to the loom and do as much or as little work on the rug as they wished. I think a similar set-up would work well in a class or nursery. Then the rug can be used in class or be raffled as a fund raiser. Below my owls, Humphrey and Fluffykins, are modelling the final product.

For a simple and environmentally-friendly textile project, this is a winner. You can use any washed fleece. If you want a humorously serious book on the different sheep breeds to show children, I'd recommend Beautiful Sheep.

Edupic11 - A Conversation about Scottish Education

2011-09-20T08:08:00.000+01:00

The Scottish Learning Festival takes place this week. It is a huge event and one of the "fringe" additions is Edupic11. As one of the organisers, Laurie O'Donnell states in his blog, the aim of this event is for "people to share ideas and have a conversation about Scottish education that goes beyond Curriculum for Excellence."

Sadly I can't attend. I'm doing twilight training courses almost daily over the next few weeks and these are booked well in advance. Instead I've submitted a provocation - a brief presentation to encourage thought. So here it is...

A View from Outside

30 years ago I had no idea where I would be living or what I would be doing today...

My current job did not exist, I had to create it...

In 30 years time I have no idea where I will be living or what I will be doing...

Change is a constant factor in my life

Uncertainty is my present and future

There's a Chinese saying, "Uncertainty brings opportunity"

So I view the present and future as an opportunity

Just as children and young people do

So how do we ensure uncertainty is opportunity for our children?

It isn't about tools, technologies and resources. Learning outside reminds me of this

It isn't facts and figures. My school memories remind me of this

It's people and places that matter

The relationships we form with people and places

(Thanks to Ty Tyson for use of this photo)

Our values, beliefs and attitudes are all affected

Relationships are all there are...

Leave no child inside

Technology for Learning Outside

2011-09-17T09:33:00.000+01:00

This blog post is written by a guest, Lindsey Wright. She is fascinated with the potential of emerging educational technologies, particularly the online school to transform the landscape of learning. She writes about web-based learning, electronic and mobile learning, and the possible future of education. Thanks Lindsey.

S2 - Year 8 Students undertaking a GPS activity

Outdoor education brings students to a different type of classroom. It allows them to interact with the world around them and develop an understanding of the fundamental principles of nature. Many teachers view this as a time to escape the technological bustle of the classroom and reconnect kids to nature. However, this is sometimes a bit shortsighted. True, there's a big difference between high-tech classrooms or even totally technologically-facilitated education like online classes and being outside, free to learn from observation and interaction with the environment. On the other hand, educators can bring technology out of the classroom and into nature to enhance the educational experiences of students and help them make new connections in scientific and creative learning.

Lesson Ideas

Educator Susan Carter discusses a number of different ways to get kids involved in the outdoors while enriching the experience with technology. For instance, taking digital photographs of animals, trees, or objects of specific colors during nature walks is a great way to teach younger students about collecting, analyzing, and organizing information. When they get back to the classroom, students can compile the pictures and create classification charts.

For older students, this idea can be taken a step further. Have them focus on collecting data about littering by photographing items of trash and recording the location with their smartphones or PCs. These data can be analyzed mathematically to make sense of how people litter and how it affects the environment.

Another of Carter's ideas involves turning smartphones into recording devices. This can easily be accomplished with any number of apps. Students can record a variety of natural noises during a nature walk, then use those noises to construct a 'sound map.' Other applications might include practicing identification of various animals and insects or even writing a poem describing the sounds. R Another activity to get kids out of the classroom and into nature, bringing technology into play at the same time, is geocaching. Thanks to the prevalence of smartphones with GPS functionality, it's possible to easily create a geocache — a hidden object located using GPS data. Kids will appreciate the fun of what amounts to a high-tech treasure search, but also learn to use technology for geography, navigation, and mapping in a meaningful way.

Outdoor applications are part of the iPhone's bread-and-butter offerings, and there are plenty of applications to satisfy educators hoping to teach their students a bit more about nature. Consider Moon Atlas, which allows star-gazing students the chance to map the features of the moon, and Google Earth's trail navigation, which will let students try their hands at understanding map features and learning to navigate based on natural landmarks rather than roads.

For science teachers interested in teaching children about global warming, temperature fluctuations, and how the sun affects the Earth's temperature, there are a number of apps that are designed to turn a smartphone into a thermometer. Students can record and analyze accurate data thanks to technologies such as the Blackberry room thermometer app. From these data they'll be able to develop an understanding of how light relates to heat, acquire an appreciation for how temperatures vary from day-to-day, and even track gradual temperature trends over time.

For English students, there are plenty of opportunities to use technology in the outdoors as well. Apps abound that allow users to search for verses by subject, style, or author. Have students look up Whitman's Leaves of Grass and go on a scavenger hunt for natural elements described in a poem of their choice. They can photograph their findings and use those photos to create a digital illustration of the poem.

Technology has opened new windows to the outdoors. It's possible to connect students with their natural environment in new and exciting ways that enhance their understanding of the outdoors rather than keeping them cooped up indoors. With the right tools, some digital know-how, and a willingness to explore the ever-growing variety of options available for using smartphones, the Internet, and other technologies, it's possible to create meaningful learning experiences in which technology enhances time spent outside rather than overwhelming it.

Inspirational Walls - In School Grounds & Beyond

2011-09-13T19:35:00.000+01:00

Six weeks ago, I was in the Lake District which is re-knowned for its social and cultural heritage as well as its scenic beauty. In fact I believe its the interactions of the people with the landscape over several centuries that has made the Lake District such a unique place.

Normally I'm completely into looking at the fells and baa-ing in conversation with all the Herdwick sheep. However this time was different. I'm blaming Rusty Keeler for my new play-potential-tinted glasses that I now wear when out and about. This time, I found myself eyeing up the walls in a new light.

Local building traditions have produced villages and towns of very different character. I was staying in Ambleside where the house have grey slate roofs and walls...

Many house names and other signs are written on slate too...

These are easy to obtain or have made from local suppliers. Oh and look at the number tiles too! I bet these could be well used in a nursery outdoor space. And check out the miniature slate tiles.

This 10ft wall is where I learned to climb. Encouraged by reading Enid Blyton's Famous Five stories, I would look for high walls to climb. My gran's garden is at the top of the wall so it's possible to squeeze through the bushes, thus avoiding the necessity of climbing back down!

Many schools spend thousands of pounds on climbing walls. Creating walls that are structurally strong enough for traversing which fit in the style of traditional local walls is a potential alternative, employing local crafts and tradespeople to build (NB they do not need to be 10ft tall, just fun enough to clamber about - ask Grounds for Learning for advice)

This has been done by some schools. At Riverside Primary in Stirling, the sandpit is partially surrounded by a beautiful wall.

If you look really closely, the wall has all sorts of hidden features and treasures to discover. When it was being built the school children stuck little objects into the cement. Here's an example...

Low walls are a childhood necessity for walking along. I know many adults disapprove of such practices, but wall walking kept me very absorbed as a child. Below is one example. This wall was on my walk to the sweet shop!

One of my favourite Lakeland building traditions are the drystone walls that cover the countryside over fell and dale. Whilst people are discouraged from climbing over them at random (it can cause them to fall down), there are stone stiles to let you through on rights of way and footpaths. Look at this beautiful example...

And this one too...

Building these walls is a local tradition in many parts of the UK. The techniques vary slightly in different places. However, when properly constructed they will last for centuries with little maintenance. Of course, children can get practising from an early age...

Drystone walls ("drystane dykes" in Scotland) are also valuable homes for wildlife as there are little gaps and spaces which plants and animals inhabit. But, they can also provide a lovely garden feature too, if constructed with space for planting at the top.

Raised beds can also be made from stone. These are robust structures that will withstand high use. I like the example I found below, as I'm into raised beds that provide seating too... and a place to walk on, jump off, practise parkour, etc...

Holes in walls work well too. They are miniature cubbies for small world play. If you want to see some amazing artwork on this have a look at Helen Nodding's Stories from Space and the detail of her work.

And let's not forget about pipes. Whilst the pipe below serves as drainage, having pipes in walls in playgrounds creates many opportunities. It can be a place to peek through, roll balls through, post stuff into, pour water into, etc.

Talking of water, I really had to show you these stepping stones just outside Ambleside. They take rock hopping to a new level. Remember this, should you ever build a large water feature...

Finally, let's remember the powerful impact of stone circles and our connection with our ancestors. This is Castlerigg Stone Circle. The Coombes School have a replica stone circle in their grounds which is a popular place for learning, playing and just being.

The next time you go and visit a different place, enjoy the inspiration it brings. Take it back to your school or store it in your dreams and schemes file :)

Outdoor Art: Felting Stones

2011-09-10T10:32:00.000+01:00

Felting stones is a really simple activity to do outside. It requires very little wool and gets quick results.

First, find your stone. It should fit comfortably in your hand. I chose mine from my stash in a glass jar.

Place your pebble on a layer of fleece on top of bubble wrap. I've used a piece of carded Jacob's wool.

Roll up your pebble in the fleece, ensuring that the ends are smooth and tucked in.

Choose another colour of wool and gently open up the fibres to make them fine so that you can see through them. This time I added shop-bought merino wool top. Wrap this at right angles to the previous layer of wool.

Next, get a bowl of hand hot soapy water. Use real soap not detergent. Add a little soapy hot water to the stone to make it wet but not soaking. Wrap the bubble wrap around the stone, allowing the water to drip out. This is why it works better outside where the water can spill and more children can undertake the activity at any given time.

Whilst the stone is wrapped in the bubble wrap, squeeze and turn the parcel. Do this for five minutes. Use a timer if necessary. Sing songs! After 5 minutes have a look at your stone to see if the wool has felted. If the fibres are still a bit loose or the stone is rattling around inside, then you need to wrap up the stone in bubble wrap and keep squeezing and turning. The motion is a bit like making a snowball.

Once the felt feels firmer around the stone, remove the bubble wrap and press and rub the stone. Rinse the stone under hot running water. Then let it dry. This is what my specimens looked like:

When other pebbles are added, it makes for a rather fetching mix and adds to the sensory experience.

I think these are a great child-made resource in any classroom or pre-school. Larger pebbles make lovely presents at Christmas time or for fund raisers. Buy the merino wool online as you will get the best deals. It's also possible to felt a block of soap in the same way. The soap can be used as normal. The more it is used, the more the felt shrinks around it.

Mulleborg - an Outdoor Swedish Pre-school

2011-09-07T07:58:00.001+01:00

Mulleborg is a Swedish outdoor pre-school. This means that the children who attend will spend at least 80% of their time outside, all-year round in all weathers. For more information have a look at this case study and the Rain or Shine report which I wrote after visiting this nursery and several others in October 2008.

However I thought you might be interested in a wee tour of the outdoor space at Mulleborg. It was a beautiful August day and the grounds were looking lovely...

Here's the entrance which is rarely used. The children are dropped off round the back in the outside space every morning.

Those are blackcurrant bushes alongside the building. Perfect for making fresh syrup to go with pancakes!

As you walk round the side, you pass the vegetable plots. Food harvested is used in snacks and for lunches.

This is the view round the back. There are several sandpits, natural rock outcrops and trees providing shade, shelter and climbing opportunities!

The drying paintings hide the home for all the hobby horses which children use for playing all around the grounds.

This is the back entrance. (I'll blog about the indoor space in another post). Look at the child-friendly welly boot remover propping open the door. Check out the extra hooks on the outside wall for wet clothes. There is also an outside and inside mat for wiping boots - a very good system for managing outdoor clothes and shoes in all weathers.

The chickens are back! The children help feed and look after these birds on a daily basis.

This is the steep smooth rock slope at the other side of the house. It's a much quieter place to play.

The pathway past the gardening patch leads to other parts of the garden. There are more berries such as raspberries for children to forage.

As you can imagine, the outdoor space is extensive. The dry stream now has a pump and running water, thanks to parent who knows about installing these.

The climbing frame is popular with children of all ages. Everyone clambers all over it. The structures in the grounds have all been made by parents who volunteer their time one Saturday each month to maintain the nursery.

I do believe every boat deserves an after-life in a school or nursery outdoor space. They are always much-loved and well-used by children.

This view gives you an idea of the space. 34 children aged 2-6yrs attend this kindergarten.

The sand pit in the photo below, is the second one in the outside area. The nearby boxes of equipment and resources can be used by children as they wish.

This gathering place is for the younger children, with a little tree to climb nearby.

The bush on the other side of the area has poisonous berries. Instead of removing the bush as a "hazard", the children know not to eat these berries. It is part of learning how to manage in the real world.

The shelter beside the fire pit is used as an outdoor sleeping area for the youngest children in finer weather. There are strict rules around the use of the fire pit which everyone follows.

Throughout the area are places for children to play together or alone. The variety of structures and space is fantastic. Although some areas look worn, there is new life and growth all around.

This is the oldest outdoor pre-school in Sweden. Long may the sound of children playing and laughing be heard coming from these grounds. They love their right to play - outdoors!