Take Your Classroom Learning Outside

How’s the weather like for you where you are located in the world right now? Do you hear the birds chirping in the morning? Are flowers starting to bloom? Is the air crisp and fresh smelling? If you answered yes, then spring has SPRUNG, my friends. I can’t think of a better time for me to talk about how you can take your learning outside on those beautiful days!

I don’t know about you, but whenever I’m able to get outside with my kids, my mood is instantly lifted. And I’ll tell you, the same goes for my kids. They are instantly happy, excited and full of life. Who cares if they’re about to do some school work, they’re OUTSIDE!

Outside learning is ENGAGING

Like I said above, students are dying to get out of their seats and move. Capitalize on that energy and turn it into a learning opportunity. Students are going to buy in to what you’re asking them to do because they are intrinsically motivated by being outside. I talk more about student buy in over at this post.

Foster creativity

When you show students that learning can go beyond the four walls of their classroom, you will be amazed at how their imagination soars. Learning outside is inquiry-based. What better way to activate that higher order thinking? Allow students to act out their favorite part in a book or having students create shapes using objects they find outside. You will be amazed at what they come up with and where their creativity takes them.

Exposure

I hate to say it, but when your students leave you, a lot of them go home, sit inside on some kind of electronic. Or maybe because of the safety hazards, students cannot go outside at home as much as they would like. When you take learning outside, you might be exposing them to things that they don’t normally see or do.

Outdoor Classroom Day

There is actually an Outdoor Classroom Day this year on May 23, 2019. This day is for schools worldwide to promote outdoor learning and inspire learning and play. Sometimes it can seem daunting or overwhelming to incorporate the outdoors with learning, but this day would be a perfect start to give it a try.

You can read more about the Outdoor Classroom Day campaign here.

Do you take your learning outside? Are you going to try it this year? What are you waiting for?!