4 Outdoor lessons
Taking your lesson outside the classroom should not place any additional demands on your planning. As students become more accustomed to using the school grounds to explore elementary science, outdoor learning will become a more integral part of your lessons. With larger classes you may need to stage these activities so that they go out over a period of time. Also, if you have students with special educational needs, you may need to put them in a supportive group and monitor their work whilst outside.
In the next activity you will plan an outdoor lesson.
Activity 3: Planning an outdoor lesson
Choose one activity from the textbook on a topic you are about to do with your class. For example, you could choose ‘The Plant Fairy’, Chapter 2 in the Class III textbook, or ‘Getting to know plants’ or ‘The living organisms and their surroundings’ in the Class VI textbook.
Create a detailed lesson plan that uses an outdoor area in the school grounds or a locality close to your school. You need to consider the following questions:
- What do you want your students to learn?
- Where will you take your students?
- What safety issues need to be addressed?
- What equipment do you need to prepare?
- How you will introduce the activity?
- What questions will you ask your students?
- How will you support those with particular learning needs?
- How will you make the questions open-ended so that your students have to think more deeply?
- What activities will you suggest they do to answer the question?
- How will the students record their data?
- What kinds of assessment opportunities does the activity present?
- How will you follow up this lesson?
When you have completed your planning, carry out the lesson with your students.
 Pause for thought After planning and delivering your lesson, make brief notes about the following:
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3 Benefits of using the outside environment