The document discusses the importance of outdoor environments as teaching resources, highlighting that children's access to nature has significantly decreased, impacting their health and education. It emphasizes the cognitive and emotional benefits of outdoor play, including enhanced concentration and creativity, while presenting activities and resources to encourage outdoor learning. Additionally, it suggests practical ways for educators to engage students with nature to foster their development.

1. The Outdoor Environment as a
Teaching Resource
Mairi McLeod
CASE Education
www.educase.co.uk
educase@hotmail.co.uk
@CASEeducation

2. When We Were Young…..
• In pairs discuss a favourite early childhood
memory
• Feedback to the group
• How many were outdoor memories?

3. Why Outside?
• March 2012 : National Trust research released a
report on natural childhood by Stephen Moss
hi-lighting the gap between children and nature
• Less than 1 in 10 children play in wild spaces now
compared to 50% a generation ago
• Natural England has calculated that equitable
access to green space would create an estimated
saving to the health service of £2.1Billion per
year

4. Outdoors is Good for Mind, Body &
Soul
Evidence :
• Students of all ages participating in environmental
education programmes at school do better in standardized
tests in maths, reading, writing and social studies : Abrams KS
1999, Last Child in the Woods Algonquin books p.206….
• Children and adults find it easier to concentrate and pay
attention after spending time in nature : Wells NM 2000 At home with
nature Hartig T, Mang M & Evans
• Nature provides a rich source of hands on, multi –sensory
stimulation which is critical for brain development in early
childhood : Rivkin MS Natural Learning

5. Reduces Stress - Boosts Cognitive
Function
• Children’s play is more creative and egalitarian in
natural areas than more structured paved areas :
Faber Taylor, A. Wiley
• Views of nature reduce stress levels & speed
recovery from illness, injury or stressful
experiences : Frumkin H 2001, Beyond Toxicity, Human Health &
the Natural Environment - American journal of Preventative Medicine 234-
240
• Access to nature nurtures self discipline
• Boosts cognitive function Faber Taylor, Evidence from Inner
City Children, Journal of Environmental Psychology 22 p49-63

6. Further Benefits
• Tackling obesity – outdoor exercise burns
more calories
• Outdoor light stimulates the pineal gland –
part of brain that regulates the biological clock
vital to the immune system and makes us feel
happier
• Being outdoors stimulates all the senses

7. Conkers or Tag?
• According to a 2008 study by Play England half of
all children have been stopped from climbing
trees
• One in five banned from playing conkers
• Almost the same number told they cannot play
games of tag
• As Tim Gill observes, activities that earlier
generations of children enjoyed as part of
growing up are now being relabelled as troubling
or dangerous

8. Lets Go Outside !
Choose a simple practical activity
• Make a nature bangle
• Record different sensory experiences
• Look for different shapes in nature

9. Planning The Outdoor Area
Get in the zone!
• Think about how you would like your area to
develop
• Ask the pupils to help you with the design
• Hold a competition
• Do you have any green fingered creative
parents?

10. Fun Tactile Seating

11. Children Love Worms!

12. Create a Simple Wormery

13. Compost Corner !

14. Hunt for Mini Beasts

15. Research and Record

16. Sculpture & Seating

17. Harvesting Fruit

18. Build a Den – Who Lives Here?

19. Develop a Listening Corner

20. Interpretation Boards

21. Musical Instruments

22. Fun Using Old Pots & Pans

23. Consider setting up a lunch or after
school environment club

24. Useful websites
• http://www.opalexplorenature.org/kidszone
• http://ptes.org/kids-club/
• http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/autumn
• http://www.anglianwater.co.uk/community/education/resources/key-stage-2-pack.aspx
• http://projectwildthing.com/wildtime
• http://www.youtube.com/user/SchoolGroundsUK
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3s83qVp0mE
• http://www.force.org.uk/
• http://www.ltl.org.uk/resources/results.php?id=751
• http://www.playengland.org.uk/media/70684/design-for-play.pdf
• http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/
• http://www.leef.org.uk/
• http://se-ed.co.uk/edu/

25. Books for outdoors
Nursery / Reception
Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
We’re going on a bear hunt by Michael Rosen
Listen, Listen by Philis Gershator
Who’s in the garden by Philis Gershator
Key Stage 1
Hansel & Gretel by Grimm
Goldilocks & the 3 bears R. Southey
Jaspers Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth
The enormous turnip by Alexsei Tolstoy
The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
Key Stage 2
Charlotte’s Web by E B White
Storyteller- the snapdragon plant -Scholastic
Mrs Parrot’s Rainforest by Michael Cox
King of the cloud forests by M. Morpurgo
Anancy and Mr Drybone by F. French
Finn’s Island by E. Dunlop

26. Treasure Box ideas & Equipment
• Magnifying glasses
• Listening devices
• Ultrasound detectors
• Spades
• Buckets
• Fabric
• Dressing up
• Cardboard boxes
• Rope
• Twine
• string
• Clipboards
• Pencils
• Laminated Identification cards
• Paper
• Crayons
• Binoculars
• Torch
• Compass
• Sample Pots
• Camera
• Wheelbarrow
• Rakes