We love teaching and making resources to promote enjoyment, motivation, and understanding for children and teachers with a particular passion for learning outside the classroom.
We love teaching and making resources to promote enjoyment, motivation, and understanding for children and teachers with a particular passion for learning outside the classroom.
Growing plants is great fun and can lead to loads of teaching opportunities. For this activity students will plant a variety of species and measure their growth rate over time. The students first look at how they can carry out this investigation, completing an investigation plan.
After the seeds are planted they’ll measure the height of each plant every week and record their findings on the table. As part of the sheet they’ll need to work out differences in heights. We suggest using 4 - 5 different types of plants, ideally ones with a clear difference in growth rate.
How you carry this investigation out depends greatly on the space you have available. You may choose to use separate plant pots or maybe you have a veg patch available. It’s good to discuss the importance of the plants being in the same locations. Why is the sun important for plants? Why is water important? You can go into as much or little detail as needed in these discussions.
It can be useful to set up a timetable of who is going to care for the plants each day. If you choose to use fruits or vegetables (highly recommended!) you can then go onto use these as another stimulus for activities.
Suggested Plants:
Tomato
Spinach
Baby Carrots
Bush Beans
Green Onions
Summer Squash
Beets
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also be sure to visit my store and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!
Bird hunts are great fun and easy to do. Print out the sheet for your students to take into your outdoor space and mark off the birds as they find them.
It’s great if you can provide binoculars so they can spot the birds from a distance.
This resource contains sheets for both American and European birds.
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also be sure to visit my store and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!
This health and nutrition activity aims to get students to understand which foods create a balanced diet. They will choose their favourite athlete and create either a day or weeks meal plan, researching which foods are needed for them to get the correct amount of nutrients. They will then think about why an athletes diet may be slightly different to somebody who is not involved in so much sport, answering a few scientific based questions.
**Contents:
**
Teacher’s Guide
4 x Differentiated Meal Plan Sheets
Question Sheet
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also be sure to visit my store and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!
Growing plants is great fun and can lead to loads of teaching opportunities. For this activity students will plant a variety of species and measure their growth rate over time. The students will measure the height of each plant every week and record their findings on the table as well as drawing a picture of the plants.
We suggest using 4 - 5 different types of plants, ideally ones with a clear difference in growth rate. How you carry this investigation out depends greatly on the space you have available. You may choose to use separate plant pots or maybe you have a veg patch available.
It’s good to discuss the importance of the plants being in the same locations. Why is the sun important for plants? Why is water important? You can go into as much or little detail as needed in these discussions.
It can be useful to set up a timetable of who is going to care for the plants each day. If you choose to use fruits or vegetables (highly recommended!) you can then go onto use these as another stimulus for activities.
Suggested Plants:
Tomato
Spinach
Baby Carrots
Bush Beans
Green Onions
Summer Squash
Beets
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also be sure to visit my store and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!
Minibeast hunts are great fun and easy to do. Print out the sheet for your students to take into your outdoor space and mark off the minibeasts as they find them.
It’s great if you can provide a magnifying glass so they can look at all the amazing details of each minibeast.
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also, be sure to visit my store and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!
This fun and visual sorting / cut and stick activity for recycling is a great addition to your sustainability or humans and the environment topic. Students will look at the items and sort them into the four main recycling materials (plastic, paper / cardboard, glass, and metal).
This resource works great both in small groups and individually. It’s great to encourage students to think about the kind of items they can recycle instead of throw into the trash.
You may also be interested in our pollution bundle.
Humans and The Environment: Pollution - HUGE BUNDLE
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also be sure to visit my store and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!
This activity is all about students exploring different textures in the world around them. Don’t be afraid for students to get muddy for this activity! Explain to your class what the word ‘texture’ means and that they will be exploring all sorts of different textures in your outdoor space.
Give them the table and go through each texture, giving them a chance to check they know the meaning of each one. Once they are ready, wearing clothes that can get a bit wet and muddy, get them to go outside and try to find each of the textures in the table, drawing or writing down their findings.
Diff. 1 – Textures are already filled in on the table.
Diff. 2 – To give students more of a challenge, they can fill in different textures they can think of before heading outside. For students who need more support, this activity can be done in small groups with adult support.
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also be sure to visit my store and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!
Exploring what hides in the depths of the trees is a great way to look at habitats, classification and living things as well improving observation skills and sparking their interest in science and the world around them.
Get a large white cloth or tarpaulin and lay it out underneath a tree with branches you can reach. Shake the branches for several seconds. Students can now find and observe the different mini-beasts that have fallen from the tree.
It’s great if you’re able to provide microscopes and magnifying glasses to take a closer look. The students can keep a simple record of what they’ve discovered on the record sheets.
Extension activities: Older students could do some report writing on one of the mini-beasts they found.
Equipment needed:
Large white cloth / tarpaulin
Record sheets
Magnifying glasses (optional)
Microscopes (optional)
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also, be sure to visit my store and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!
Exploring the outdoors is great fun. Get your student to head out on a scavenger hunt / bingo game where they will have to collect and spot different things, crossing it off their list as they go. It’s a great activity to do on a sunny afternoon to give your class a chance to release some energy and explore the outdoors.
This pack contains two sets of bingo sheets, one for school grounds / a woodland area and another for the beach.
Diff. 1: Students go outside and cross out the items once they have collected / spotted it.
Diff. 2: Students go outside and collect / spot items, working out calculations and identifying different living things. You can add a competitive aspect to this activity by setting a time limit for your students.
Resources needed:
Diff. 1: Bingo sheet
Diff. 2: Bingo sheet, scales, rulers, identification sheets / access to the internet
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also, be sure to visit my store and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!
These 10 outdoor STEM activities are perfect as a stand-alone outdoor team building activity or as a team builder at the start or end of year.
This pack contains 10 challenge cards that you can laminate and use time and time again. Each resource is easy to facilitate, with most challenges only needing a selection of natural resources. We recommend you allow at least 20 minutes for each challenge card, however depending on how you want to use them, students could spend hours on just on one challenge.
We’ve seen them used really well when each team does 1 card per week, spending around 1 hour on each challenge.
**
Recommended resources in your outdoor space:**
A variety of different sized sticks
Plants with a variety of different sized leaves (ferns etc.).
A variety of different sized stones / bricks.
Wooden benches / chairs etc.
Logs
A variety of thin / thick rope and string.
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also, be sure to visit my store and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!
This is a great bingo activity for Halloween to get your students exploring the outdoors as they hunt for all the different creepy critters, sounds, and feelings they can find in your outdoor space. They’ll use all of their senses to complete their bingo sheet as they, listen, look, and feel for different things.
The sound map is a great way to get students listening to the sounds around them as they investigate this fascinating topic with good links to measuring, compass work and estimation.
They will choose a spot in your outdoor area to sit then mark on the sounds they can hear in relation to them (with them being in the middle of the sheet) by drawing or writing on the activity sheet.
Encourage students to think carefully about how far away they think the sounds are and mark them on the sheet accordingly. You can also look at bearings by getting students to mark on the estimated distances on their map. You can even give each child a compass so they can also mark on the bearings of each sound.
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also be sure to visit my store Saving The Teachers and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!
Bring the outdoors to Advent with this fun outdoor activity Advent calendar. Each day of Advent has a fun and easy outdoor activity to complete. This calendar can be used in class, at home, or as part of a club or group. It’s great fun and your children are sure to love exploring the outdoors each day.
There are flaps included with this resource for you to stick over each activity. If you are not using the flaps, encourage your students not to peek at the other days!
Merry Christmas!
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also be sure to visit my store Saving The Teachers and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!
For this activity students will head outside and explore the natural colors around them. They will use natural objects to color the Christmas themed pictures by rubbing them onto the paper. Encourage students to experiment with different items. It can be more effective if the students crush the natural items before doing the rubbing.
This is a lovely activity for the end of term and can make a great Christmas themed display for your classroom. You could also make their rubbings into Christmas cards to send home.
Check out our Christmas Literacy Challenge here.
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also be sure to visit my store Saving The Teachers and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!
16 visual ecosystem vocabulary cards that are perfect for your topic word wall complete with a title. They are a great way to help your children learn the key terms needed for this exciting topic. We have found them especially helpful for children with English as an additional language. Each card contains the key word, definition, and visual aid.
Contents
17 X Key Vocabulary Cards
Display Title
2 Blank Cards
Vocabulary Included
Ecosystem
Adaptation
Biodegrade
Canopy
Carnivore
Community
Coniferous
Consumers
Deciduous
Dormant
Food chain
Food web
Habitat
Herbivore
Nutrients
Omnivore
Predator
Prey
Territory
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also be sure to visit my store Saving The Teachers and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!
Get outside everyday for a month with this fun outdoor activity calendar. This resource contains 30 different easy activity ideas to do outside. It’s a fantastic way to encourage outdoor learning that both you and your children are sure to love. It contains activities covering many different topics from science to art.
Enjoy your month outdoors!
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also be sure to visit my store and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!
For this activity your class are on a mission to save the weeds. They will adopt a weed and spend some time studying it carefully and thinking about all the good things about their weed.
They will then write a letter to the caretaker or gardener persuading them to spare their weed from being poisoned or removed. This activity is great if you’re looking at persuasive writing, however it also has good links to plants and habitats as your class will research the benefits that their chosen plant has on local wildlife.
Teaching structure:
Instructions: Share the instructions with your class.
Weed ID: Get your class to find a weed to adopt and complete an ID sheet for it.
Research: Students will research their weed (internet, books, and observation), finding out how it can benefit the local wildlife.
Persuasive writing plan: Students will begin to plan their letter.
Letter template: Students can use a template to help them structure their letter if needed.
Resources needed:
Activity pack
Internet access / books
Magnifying glasses
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also be sure to visit my store and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!
This activity gets students thinking about the changes that happen between day and night. They will walk around your outdoor space drawing or writing things they can see in the day time. They will then think about what would be different at night. Is there anything they won’t be able to see? What new things do they think they’ll be able to see.
They can complete the next section just through discussion, or find a time to go outside at night to complete the section. This could be done as a home learning project or on an overnight camp.
This activity is great to get your little ones thinking about the different animals and their behaviors as well as beginning to understand how the earth moves around the sun. It’s also an excellent way to at develop their observation and comparison skills.
Check out our ‘Day and Night’ cut and stick worksheet.
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also be sure to visit my store and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!
20 visual solar system vocabulary cards that are perfect for your topic word wall complete with a title. They are a great way to help your children learn the key terms needed for this exciting topic. We have found them especially helpful for children with English as an additional language. Each card contains the key word, definition, and visual aid.
Contents
24 X Key Vocabulary Cards
Display Title
Vocabulary Included
Asteroid
Asteroid Belt
Atmosphere
Comet
Crater
Dwarf Planet
Galaxy
Gas Giant
Gravity
Lunar Eclipse
Meteor
Meteorite
Orbit
Planet
Revolution
Rotation
Solar Eclipse
Solar System
Star
Terrestrial
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also be sure to visit my store Saving The Teachers and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!
This activity gets students walking around your outdoor space putting themselves in the shoes of a chosen animal. They’ll think about what that animal might be able to see, hear and feel. It’s a great introduction to diary writing that can be used as a stand alone activity or the lead up to a big write. It also links in nicely with your habitats topic.
Teaching Structure:
Explain to the students that they are going to go outside and find an animal. It could be anything from a tiny insect to a big bird.
Tell them that they’re going to imagine they are their chosen animal and think about what that animal might see, hear, and feel. At this point it could be useful to choose one animal to go through together.
Get them to go off and complete the differentiated sheets.
After 15 - 20 minutes get them to come back and share what they’ve done with each other.
Please don’t forget to rate this resource to let us know what you think.
Also, be sure to visit my store and FOLLOW ME to see my new products and hear about upcoming sales!