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.
The Egg Drop STEM Challenge is a nice variation on the commonly used egg parachute challenge. Your class will work together in small teams, thinking about the best way to protect an egg from being dropped using natural materials. They will be encouraged to think about the properties of different materials, considering which one will work best.
The whole activity is based around a story of an explorer who is trapped in the North Pole and needs food supplies, and of course, his favourite food is egg!
Read the instructions to your class before putting them into groups of 2 or 3. Encourage them to hunt out different natural materials that they think will protect them egg from breaking. Once they have padded out the tubs, give them the egg and see if it works by dropping it from a good height!
To save on money and waste, if an egg does not break, it can be re-used by the following team.
Once the challenge is complete each student can fill in an evaluation sheet.
Resources needed:
Supply of natural materials in an outdoor space
Activity sheets
Small tubs (big 500ml or similar)
Somewhere high to drop the eggs from (first floor or second floor)
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This activity will get students focusing on the small details as they use their observation skills to take a closer look at objects in your outdoor area. This activity will get students looking closely at the details and they use their observation skills to take a closer look at objects in your outdoor area.
They will choose an object (for example a leaf) and draw what they can see using their eyes in the first circle, using a magnifying glass in the second circle, and a microscope in the third. It’s a great activity to introduce them to microorganisms as well as allowing them to use a variety of scientific equipment.
If you do not have access to or time to use microscopes an activity sheet is included without the third circle.
Check out our outdoor learning science bundle.
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The insect trap investigation gets students looking closely at all the amazing creepy crawlies that can be found in your outdoor space by creating small traps. It’s great if you’re looking at living things, habitats, or data handling as well as developing key investigation skills.
**Ages 4 - 6: **Students will set the traps and observe what they collect. At this age it’s great for them to explore the wildlife, talking about their looks, how they move, key features, and other general observations. Once they’ve had time to study what they’ve trapped they can compete the observation sheet where they’ll draw what they’ve collected.
**Ages 7 - 9 & 10 - 12: **Students will set the traps and wait to see what crawls inside (checking each day for a few days. They’ll identify the creatures and record their results on the results table. They can then use their results to create a bar graph of their findings (you can choose to accumulate all the results or just use individuals). After that, get them to complete the evaluation question sheets which will encourage them to think about how successful their traps were and the reasons behind their results.
Equipment needed:
Activity pack
Trowel
Yogurt pot
Tray
Card
Stones
ID Guide (optional)
Check out our outdoor science bundle here.
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Get your class engaged with your living things topic from the very start with this exciting outdoor science scavenger hunt activity. It’s also a fantastic way to assess what your class already know or have learnt during the living things topic. It’s a hassle free resource with minimum prep, designed to engage students with a wide range of learning styles.
This pack contains 10 challenge task cards that cover the following areas:
Camouflage
Food Chains
Habitats
Identification / Classification
Observation Skills
The Human Body
My class had great fun in the outdoors while learning and recapping their skills. A fantastic lesson when the sun in shining!
Contents
Teacher’s Guide
8 x Differentiated Answer Sheets For The Children To Complete
10 x Challenge Task Cards
Top Tip: Laminate your cards so they can be used time and time again!
Check out our Outdoor Science Bundle here.
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This activity gets students exploring the wildlife in your pond by making their very own underwater viewer using just a plastic bottle, some tape, and scissors. It’s a fantastic activity if you’re looking at living things, habitats, or just want to give your students some time to explore this amazing world.
Teaching Structure:
Get the students to make their underwater viewers. Younger students may need help with this.
Give them time to use the viewers to explore the wildlife in your pond. Either during or after exploring they can complete the differentiated sheets recording their observations.
For higher grade levels you can get them to use books and the internet to ID what they see. Please note: There are obvious risks involved with this activity and there must be measures in place.
We suggest getting all students to lie down on an area close to the water level before using the viewers. Check out our risk assessment creator to produce a risk assessment quickly and easily.
We hope you find this pack useful and enjoy working outside with your class!
Check out our Outdoor Science Bundle.
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This is a great addition to your electricity topic. This Google Slide / Classroom activity is great recap your students circuit building skills while further developing their understanding into the magical world of electricity.
This resource contains 10 Google Slides where students are required to complete the circuits using the components given on the screen. They are also required to trouble shoot a couple of the circuits to figure out why they are not working. It’s great to further and reinforce their understanding of electricity.
The circuits get more difficult throughout the slides.
These Google Slides are aimed at years 3 - 5 and work great individually, in pairs, and as distance learning.
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This is an easy no prep Google Slide / Classroom activity to recap your electricity topic. It looks at the different symbols in a circuit as well as thinking about what each of the key components do through fun interactive activities.
Activity 1 - Students must drag the correct label to match the electric circuit components symbol.
Activity 2 - Fill the gap. Students need to drag the correct word to complete the sentence.
Activity 3 - Students must drag the electric component symbols to create a working circuit.
These Google Slides are aimed at grades 2 - 3 and work great individually, in pairs, and as distance learning.
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This is a great STEM project to get students exploring the local weather as they design and build their very own wind vanes before recording the wind direction over a given time period. This projects is great if you’re looking at points of the compass, the weather, fractions, or as a fun STEM challenge.
Teaching Structure:
Talk about what a wind vane is and why they can be useful.
In small groups, complete the design sheet by getting students to think of their own ideas about how to build a wind vane. If you don’t want to do this, just use the example design.
Share each idea and discuss whether they’ll work or not.
Share the example design. - Complete the final design sheet if their designs have changed.
Build the wind vane.
Place the wind vane in a suitable location and complete the record sheet over a given time period. It can be interesting to put each group in a different place and then compare their results to see any variations in wind directions.
Complete the evaluation questions.
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This is a great outdoor experiment that demonstrates how the earth is kept warm enough for life (as well as global warming) through the greenhouse effect.
They will carry out an experiment comparing the difference in temperature between the air in a glass jar compared to the air outside of the jar. This demonstrates the effect the greenhouse gases have on the Earth.
They will go onto think about what happens when we add to the greenhouse gases and the effect this has on the Earth’s temperature.
**Equipment needed: **tall jar, 2 x thermometers, 2 x pieces of white card, timer, sunshine & an activity pack.
Teaching Structure:
Ask the students how they think the Earth is kept warm. Explain that there are gases in the atmosphere that trap the warming radiation in and keep the Earth warm.
Explain that they are going to demonstrate this process by looking how the air warms up in a glass compared to the air outside of the glass.
Get the students to complete the method sheet.
Place 2 pieces of white card on the floor in a sunny spot (to keep the floor variable the same).
Put the jar with a thermometer in on one piece of card and put the lid on (if the lid is opaque put the jar upside down). Place the other thermometer on the other bit of card.
Record the temperature of both thermometers at the decided intervals and record the results in the table.
Complete the discussion questions and evaluation sheet.
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This camouflage worm activity is great to teach your students the importance of camouflage in nature. It’s a very simple yet effective activity that clearly shows how animals are colored to suite their environment.
Teaching Guide:
Before the lesson cut lots of different colored wool into 10cm lengths. Hide the wool around your outdoor space.
Discuss what the word camouflage means and explain that they are going to look into what it is and why it’s important.
Tell the students that for the next 15 minutes (approx.) they are going to be birds on the hunt for some yummy woollen worms! Let them go outside and hunt as many of the woollen strips as possible.
Once you’re back in the class get the students to discuss what they discovered when trying to find the wool. Which colors were hard to find? What can this tell us about the color of animals which may live in that area?
If appropriate, get students to complete the question sheet to encourage them to think about what camouflage is and why it’s so important in nature.
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This activity gets students thinking about the materials used to build different items that you will find in your outdoor space. They will consider what material has been used and why that material is appropriate for the intended use as well as what other material could also be suitable to use. This investigation is perfect for your materials and their properties science unit. This pack contains two levels of differentiation.
Diff. 1: They will draw a picture, write what the item is used for and what material has been used.
Diff 2: They will draw a picture, write what the item is used for, the material is it made from, and the properties it needs to have. They will then consider other materials which would also be appropriate for the job.
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Slide science is a fun and practical outdoor science investigation where students will look into which materials create the most friction when sliding down a slide as part of your forces and motion topic. We love to add a competitive element to this activity by explaining to the students that their challenge is to figure out which material has the least friction before choosing one of the materials to use for a slide race!
Teaching Structure:
4 – 6:
For younger students, they can simply carry out the investigation and complete the results table (with support if needed).
7 – 9, 10 – 12:
Get the students to complete the investigation method sheet.
Carry out the investigation by sitting on the different materials and timing how long it takes to go down the slide.
Complete the bar chart to show their results.
Have a slide race! Get the students to choose the material that they think has the least friction and see who can get down the slide the quickest.
Equipment needed:
A slide (the longer the better).
Activity pack
A selection of materials big enough for students to sit on.
Stop watches
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This is a great team activity to get children thinking carefully about composting. They will have to sort object cards based on whether they can be composted or not in a fun relay race.
**Teaching structure:
**
Discuss what composting is and why it’s so important. - Put the students into teams of 3 or 4.
Have two labeled zones or tubs for ‘compost’ and ‘don’t compost’.
Get the students to line up in their teams a good distance from the zones or tubs.
The first person from each team collects an object card from the teacher and takes it back to their team (if you want to make this even more exciting you could use real items!).
The team discusses whether it can be composted or not before the first player runs it to the correct zone / tub.
The next child then runs to collect a new card. - Do this activity for an agreed amount of time or until all of the object cards have been used.
Go through the object cards to see if they are all correct.
To add a greater level of competition you can get each team to write or put a colored sticker on each of the cards they collect and then count up how many cards each team got correct.
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This is a great challenge to set as home learning, use for distance learning, or as a home holiday project. It will get your students outdoors and exploring and enjoying the nature around them.
For this activity students must try to complete the photo challenge by getting a photo of all the things specified on the worksheet.
There are a few ways you can get them to complete the challenge.
Tick box: Get them to tick the challenges off as they complete them on the worksheet.
Photo book: Get them to print out and complete their very own photo book.
Google Slides: Get them to upload their photos on to the Google Slides photo challenge. Click here to get access to the Google Slides.
Check out our Outdoor Maths Bundle
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This resource contains a whole years worth of outdoor homework challenges with one activity per school week. The challenges are cross-curricular and contain loads of fun and practical activities from art to geography. It’s a great way to encourage students and parents to enjoy the outdoor space.
All of these activities are designed so that they can be done in a garden or small outdoor space using equipment you’ll find around the home.
Check out our Outdoor Science Bundle
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For this outdoor science investigation your students will become weather forecasters using only the clouds! Different kinds of clouds can give us a very good indication as to what weather is likely to follow. Your students will keep a record of the cloud types as well as the weather which follows for a few days / week before analysing their data to see if they can spot any patterns between the cloud types and the type of weather which follows.
This investigation is great if you’re looking at weather, forecasting, pattern spotting, and investigation skills. Before you start the investigation, explain that before modern weather forecasts many people would depend on their knowledge of the clouds to predict the weather and help to keep them safe.
Get the students to complete the table, recording the cloud types and the weather in the following days.
Once they’ve done this for a good amount of time (9 or 10 days) they can then look at their data and see if they can spot any relationships between the cloud types and the weather which followed.
Once they’ve analysed their data they can complete the investigation evaluation questions.
Extension - Get them to complete the research sheet to see if their results were correct.
Before you get the students to do their diary, it’s worth looking at the weather forecast to try and choose a period with varied weather.
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This foldable activity consists of 2 cootie catchers (or fortune tellers) for learning or revising the light and sight key terms. The children must try to figure out which key word of the light and sight topic is being described. It’s a great way to have students review their knowledge and not even realise that they’re learning! They’ll be engaged and excited with this addictive activity (as I am sure you will be too!).
This pack contains two Cootie Catchers, each with a second copy included if you would like your students to write their own definitions for each key term themselves. There are visuals included to meet different learning styles.
Key Terms included:
- Light Energy
- Reflection
- Shiny
- Opaque
- Transparent
- Optics
- Shadow
- Eyes
- Cornea
- Pupil
- Iris
- Sclera
- Lens
- Retina
- Optic Nerve
Folding and playing directions are also included.
Have fun!
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Check out our other science cootie catchers:
The Water Cycle
The Rock Cycle
Plant Structure
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A fun interactive PowerPoint and quiz is designed to give your class an introduction into the amazing world of animal adaptions. It goes through the basics of the different types of physical and behavioural adaptions, giving interesting examples for each. We have found this great for introducing the topic or as a quick refresher for the children.
Contents
- Slides 1 – 8: Introduction
- Slides 9 – 13: Physical Adaptions
- Slides 14 – 19: Behavioural Adaptions
- Slides 20 – 29: Quiz
- Slide 30: Conclusion
Check out our camouflage activities.
Animal Adaptions: Camouflage and Mimicry Activities
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It’s time for your class to put their detective’s hats on and go on a mission to figure out who eats what. This resource is split into three differentiated activities, each of which involve your class finding animals and trying to figure out what it is through observation, any clues in the area, and prior knowledge.
Contents:
Teacher’s guide
3 x differentiated resource sheets
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These Solar System Dominoes are perfect for an extension activity or an end of unit refresher, and best of all, we are giving them away for free! The children must match the facts with the correct planet in order to complete the dominoes. They can be used individually, in pairs, or as a whole class.
- Individual: Complete the dominoes puzzle
- Pairs: Take it in turns to complete the puzzle
- Class: Give each child a card and get them to make a line by matching the facts and planets.