Experiential learning in nature for knowledge that sticks.
Back To School Idea
Welcome to the first of twenty outdoor learning ideas that I will be sharing with you in September. Many of the ideas aren’t original or earth-shatteringly spectacular, but you might be surprised how effective simple learning experiences are when done outdoors. So, let’s get September started. Here’s the first idea: Continue reading
Snail on log in our outdoor learning environment
Instead of blogging, I busied myself preparing for a new school year. Before I knew it, school had started and I was meeting our new students and their parents. My first priority became helping both the parents and students to feel safe, comfortable in their new class, and confident that we would take good care of them . I’m sure this sounds familiar to you!
You asked… so here it is! In this post I will share our outdoor learning scope & sequence documents.
If you’ve read several of my blog posts, you know I struggle with brevity. I’ll do my best to keep this one short.
You’ve just returned from an amazing outdoor learning conference, read an inspiring book, or joined an early years outdoor learning group on Facebook or Twitter. You are fired up. Totally inspired. You’ve got so many ideas jumping around in your head that you want to take your students outside immediately on Monday morning. What about the logistics? How are you doing to take the learning outdoors in an effective and successful manner?
This weekend we hosted an Outdoor Learning Conference at my school. Educators from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and Romania joined us to learn how we do outdoor learning in a school setting. It was great fun meeting everyone, hearing their stories, talking about their outdoor learning journeys and being rejuvenated by their curiosity and enthusiasm.
Just as you have a place to come together in the classroom, you should have a place to gather outdoors. Having a meeting place is a helpful classroom management and instructional tool for both indoor and outdoor learning environments.
You’re a teacher. You’re an expert at what you do. You know it and I know it.
So when your principal stands in front of you at a staff meeting and promotes the latest trend in education or the latest political mandate, you nod your head and smile. Then you go right back to your classroom, shut the door and do what you know is best.
If you don’t believe in outdoor learning, if you have never experienced its power, or if you feel uncertain, you won’t do it. And you’ll find a million reasons not to. I did.
© 2025 Take Learning Outdoors
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
