Tips for Great Outdoor Learning Adventures
Outdoor learning adventures are a great way to ignite passion for learning in your child’s heart. Outdoor adventures have the power to capture and hold the attention of even the most active learner. Here are some strategies for maximizing an outdoor learning adventure.
Strategy 1 – Start in your own backyard – You don’t have to go far or spend a lot of money. Just step outside and let the adventures begin.
Strategy 2 – Inquiry – Use curiosity to help guide the outdoor adventure. Encourage the adventurer to be a detective – to be curious and ask questions! (Don’t worry! You don’t need to know the answers!) Kids look for answers to those questions during the learning adventure – which will more than likely continue even after you come indoors.
Strategy 3 – Hands-on Research –Give kids the opportunity to explore and “dig-into” their learning adventure. (Getting dirty really helps add to the fun of the adventure!)
Strategy 4 – Record – Have kids record observations, identify, journal, draw, write stories, make a video, etc. about what they see or have learned. A great tool to help guide your adventure is the scientific method! Here’s a link to a fun Scientific Method graphic. NASAs SCI Files Scientific Method
Strategy 5 – Review – Review new learning in a fun way to make it stick! Have your adventurer come up with creative ways to teach others about what they have learned, such as a game, poster or video, etc.
Strategy 6 – Celebrate new learning! Share videos, pictures, artwork, etc. with others. Posting work on Facebook and blogs is an awesome way to celebrate new learning!
Note: I’ve just launched a new site called 4 KIDZ by KIDZ – a great place to post your student’s creations! I’d love to hear of other sites you have discovered to post kid’s art.
Now — Step outdoors and let the adventures begin!
Job 12:7-9 7 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; 8 or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. 9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?
About the author: Kim Jones – National Park Ranger, curriculum designer and teacher – uses her experience to educate people about God’s creation. You can learn more about Kim and her children’s book, “The Case of the Missing Mountain,” at http://thenaturetour.nlpgblogs.com/
