Wednesday I was at Merrylands School working with small groups of Year 5 children doing a mapping task. Using pacing alone they managed to plot landmarks on their site with a high degree of accuracy. In the afternoon it was environmental work in the schools wild nature garden, the pupils had to find evidence of life........they found loads! They found evidence of everything from ants, snails, frogs, spiders, birds, wasps to cats and foxes. The pupils were also able to identify many of the plants that were growing there.
Today was a very early start, I arrived at Hilltop Junior School at 6.40am!! It was open morning at their school so I helped BJH convert a gazebo into a camouflaged outdoor learning area with 'Fred' asleep in a hammock out of the sun, we finished setting it up just as the first parents arrived at 9.30am. Throughout the morning we chatted to parents, children and staff about the outdoor learning programme which is based on survival skills and hearing how well it has been received by all. Well done BJH!
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It's been a pleasure having you aboard this week Joanne; I hope you have found enough to add to your experiences of Finland, Scotland, and Germany. I will be fascinated to see how us various practitioners have influenced your philosophy of using the outdoors. You saw Hunter working 'warts-and-all' this week - though the 'warts' weren't all ours!
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"So why do we do it?
What good is it?
Does it teach you anything?
Like Determination? Invention? Improvisation?
Foresight? Hindsight?
Love?
Art? Music? Religion?
Strength or Patience or Accuracy or Quickness or Tolerance?
Which wood will burn and how long
Is a day, and how far is a mile,
And how delicious is water and smoky
Green pea soup?
And how to rely
on your
Self."
Peter Bradley 1969
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Outdoors changes.
Barry
BJH