Are you looking for inspiration to get outdoors with your students, on Outdoor Classroom Day and all year round? Check out these seven great outdoor lesson plans, put together by our friends in Australia.  

Although they are linked to the Australian curriculum, the learning outcomes are relevant wherever you are in the world. And they’re lots of fun too!

ROLYPOLY

Go on a hunt for objects around the playground or school grounds (e.g. tennis ball, soccer ball, football, tube, wheel, block, a teddy), and then search for a slope, hill or area of uneven ground. A ramp can also be constructed. Ask your class to discuss which items they think will roll down the hill fast/slow/far, and why. They can then put their hypotheses to the test and record the results. Then let the children roll down the hill themselves, can they feel their speed increasing!?

This lesson for 5-7 year-olds contributes to learning outcomes in maths and physical sciences, looking at movement, speed and velocity.

”PUSH & PULL” HUNT

Go on a ‘push and pull’ hunt around the school grounds, looking for push and pull mechanisms that affect how an object moves or changes shape – e.g. doors that need to be pushed, containers that need the tops pulled off, see-saws and swings. Then demonstrate the function of a pulley with a teddy bear, rope, pulley and tree branch. Ask the children to explore the engineering capabilities by making their own pulley system.

Combining learning outcomes in design and technology with science, this practical lesson for 7-9 year-olds is sure to make science fun.

JUNIOR CARTOGRAPHERS

Ask small groups of students to create a map of their school grounds using natural or man-made resources. They can then compare their map to a Google Earth map of the same area, comparing similarities and contrasting differences. Allow time for each group to add any extra features seen on Google Earth to their maps.

This simple and fun lesson for 7-9 year-olds contributes to important learning outcomes in geography – collecting, recording and representing data including the location of places.

The full seven outdoor lesson plans, from our Australian partners, Nature Play WA, can be found here on the Outdoor Classroom Day Australia website.

Get involved

Are you participating in Outdoor Classroom Day? Register your class – or whole school – and share your outdoor adventures on social media using #OutdoorClassroomDay.