Andrews Academy teacher, Deb Collesano (fourth grade) recently submitted a report of an outdoor learning activity as part of her participation in this year’s Effective Outdoor Learning program. It is shared here as a wonderful example of schoolyard learning and teacher reflection.

Learning Objectives

1. The students will observe nature and make a list of nouns they find in nature. We will do our best to use the proper names of plants by using an app on the iPads that gives the names when we take photos.
2. The students will then classify their nouns into different categories of their choice including living and non-living as defined by the Nature Unleashed curriculum.

Reflection

This was another lesson that the kids absolutely loved. It was actually the best weather we have also experienced so far. Yes, it rained the night before, but it was much less soggy this time. And, crazy as it sounds, the sun actually came out while we were exploring in the woods. We did not take the iPads out, but we did take our pencils and journals.

One of my students requested that we go into the woods where his fort is so he could show it to me. So, I decided that we would move fairly quickly into the woods, get to his fort, then be more slow and intent observers on the way back to class. This worked well because I did not know how far into the woods we would have to go to arrive at the fort.

We had to cross the creek again, the kids did well, most of them not getting too wet. When we got to the fort, the student told us all about it. It is located by the creek and on the banks of the creek. So again, the children went into the creek. This time I asked them not to go in if they did not have extra shoes as there were no stepping stones, and all but one listened to this advice. One student proceeded to tell me how cold his feet were, but I knew we were okay since we were not going to be out too long. I find this to also be a learning opportunity for the kids. They need to experience their choices for themselves, an adult telling them that it is too cold doesn’t always sink in. His feet were cold, and maybe next time he will think of the warnings we give, but maybe not.

We spent about 5–10 minutes in the creek and around the fort. We did stop and look for nouns in nature before we started our observation trek back into the woods.

On the way back, we saw a lot. We found spider webs, decomposing trees, and we found beetles and other insects under rocks and leaves. It was nice to have Carly with us (science teacher) , because she could point out things the kids were talking about in science class as well as just looking for nouns in nature. She tied the lesson in with the fifth and sixth grade invasive species lesson, talked about decomposition, and helped the kids identify types of trees. I am not at that level of nature expertise yet, so it was nice to have her there. It was also good to see the berries on the honeysuckle plants which you don’t see until the fall. The kids were observing differences in the woods since the walks in the beginning of the school year which were during summer heat months.

We spent an hour outside, which the kids absolutely love. I feel that doing these types of adventures let the children experience the world for themselves, which is actually more important than the lesson topic. This lesson could have been accomplished in a much shorter time frame if I was just interested in finding nouns. But as I do this more often, I feel that the objectives are less curriculum based and more adventure and exploring based.

This year my schedule has changed in the classroom and I feel the curriculum crunch more than ever. However, I also see the tremendous benefits of the kids outside, experiencing things together, bonding, and having fun. So, even though I could accomplish my nouns activity in 10 minutes, the exploring and togetherness the class has is so much more important. I’m sure that is one of the things you hope we will take away from this partnership.