10 Activities to Take Your Class Outside
Learning doesn’t have to happen inside a classroom — students (and teachers!) can benefit from opportunities to get outside and interact with nature, explore their community, or simply get some fresh air and enjoy a change of scenery.
Here are a few ideas across subject areas to take your class outside:
Observe math in nature and neighborhoods
Making real-world connections to math instruction can help students see the relevance of math while making abstract concepts more tangible. Luckily, math is all around us! Take your students outside and send them on a scavenger hunt to identify mathematical phenomena in nature. Here are a few examples, such as concentric circles in trees.
Students can also identify human uses of math applied in their neighborhood, such as angles in buildings, shapes of signs, various uses of numbers for driving and traffic, and money or inventory in stores.
Study phenology with journaling
Phenology, or the study of seasons and cycles in nature, is an interesting place to merge science and ELA. Educator Skylar Primm created this activity to encourage students to use their senses and observation skills to journal about changes they see in nature. Students simply go outside, pick a quiet spot, and write down what they notice around them. As time goes on and the seasons progress, students return to their spots and record what has changed.
Take a local history walk
Every town has its own history! If possible, engage a local historical society to lead your students on a history walk around town or a local area of historical significance. Keep students engaged with a scavenger hunt, a game of I Spy, or bingo. This can also be a nice way to engage families, such as parents who would like to volunteer to come on the walking tour or grandparents and other family members who may have something to share with the class about the area’s history.
Track the weather
Learn about science and data collection by going outside regularly to track weather patterns. Try collecting and measuring rainfall quantities, creating a weather chart, identifying and drawing cloud types, or even tracking the wind with a DIY wind vane.
Here are some more fun activity ideas to create a rain gauge, barometer, and hygrometer:
Pair your weather-tracking crafts and activities with this inquiry worksheet from Grade 3 Inspire Science.
Write, practice, and produce a play
It’s Shakespeare in the Park — or Plays on the Playground! In ELA, have students write, rehearse, and perform a play — all outdoors. If possible, encourage them to build a small “set” and collect or create props from natural resources. To find a few pre-written plays for early grades, check out these Reader’s Theater activities from Wonders.
Take collaborative work outside
For a quick opportunity to get some fresh air, consider taking students outside on your school lawn for collaborative discussion work. Perhaps everyone can sit in a circle outside for a Socratic seminar or bring what they need to conduct peer reviews. While this work can of course be done inside, the change of scenery and fresh air might offer the boost in motivation and focus your students need.
Study the parts of plants
Have students collect plants available on school grounds and discuss, identify, and label their parts. Or collect different types of plants and dry them and press them for a collection. For younger students, pair the activity with this leveled reader about plant parts from Inspire Science.
Get messy with science experiments
Take advantage of the outdoors to conduct messier, louder, bigger science experiments that aren’t possible in a classroom. Try:
- Vinegar and baking soda exploding experiments
- Constructing a dirt batter or building a solar oven
- Kinetic energy reaction with craft sticks
- Film canister rockets
Write a poem
Nature is a great place to find inspiration for writing. Find a quiet spot outside and encourage students to write a poem about what they see. Encourage older students studying famous naturalist writers to work with a classic mentor text and consider the experiences of famous writers who took inspiration from nature.
Or, if your school is in an urban area, encourage them to write a poem about the people and places in their neighborhood that they can observe from outside.
Here is a poetry lesson idea for older students:
Here’s a lesson idea for younger students:
Tend a Garden
If your school already has a community garden that you can use, consider taking students outside for regular opportunities to tend to the plants. Gardening offers valuable, hands-on opportunities to learn about key science concepts. It can also help students practice important social and emotional skills, like decision-making and responsibility, and offers a calm place to regulate emotions. Here’s more on the link between gardening and social and emotional learning.
How do you create meaningful, purposeful learning opportunities outside? Share your practices in the comments to tell us what we missed!
