Outdoor Activities Completed or Mentioned During Workshop
One Small Square
Create a frame and head off to find something beautiful in nature. Frame it. Sit and observe
your square, then go and observe the “gallery” that others have made.
Camera (originally from Joseph Cornell)
Pair up. One person is the camera, and the other is the photographer. The photographer
finds something beautiful or interesting in the landscape and leads the camera to it. The
camera has her eyes closed. When they get there, the photographer positions the camera in
a spot and touches her on the shoulder, getting her to open her eyes and take a photo.
Drummer In the Woods (originally from Coyote Mentoring)
One person sits in the forest, drumming. The others go off as far as they feel comfortable
and must navigate to the drummer with their eyes closed.
Deer Ears
One person sits in the middle of a circle, listening with her eyes closed. This person is the
deer. The others go at least 20 giants steps away and sneak up on the person in the middle
and touch her on the shoulder. They are the wolves. If the deer hears a wolf, she points and
says, “Gotcha!” and the wolf has to sit down. The deer has a limited number of “gotchas.”
Find Your Rock
Give out rocks to everyone while they have their eyes closed. Give them a chance to get to
know their rock. Collect all of the rocks and put them into the middle. Ask people to find
their rock. You can also do this to get to know plants.
Sit Spot
Combine this with mapping the sounds around you, the small square activity, or just sit.
Resource Books for the Outdoor Classroom
Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators (David Sobel)
Sobel is a noted academic in the field of children and nature play, particularly focused on
children in the elementary school years. One of our other handouts outlines his “play
motifs” for outdoor learning.
Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature
Jon Young, Ellen Haas, and Evan McGown
Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature offers dozens of activities, stories, and games, for
parents, caregivers, and educators.
In the First Country of Places: Nature, Poetry, and Childhood Memory
Louise Chawla.
This book by one of the foremost researchers on children and nature explores the
relationship between creativity, memory and special childhood places in nature.
Moving the Classroom Outdoors: Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning in Action
Herbert W. Broda
This book showcases examples of schools across North America that have “greened” their
school grounds.
Natural Learning: Creating Environments for Rediscovering Nature’s Way of
Teaching
Robin C. Moore and Herb H. Wong.
This book describes how to transform an asphalt playground into a rich, relevant and
natural place for learning.
Natural Playscapes: Creating Outdoor Play Environments for the Soul
Rusty Keeler
This book features 500 photos and illustrations of inspiring natural playscapes.
Sharing Nature with Children
Joseph Cornell.
Cornell’s classics are wonderful introductory guides to learning outdoors with children.
Fresh Air Learning
Lists of emergency supplies, forest school picture books, principles of forest school
http://freshairlearning.org/professional-development-resources/
Outdoor Classroom Management
Things to think about:
• Does this site have natural boundaries? Where are they?
• What risks exist on this site? How will you mitigate them?
• Will this site pose any specific behavioural challenges?
• What supplies will you need to bring to this site?
• How can your group physically prepare to be on this site?
• How will your students take care of bodily needs (eating, bathroom)?
• How can you gather and keep track of your group on this site?
• How can you make transitions to and from this site easy?
David Sobel’s Play Motifs
By observing children interacting with nature, David Sobel has identified seven “play
motifs.” These motifs are common among all children regardless of socioeconomic
status, ethnicity, or ecosystem as long as they have safe free time in nature. The
developmental stages of empathy in early childhood, exploration in middle childhood,
and personal definition and social responsibility in adolescence provide the warp of the
fabric while the design principles are the weft—they run through all the developmental
stages.
Principle 1: Adventure
Environmental education needs to be kinesthetic, in the body. Children stalk,
balance, jump, and scamper through the natural world.
Adults like to go on hikes. Children like to go on adventures.
Principle 2: Fantasy and Imagination
Young children live in their imaginations. Stories, plays, puppet shows, and
dreams are preferred media for early childhood. We need to structure programs
like dramatic play; we need to create simulations in which students can live the
challenges rather than just study them.
 Paracosms are “elaborate fantasy creations—imaginary worlds created by individuals
or small groups of children. They tend to emerge around age seven or eight, flourish up
through age thirteen or fourteen, and then gradually subside.” These worlds last for
months or years as children add to their world, returning to it over and over.
Principle 3: Animal Allies
Brenda Petersen said, “In our environmental wars, the emphasis has been on
saving species, not becoming them” (1993). If we aspire to developmentally
appropriate science education, the first task is to become animals, to understand
them from the inside out, before asking children to study them or save them.
Children feel an inherent empathy with wild and domestic animals. Their first impulse
with some animals is to pick them up, hold them close, take care of them, and become
them. Other animals inspire fear. Early relationships with flora and fauna are an integral
part of feeling bonded to the matrix of the earth. Projecting feelings and human
characteristics onto animals facilitates relationships.
Principle 4: Maps and Paths
Children have an inborn desire to explore local geographies. They love to find
shortcuts, or follow a map to a secret event. This helps them develop a deep
connection to their local place.
In Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature, the practice of songlining is a
way of using story to make the landscape your own.
Principle 5: Special Places
Almost everyone remembers a fort, den, tree house, or hidden corner in the back
of the closet. Children like to find and create places where they can hide away
and retreat.
 “The special places impulse in a school setting invites children to relive the history of
the species. They create primitive shelters, form tribes, battle over resources, learn to
barter, create legal systems, invent currency, learn to monitor the own behavior,
recognize the impact of the built environment on the natural environment, learn to
restore changed ecosystems.” [David Sobel in Children and Nature, p.45]
Principle 6: Small Worlds
From sand boxes to doll houses to model train sets, children love to create
miniature worlds that they can play in. Through creating miniature
representations of ecosystems, or neighborhoods, we help children conceptually
grasp the big picture. The creation of small worlds provides a concrete vehicle for
understanding abstract ideas.
Principle 7: Hunting and Gathering
From a genetic perspective, we are still hunting and gathering organisms.
Gathering and collecting anything compels us. How do we design learning
opportunities like treasure hunts?
“Today we ate grasshoppers. We collected them in the field and the brought them
back and fried the in some oil over the fire. I was grossed out and swore I wouldn’t
eat any. But Keith popped a couple in his mouth and Ryan tried one and said they
were OK so I tried one, and, you know what? They were good, kind of like popcorn.”
[New Hampshire middle-school student]
Plants for Your Outdoor Classroom
Perennial Tea Garden







Fennel – black licorice taste
Sweet cicely – black licorice taste
Lavender – strong taste
Violets – floral taste
Lemon balm – lemon taste
Mint – mint taste, plant in a pot to prevent spreading
Rosemary – for a spicy, savory tea
School Year Salad Garden






Sorrel – shade-loving perennial
Sweet cicely – shade-loving perennial
Winter lettuce – plant in a cold frame
Kale – plant in late summer or early fall
Mizuna – early fall or early spring crop
Arugula – perennial or annual early spring crop
School Year Edible Landscaping





Salmonberries – edible shoots in early spring, berries in June
Thimbleberries – edible shoots and leaves in the spring, berries in August.
Salal – berries may last into early September
Sorrel – leafy, lemon-tasting perennial
Violets – pop up in the spring with edible flowers
Pollinator Plants for School Gardens







Salmonberry – attracts hummingbirds in spring
Columbine – attracts hummingbirds
Oregon grape – attracts bees in early spring
Dandelion – attracts bees in the spring
Bee balm – attracts bees in the summer
Anise hyssop – attracts bees and butterflies
Many herbs such as oregano, mint, lemon balm, lavender, and sweet cicely attract
bees and hoverflies.
Elements of the Outdoor Classroom








Gathering spaces both small and large: forts, sand pits
Sensory elements, such as mud and water
Private places such as long grasses in a corner
Pathways and surprises
Many sources of changing loose parts for imaginary play: cones, sticks, leaves
Opportunities for hunting, gathering, connecting to plants and animals
Places to climb, dig, and stomp
Transitions from indoors to out and back again, to manage mess and motion
Key Design Questions
What exists on your site?
• Structures
• Landforms
• Play areas
• Large plants
• Seasonal plants
• Wet and dry
• Sun and shade
What internal and external influences impact your site?
 Street noise, building shade, views, public paths….
What patterns of play and use exist on your site?



What is valued?
What is used?
What is ignored?
Placing elements in the landscape
 How often will you need to / want to access each element?