Ways of Bringing the Outdoor In
Part Two: Exercises
Pre-Outdoor Session Activity
Teach and encourage the children to examine and explore fine details before going
outdoors. Bring in a selection of natural objects that they are likely to encounter outdoors.
Divide the group into pairs, mixing abilities where possible. Ask each group to select one
item. They have two minutes to examine it with all of their senses before leaving it on a
central table. They must come up with as many questions as possible about the object. The
question can be silly or serious. The class have to assume the role of expert and pool there
ideas to come up with an idea that is as credible or ridiculous sounding as they like.
Thinking and mobility
Order the group to “make me a….” (line, circle, etc). Pupils have to align their bodies in
relation to one another until they are happy that they have assumed that form. Individual
pupils can assess the correctness of the shape. Bring this outside, and try more complicated
formations – question marks, stars (?), items you came across in lessons, etc. Pupils can take
over from you as leader.
Outdoor Observation:
Bring students to an outdoor space. Give them ten minutes just to explore. When they
return to a group, call out certain features of the space and ask them to identify where they
are. Change the position of the group within this space and ask for re-identification. Sighted
students can be blindfolded, if you wish. This will hopefully generate conversation about the
different ways in which outdoor features register their affects on the different senses.
Bringing the Outdoor In
As with the previous exercise, bring your pupils to an outdoor space and encourage them to
explore with all of their senses. Ask them to think of words to describe what they feel, smell,
touch (perhaps tasting is not such a good idea!). The building up of a sensory word bank in
class will be helpful here – perhaps in an audio format such as the audio labels we used
today, you can accumulate groups of adjectives that you encounter in your lessons that
have a particular connection with one or more of the senses – scratchy bark, slimy leaves,
sharp bade of grass, etc).
1





Ask the children to move to another area and to take a note of three sounds that
they hear.
They move to another space and take note of three textures they touch.
In another space they take note of three distinctive smells.
Ideally, these observations will be recorded on a speaking label or transferred to one
once indoors.
Move indoors.
Clear a large surface and put all of the recorded observations in the centre. Play them and
ask the children to decide where on the surface they should go. In this way, an audio form
of the outdoor space will be simulated indoors. An instant soundscape will be formed by
activating them in sequence. Encourage the children to think about the sound of the words
they collate (creaking breaches, moist mud, withered leaf) because they will form the
centrepiece of a Haiku in the next lesson.
(See Haiku demonstration on Powerpoint)
Student groups can collaborate to record the adventures of a hero making his/her way
through the terrain they have just created. The exercise can be related to descriptive
passages of the outdoors, journeys, etc that you encounter in class.
Hiding and Helping Find
The class is divided into small groups. Each group is given an object to hide somewhere in
the simulated outdoor space. They then have to compose detailed and elaborate
descriptions about how to find the object from the point of entry into the space. Encourage
them to be creative and elaborate when choosing words to describe the places that have to
be navigated and the features that have to be passed by in order to arrive at the object.
Again, these clues can be recorded onto a talking label. Groups re-enter the area the next
day with the descriptive directions of another group and have a race to find the objects.
You can vary the activity by asking pupils to explore the area with all of their senses and to
return with an elaborate description of the following:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Something to write with
Something with a sweet smell
Something with a not-so-nice smell
Something smooth
Something rough
Something fragile that needs careful handling
Something invisible
Something that has more than one texture
2
The adjectives selected to describe the different features of the environment can be pooled
for use in a group poem.
Chain Actions
Take the children to a place which is a short walking distance from where you will undertake
your activities. Sighted students can be blindfolded. Each student is instructed to place their
hand on the shoulder of the student in front of them. The foremost student holds on to one
end of a rope. You hold the other end and lead them to the designated area. Students are
encouraged to speak to each other, with messages from you being relayed to the other end
of the group. (Students are told to make an agreed-upon signal to indicate that they would
like to pause or leave the line)
Once you arrive at the trail you give instructions about how the children are to navigate
each component of the trail – walking, crawling, etc. This will need extra supervision. After
the completion of the course, students are lead away, either to another outdoor space, or
back to the classroom. There they must make a sensory map of their experience, using
speaking labels. The names of the landscape features are not as important as the sensory
qualities that the pupils observed and associate with the different regions. The labels can be
secured with adhesive strips to a surface that can be brought to the area on the next visit,
when the degree of coincidence between remembered and actual soundscape can be
collectively gauged.
Find a way to celebrate the soundscape by developing it into a class exhibition. Bring in
recordings of people talking about their experiences in nature. Link to the importance of
conservation, or, as we did in the VIS project, to the John Muir Award scheme.
3