Outdoor Learning in
Modern Languages
Ann Robertson
Education Support Officer
Modern Languages
City of Edinburgh Council
ann.robertson2@edinburgh.gov.uk
Aims
• Share practical approaches
• Outdoor space as a resource
• Sharing of ideas and discussion
1. Sights, smells and sounds
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In class, ask learners to think about and then write up what they
would be able to hear, see and smell in different parts of the school
grounds. This could be done as a brainstorming placemat activity in
cooperative groups.
Take the class outside, taking their fully formed sentences with
them.
At each of the areas identified in class ask them to compare what
they can hear, see, smell with what they’ve written. They can then
write true/false and also note down any differences.
Back in class ask them to write up the results of their sensory survey
and do it as a comparison e.g. I expected to hear.... I heard....
2. Madrid Street Poetry
2. Madrid Street Poetry
This is my school
It’s grey,
It’s colourful,
It’s modern,
It’s big
This is my school.
3. Photo treasure hunt
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Prepare a bag of 50 – 100 words of objects in the
school grounds e.g. seagull
Take all learners outside and organise into pairs.
Learners take one word from the bag, check it in the
dictionary and then have to take a photo of whatever
it is.
Can only take a new word once they’ve shown you
the photo.
Class competition to see which pair can get the most
words/photos!
4. School ground signage
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Ask learners to walk around school grounds and identify
areas where signage could be put up around the grounds
e.g. eco garden, outdoor classroom etc.
Back in class, learners then work out what the language
would be for those places.
Correct as a whole class and come up with a bank of places
around the school which could then be signposted.
Create designs for signs in the target language.
Potential for link with technologies to then create the signs
(using a winning design!) to be put up around the school.
5. Pebble writing
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Ask learners to create a bank of words in the target language which
describe their town or their environment. This could also be tied in
with adjectives e.g. leafy green
Teacher gives learners flat stones (collected by teacher or you could
take class out and ask them to find stones/objects which they could
write on.
Write their words onto the objects and leave in strategically chosen
places so that other people will find them and pick them up!
You could potentially contact the local press about this and create a bit
of a buzz about it by leaving them around your local town for people to
find. This could also be a way to highlight a particular issue e.g. antibullying with messages like friendship, love, fairness etc.
6. Eye spy
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Teacher takes class outside and asks them to brain
storm as many things as they can see in their
surrounding environment and find what they are in
the dictionary.
Teacher then plays eye spy with learners who then
have to see if they can find what it is that they are
describing by looking at their list of words.
Winning learner then chooses the next eye spy.
7. Outdoor Listening
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Teacher describes things they can see around them
and learners then have to write if it is true or false.
E.g. I can see a seagull on a bin
Ideal for practising prepositions
8. Outdoor Reading
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Teacher places 10 numbered reading cards around
the school grounds e.g. pinned to a tree. Each card
contains a clue which could relate to current topic e.g.
In this subject, we learn about numbers.
Learners are challenged with a time limit to find the
cards and work out what the answer is to each card.
First group/pair to find the full list, “wins”.
9. Outdoor numeracy
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Learners are given a list of questions written in the target
language and relating to numeracy in the school grounds
e.g. How many trees are there? How many bins are there?
How many steps are there from the playground to the
school front door?
Learners are then challenged with finding all the answers
to the questions within the school grounds and then,
when back in class, writing up their answers in sentences.
E.g. there are eighty steps from the playground to the
front door.
You can then compare and contrast answers.
10. Giant word search
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Learners are asked to create a word bank of 10 words
on a particular topic.
They are then given chalk and in an area of the
playground are asked to firstly, write their words out
as a list on the ground and then create a word search
which contains their words.
Once complete they can then rotate round and try
each other’s word searches!
11. Storytelling
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Teacher places cards with sentences from of a story in
different parts of the playground.
Learners have to find the cards, copy down the
sentences and then put the story into the correct
order.
This could be a story with the action taking part in
different areas of the schools grounds.
You could also ask a Secondary/Higher class to write
the story beforehand and then place the cards in the
school grounds.
12. Preposition photos
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Ask learners to bring a teddy or toy into school
Ask learners to go around the school grounds and
take photos of the toy in various places around the
school grounds.
Back in class, learners can then write up sentences
describing where their toy was e.g. Bobo is under the
bush.
Pupils start from la terre (earth). They take it in turns to throw a stone, aiming for the numbers in
sequence. If they miss a number, they lose their turn. If they touch a line, they have to start again.
They must not land in l’enfer (hell). The first child to reach le ciel (sky) is the winner.
All the children stand on a line apart from one child,
who stands on the opposite side of the playground
with his back to them. They try to move forwards as
he says Un, deux, trois … soleil. He turns round, and
any child still moving is out. The first child to reach
the speaker and touch his back is the winner.
One child is l’épervier (the sparrowhawk)
and stands in the middle of the playground.
The other children stand at one end. When
the sparrowhawk calls out j’arrive, the other
children have to run across the playground
without being caught. If the sparrowhawk
catches them, he calls out attrapé and they
become sparrowhawks too.
Children sit in a circle. One child pretends to be a cat and goes to
another child, who has to say
Pauvre petit chat malade without laughing. If he laughs, he becomes
the cat. If not, the cat goes to another child.
One child hides their eyes and counts to
whatever number is appropriate to the
size and amount of children playing. This
could be done in French if possible.
When the child has finished counting
he/she shouts j’arrive and looks for the
others who have hidden. If the child
finds one of them he/she shouts trouvé
and that child helps them find the
others.
“The limits of my language
mean the limits of my world”
Ludwig Wittgenstein