Children Outdoors – the Impact of Covid-19

Article and research by Cheryl Willis showing up to 60% of children spent less time outdoors during the Covid-19 Crisis.

Ideas for Home Learning #6

The Edible School Yard Project in California has just published an excellent range of at-home learning resources …. This organisation is a pioneer in plot-to-plate learning and their materials are high quality.

https://edibleschoolyard.org/edible-education-home-classroom

Activity Ideas from Learning Through Landscapes

Looking for inspiration during lockdown? Learning Through Landscapes is a fantastic charity that is dedicated to promoting learning outdoors. The link below includes their archive of resources, including a barefoot safari and cloud gazing ….

Outdoor Lessons and outdoor learning ideas

Rhyl Kitchen Classroom – article in The Kentishtowner

From plot to plate: the school community kitchen with wood-fired pizza oven

Mill Our Own Flour – Winter Wheat

We’ve just sown our winter wheat seeds, hoping for a harvest late next summer. We often work with dough here at Rhyl Primary School and this is a chance for the children to see the whole life cycle – ending up with pizza from our wood fired oven.

Amazing advice here from Brockwell Bakes.

Back in Action – The Outdoor Classroom re-opens

We are very excited to be back in the garden after it was closed for a year for the construction of Rhyl Kitchen Classroom, our amazing new teaching kitchen in the school grounds. The children are gardening once again and rushed back to their favourite plant of all – the Buckler-Leaved Sorrel.

Ideas For Home Learning #5

This month marks the start of the English strawberry season. Buy a punnet in the shops for the family to share and use the fruit to kick start these activity ideas:

1. Computing / Science. Research the fruit online and answer the following questions. What are the yellow bits on the outside of a strawberry? What are they called? What is their function?
2. English / Design & Technology. Make smoothies together and write a recipe. Discuss the features of a written recipe. Your child can then write their own. To extend this activity, they could design a label or container. This could include a name, slogan, logo, nutritional information, best before date and list of ingredients.
3. With a magnifying glass, look closely at the structure and pattern of the seeds on the skin of a strawberry. Then use various textured materials, such as bubble wrap, polystyrene or egg boxes, to create ‘zoomed-in’ modern artwork of the repeated patterns that the students find. Or use the fruit to make edible fruit sculptures, using toothpicks to connect the fruit. The work of sculptor Anish Kapoor might provide further inspiration.
4. Try some mindful eating – an activity idea courtesy of The Edible Schoolyard. Can you enjoy eating more just by focusing your attention? How does the experience of eating change when you eat slowly? Mindful eating is the practice of paying close attention to your food and how you are eating it. If you have kept the fruit in the fridge, let the strawberries warm up to room temperature before eating. Find a quiet place for this activity. Use all your senses. Look closely – what does it look like? What do you notice? Smell the fruit – what words could you use to describe the smell? Touch the fruit – what does it feel like? Finally, taste the fruit – take a small bit and notice the texture. Take another small bite and notice the taste – is it sour or sweet? How would you describe it?
5. Grow your own strawberries. These plants grow happily in pots, which you can put on a sunny windowsill or balcony. Encourage your child to observe the life cycle of the plant: you will see the white flowers, then the beginnings of the fruit starting to form. The plants of largely self-fertile, which means you are unlikely to see man flying insects pollinating the flowers.
6. Propagate (reproduce) your own strawberries. This is easily done via ‘runners’ (the new, creeping stems). Peg them down into a small pot filled with compost. Once it is anchored with roots, cut it away from the mother plant.

 

Ideas For Home Learning #4 – Outdoor Classroom Day

21st May marks Outdoor Classroom Day. This year the organisers have adapted to the current restrictions, but children across Britain are still taking the chance to learn under blue skies …

Here’s some activity ideas and their latest update:

Happy Playful Nature day! … the whole Outdoor Classroom Day team is dressing up today to celebrate our connection to the natural world. If you and the children in your care are still deciding what to do, check out our Pinterest board for inspiration. Here are a few of our favourites…

Nature crown
Gather leaves, twigs and feathers to make a nature crown fit for royalty. If you can’t get your hands on natural materials, make some out of paper or card and colour them in. Make the headband out of whatever you have at home, such as a cereal box or an old pair of tights.

Cardboard wings
Cardboard boxes provide so many opportunities for dressing up. Make yourself a set of wings out of whatever boxes you have – depending on the size, you could be a butterfly, dragonfly or bee! Attach them using string, ribbon or elastic, and decorate them to make them shine.

Eco printing
Give old clothes a natural makeover by printing with plants and flowers. Kids will love this activity – and it will help them discover nature at the same time. If you don’t have any old clothes, you can also use this technique on paper and use it to make dress up items like masks.

Whatever you decide to create, share it with the world using #PlayfulNature.

Thank you for your continued support. Together, we will help children to retain their connection to the natural world during the coronavirus crisis – and we’ll work harder than ever once it is over to make sure children have time outdoors every day.

The Outdoor Classroom Day team

Outdoor Learning and Reopening Schools

Interesting article about Covid and Outdoor Learning:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/may/10/scotland-eyes-outdoor-learning-as-model-for-reopening-of-schools

Ideas for Home Learning #3 – The Eden Project

Know about The Eden Project? Ever been? This is a truly inspiring garden and educational charity in Cornwall, about 250 miles west of Rhyl Primary School. The motto for the project is ‘We Are Ordinary People Trying To Change The World‘. You can follow Eden on Twitter and Instagram.

The Eden Project is a series of biomes, the biggest greenhouse on Earth – with each section creating the ideal microclimate for a range of plants from different countries and continents. The collection includes nearly two million plants set over 30 acres of gardens.

• For an overview of the project – including some drone footage – see the video here. If you want to discover how they built it by transforming an old clay mine, see here.
• Get to know some of the freaky and fascinating plants from West Australia, such as the Kangaroo Paws. Watch the video here.
• Learn about plants from South Africa here, including the incredible Proteas which have adapted to survive scorching forest fires.
• For a mini project for children, challenge them to research and design a fact file about The Eden Project using their website, including amazing statistics and info on their favourite plants.

They publish excellent resources for children, which we are highlighting below. The image at the end of this post is a recent infographic about soil which we would love to have in our Outdoor Classroom at Rhyl!

1. Outdoor learning with trees
2. How to make a recycled marble run
3. How to recycle a milk carton into a bird
4. Biome in a box activity
5. Gardening for bees