Our primary school students celebrated the “Outdoor Classroom Day,” which was celebrated around the world on Thursday, May 17, 2018. It was an exciting day when our students celebrated learning outdoors and got inspired.
On Outdoor Classroom Day, thousands of schools around the world took learning outdoors and learned through play. The goal of the day is help students develop strong bonds with their environment and show that learning can happen anywhere by using the impact of setting on learning. Getting outdoors enabled our students to expand their repertoire of learning culture.
Engaging in various activities in a different environment and setting free their natural curiosity and love of learning, they came to understand that they could study lesson outcomes from different perspectives. When they reflected on the experience, they made a lot of different connections, which led them to understand the learning outcomes.
Grade 1 students conducted a rope activity as part of their PYP unit of inquiry on “How the world works” to design the characters of the story they will write. At the same time, they played various individual and group games that develop problem solving skills. During the English classes, they went on a nature walks and made observations using all of the five senses. They talked about their findings in nature by using the adjectives they have been learning.
As an introductory activity to the PYP theme “How the world works”, Grade 2 classes inquired about the living things around them and observed their physical features. They also played group games and read. During their English classes, they went on a nature hunt to find bugs and insects, as well as read science books.
As part of the PYP theme “How the world works”, Grade 3classes made connections between measuring units and the planets. Using iPads they filmed the Outdoor Classroom Day with the program Video Clips. During their English classes, they read books about ecosystems on lawn cushions.
Using iPads, Grade 4 classes completed the summative assessment of their unit “Sharing the Planet.” They played games that promote thinking skills and strategy development skills. They conducted activities to help improve their hand-eye-brain coordination. During their English classes, they sat on puffy cushions and read books. They also played word games and team building games and completed creative writing tasks.
Students participated in various outdoor activities also during single subject lessons. They created rhythms and music outside and made drawings about nature and played team games.
Student reflections:
“We inhaled more oxygen outside. It gave me positive motivation. I was able to concentrate more quickly during the tasks we did.”
“During our unit on energy, we learned so much about saving energy. Since we used the natural source of light that is available outside, we saved energy inside the building.”
“If only we celebrated it not just on one, day but every day…”
“I really loved being outdoors. We had a lot of fun. When I was outside I saw that a classroom has no boundaries.”
–Berna Aslan, Primary School English Teacher
