Introduction
One of my greatest passions is gardening. I would love to find as many ways as possible to incorporate the outdoors into my classroom. On the Fall of 2014 I attended a Project Wild Seminar that was about four hours long. The seminar was mainly looking at the ways that science can be done outdoors. Specifically the study of the environment like geology or the life cycle of certain animals. I found ideas rather intriguing and I would like to take some of the ideas they suggested and expand on them to bring them into my classroom. This page is the start of my exploration into outdoors exploration and teaching.
Grade 4 Science Curriculum
Hooks and Ladders and Sports Education Model
One of the suggested activities is Hooks and Ladders, a game meant to teach the main parts of Salmon life cycle. The game has many stages, for example there is the Turbine, Predators, Open Ocean, Fish ladder, and Water Board Jump that students must go through in order to complete the life cycle. The sports education moodle could easily be applies to this. Teams such as the Salmon, Bears, Sharks and Humans (or some such mix of predators and prey). The teams could then learn about the salmon run though a game like Hooks and ladders, then learn about the life of a bear through another game and so forth, with the final culminating event being a Life Cycle game that combines all the games into one large game where teams try to compete with one another and survive. Team members can be given positions to learn about the life of their animal and the team as a whole can create a presentation for the whole class to teach about their animal.
Quick Frozen Critters with Tap In
Quick Frozen Critters is a game that looks at the life of a prey or predator. It is a good game for running around, strategic thinking and teamwork to achieve a common goal. Most of CAPS (Cognitive, Affective, psychomotor, and Social) is addressed in one form or another. The game could be added to or expanded to cover more than one lesson. It can also be paused to as tidbits of information that needs to be remembered by students. “Tap In” (a Drama technique) can also be used in conjunction in order to help student stimulate empathy and role playing in the animals lives.