When the weather is beautiful I believe it is so important to get kids outside! I've learned that taking advantage of the nicer weather is a lot better than trying to fight it! We all like being outside in the sunshine and students are often more engaged in their learning when we change up the learning environment. So, on your next sunny or warm day, try using these outdoor activities to keep kids engaged as they learn, explore, and have fun outside!
Jump ropes are a great way to review concepts or skills that you have learned! Just hand each student a jump rope, have them spread out, and then give them instructions for the skill you'll be practicing. For example, call out a sight word and have students jump each time they spell a letter. You could also name a concept, like what plants need to grow, and students jump for each answer (water, sun, air, soil). It's a great way to move and learn!
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Kids love playing Tic-Tac-Toe, so why not take one of their favorite games outside? This Tic-Tac-Toe Bean Bag Toss Game can be used as a center activity for partners or as a whole class review game in teams. To make this game educational, I laid out the Tic-Tac-Toe board on the pavement and used chalk to write sight words inside each spot. The player had to correctly identify the word in order to put their X or O on a spot. Then whoever got 3 in a row first won! This game could be adapted for many different topics such as math facts, vocabulary or unit reviews.
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Science is one of my favorite subjects to teach and it integrates so well with the other subjects! These Science Scavenger Hunt Journals are perfect to take your learning outside! Set students on a fun hunt while they explore the great outdoors to find elements in nature that fit the descriptions on each page. They will have so much fun that they won't even realize they are working on important skills like writing, using their 5 senses, adjectives and more. Any kind of writing is always more fun to do outside!
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You can never go wrong with a classic! Whenever I pull out the Sidewalk Chalk my kids are immediately engaged and the options are limitless. The kids think it is "so cool" to get to write with chalk instead of our normal classroom tools. It's truly a low-prep, but highly effective tool for learning that can be used in all subject areas. We love using chalk for writing phonics spelling patterns, sentences, sight words, math facts and more!
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These Giant Backyard Dominoes are perfect for math fact practice! We used the dominoes in a timed race. Students had 5 minutes to see how many addition facts they could get. I piled all of the dominoes in the middle of the basketball court on our playground. Each student had to find a spot on the outside lines of the court. When I blew my whistle, they each ran to the center of the court, grabbed a domino, ran back to their spot, and wrote down the fact with chalk. They then returned their domino to the center and repeated play until time ran out. It was such a fun way to practice our facts!
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