There are many reasons why I myself am passionate about outdoor education. I grew up in a rural community with no internet or cell phone service and because of that it shaped me into a child who loved playing outdoors. That child eventually grew to an adult with a love for camping, hiking, quading, hunting, fishing and so much more. Through my childhood I learned to take risks and learn by doing. In fact it quickly became the only way I truly learned, through hands on exploration, and trial and error. With that shaping me as a person it obviously lead to shaping me as an educator. I have found through my experience with outdoor education the learning that takes place outdoors is more authentic, engaging and leads to young learners who embrace risk and exploration.

Throughout my three practicums I was placed in three different schools all of which had a different idea and level of outdoor education. My last school was located in a rural community not far from the one I grew up in, and in this final practicum I was finally able to find myself as an educator. This school embraced outdoor education whole heartedly and provided me with the platform to take risks and implement outdoor education on my own.

Below are some examples with brief explanations of how I implemented outdoor learning and where I hope this takes me in the future.

During my time teaching the primary k-2 students we were exploring Canada in Socials. Through this I found it a perfect opportunity to teach the entire school about the history of Inukshuks for the Inuit people and other Indigenous communities around Canada. We then built our own Inukshuks out of snow during our school wide Fresh Air Friday.

Outdoor math with the k-2’s always lead to some fun exploration of our outside world. We started the lesson reading “12 ways to get to 11” by Merriam Eve. This book lead to the students finding objects outside to represent the number 11. The students then wanted to challenge themselves to make the shapes of the numbers from 1-10.

Some more Fresh Air Friday activities !
-We made a tangled web of yarn as we discussed our local ecosystems and how everything within it is connected. This then lead to discussion of conservations and preserving our land as we learned what could happen if something was removed from the ecosystem by cutting away a piece of the yarn.
-We also explored the importance of camouflage with animals in the snow, and how animals will adapt their fur to blend into the snow around them. We broke off into teams of two and hid pieces of felt around the playground. The bright colored felt was easier to find as apposed to the white felt which blended into our fresh snowfall from the day before.