Feb 19, 2020 | Art & Music Outdoors, Early Years Outdoors, Literacy Outdoors, Maths Outdoors
This week I’ve been presenting at the Aberdeenshire Council’s Early Years Conference. The theme has been Outdoor Literacy and my workshop focused on the natural art of mark making outside. However the process is easy enough for older primary children to...
Dec 21, 2019 | Art & Music Outdoors, Early Years Outdoors, Science Outdoors
At this time of year, chocolates are bought and the amount of wrappers thrown in the bin can mount up. At a recent training event I asked the participants to save their sweetie wrappers and we added them to a transparent tarp. It was a random choice of designs. I...
Oct 31, 2019 | Art & Music Outdoors, Literacy Outdoors
This is an ordinary path in the middle of the Falkland Estate. It is also home to a subtle piece of word play art hidden within the drystone dyke on the left. Solvitur Ambulando is the Latin phrase meaning “It is solved by walking.” Whilst this advice is...
Aug 3, 2017 | Art & Music Outdoors, Early Years Outdoors, Science Outdoors
For one of my birthdays, I received a set of magnetic googly eyes. The idea is that you use them to attach photos to your fridge and that you can put the googly eyes over people or animal eyes for a comic effect. Naturally I saw their potential for helping children to...
Oct 15, 2016 | Art & Music Outdoors, Early Years Outdoors, Maths Outdoors
One activity that is consistently popular with children and adults is masking tape art. During a recent outdoor training session, I realised the concept fitted rather well with exploring aspects of 2D shape. Each child needs a piece of calico cotton or old sheet....
Jul 21, 2016 | Art & Music Outdoors, Community Involvement, Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Health & Wellbeing
In the Welsh seaside town of Barry, a place made world famous by the Gavin and Stacey sitcom, lies a typographic traversing wall. It was designed by Gordon Young in association with Part Two – a London-based design consultancy and opened in 2014. Whilst this...
Jun 25, 2016 | Art & Music Outdoors, Community Involvement
This past week, if you have been in the Cruickshank Botanic Garden in Aberdeen, one of the trees – the cut leaf Norway maple – has been decorated as part of a temporary art project. During the past six months, local individuals who access Sense...
Jun 1, 2016 | Art & Music Outdoors, Community Involvement, RME Outdoors
Every cloud has a silver lining. As I was unable to travel back home this past weekend, I stayed in the Peak District and savoured the fine weather. From a fellow traveller, I learned about the well dressing custom that is rife in Derbyshire and decided to visit...
May 23, 2016 | Art & Music Outdoors, Gardening, Nature Play & Learning, Science Outdoors
Recently I saw a blog post about creating natural watercolour paint from fresh flowers. With lots of flowers appearing now spring is here, I thought it would be a timely opportunity to have a go at this myself – a practice run before trialling on a group of...
Feb 26, 2016 | Art & Music Outdoors, Community Involvement, Nature Play & Learning
Back in 2102 I blogged about the sand dog sculpture below. I was genuinely delighted at the ingenuity of the person who was creating a dog from a small bag of sand. In the years that followed I’ve received numerous enquiries from people about whether these dogs...
Feb 19, 2016 | Art & Music Outdoors
Whilst visiting Melbourne last March, I had the privilege of visit Skinner’s Adventure Playground Centre. It was a wonderful, warm and welcoming play space. At the entrance these life-size silhouette murals greeted you. The children and adults who created them,...
Jan 2, 2016 | Art & Music Outdoors, Social Subjects Outdoors
“How hard it is to escape from places. However carefully one goes they hold you – you leave little bits of yourself fluttering on the fences – like rags and shreds of your very life.” Katherine Mansfield Imagine leaving your country and homeland and...
Nov 14, 2015 | Art & Music Outdoors, Early Years Outdoors, Social Subjects Outdoors
I find that holidays and visits to different places provide inspiration for flexible and open-ended outdoor activities with children. Andrea Stevenson demonstrates this effectively in this post where her daughter was inspired to create her own chalk figure after...
Oct 19, 2015 | Art & Music Outdoors
There is nothing like a bit of bright textile to decorate an outdoor space. At Inverallochy School one of the more recent projects is to allow children to yarn bomb the school grounds. Any post runs a risk of being engulfed in colourful threads. As you can see...
Oct 1, 2015 | Art & Music Outdoors, Community Involvement, Social Subjects Outdoors
Since 2009 Inverallochy School has been actively making its school grounds an exciting place to play and learn. They are one of many schools now demonstrating that this is a process and not a product. It’s not about a one-off grant fund application or waiting...
Feb 16, 2015 | Art & Music Outdoors, Social Subjects Outdoors, Technologies
It is impossible to ignore The Kelpies. These huge sculptures immediately attract your attention when driving past Falkirk on the M9 motorway. Finally Scotland has a piece of roadside public art with a “wow” factor. They are unmissable, unforgettable and...
Oct 12, 2014 | Art & Music Outdoors, Early Years Outdoors, Nature Play & Learning, RME Outdoors
Recently I was visiting the The Lost Gardens of Heligan. In the entrance, was the beautiful hanging decoration. Upon closer inspection, it contained a range of autumn finds: Beside the hanging decoration was a notice which asked visitors to collect the colours of...
Sep 17, 2014 | Art & Music Outdoors, Early Years Outdoors, Social Subjects Outdoors
Mirrors have interesting light-reflecting properties. Put a mirror in a natural space and you may struggle to find it again as it can be so good at camouflaging and blending into the scenery. Often the only clue is that when you glance over a mirror, something seems...
Aug 31, 2014 | Art & Music Outdoors, Science Outdoors, Social Subjects Outdoors, Technologies
Most weather vanes are basic affairs. They are an arrow which points in the direction of the wind and with the compass directions at the bottom. The designs are usually fairly traditional stuff. All-in-all, my excitement levels about weather vanes has never been...
Aug 7, 2014 | Art & Music Outdoors, Early Years Outdoors, Technologies
Several years ago I blogged about peg loom weaving. This may not seem obviously outdoorsy but it is. The looms are simple to use and any long strands can be woven through the pegs including plastic bags, long grasses, plant stems and gathered wool. The looms are very...
