Jul 12, 2014 | Art & Music Outdoors, Early Years Outdoors, Maths Outdoors, Nature Play & Learning
It’s hard not to be inspired by pebbles. You pick them up, you look at them and they speak silently to you in ways that words can’t describe. They are inexplicably powerful. Sometimes you pick one up, hold it and carry it with you for a while on your walk....
Jun 15, 2014 | Art & Music Outdoors, Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces
Do you ever see children interacting with murals on playground walls? Very often murals and boards are a decorative presence rather than a playful presence. They may have originally been a class project. Over the years such projects can loose their meaning to all...
May 18, 2014 | Art & Music Outdoors, Gardening, Health & Wellbeing, RME Outdoors, Social Subjects Outdoors
There is something very poignant about seeing a single flower, such as the image of a red poppy at Flander’s Field and knowing its role in Remembrance Sunday and its story associated with The Great War. Over the years, flowers have become associated with...
May 7, 2014 | Art & Music Outdoors, Early Years Outdoors, Play Resources, Technologies
Do you have a growing collection of charity bags which get popped through your door each week? If you do, and you don’t have any particular plans for them, perhaps it’s time to put them to good use as outdoor dance items. Several years ago I was...
Apr 22, 2014 | Art & Music Outdoors, Maths Outdoors
The kaleidoscope feature of Photo Booth on an iPad remains one of the funkiest ways of looking through the lens I know. It is a useful addition to any light and colour project because what one sees can be photographed. It can capture images for later use. Ordinary...
Apr 16, 2014 | Art & Music Outdoors, Science Outdoors, Technologies
Have you ever got that feeling that you aren’t making the most of a resource? Ever since I bought my mini iPad I knew I hadn’t done enough experimenting with Photo Booth. I had given classes opportunity to freely play with Photo Booth and its effects. The...
Mar 29, 2014 | Art & Music Outdoors, Early Years Outdoors, Technologies
Many years ago I was training at Malvern Way Infant and Nursery School in Rickmansworth. At the time, they had been developing their grounds for the past 8 years under the leadership of a head teacher, Janet English, who retired in 2014. This included giving children...
Dec 8, 2013 | Art & Music Outdoors
I like children to explore their local environment in different ways. One aspect of geography is learning to recognise key features in a landscape. In the early years this may start with simply being able to name and identify what they see in different directions. By...
Dec 3, 2013 | Art & Music Outdoors, Early Years Outdoors, Play Resources
When working outside, I end up using a lot of different surfaces. A stock item in my bag is an old white sheet. I have various sorts and sizes from king-size (ideal for whole class work) down to cot-size (for pairs or individual work). I use them deliberately to...
Sep 11, 2013 | Art & Music Outdoors
I was getting quietly disappointed that I hadn’t come across any little community art gems lately to adapt and use within a school context. That changed last weekend when I went for a walk at Drum Castle in Aberdeenshire. Quietly tucked away on one woodland walk...
Aug 24, 2013 | Art & Music Outdoors, Early Years Outdoors, Personal & Holidays
One aspect of outdoor learning that many practitioners can forget is making the link between outdoor experiences and how this impacts indoors. Where outdoor learning is an established way within a school or setting, the indoor environment reflects this. This is the...
Aug 16, 2013 | Art & Music Outdoors, Literacy Outdoors, Social Subjects Outdoors
At the Turriff Show, one of my favourite competition’s were the children’s miniature worlds. They are beautiful and a good example of how encouraging children to put thought into the design and time into creating the displays pays off. The outdoor...
Apr 23, 2013 | Art & Music Outdoors, Early Years Outdoors, Maths Outdoors, Science Outdoors
Some days are extremely wet. Thankfully we have waterproof skin that means we can cope with being outside on rainy days. One day I was working with a group of children who have additional support needs and so out we went to make the most of the rain. When...
Mar 19, 2013 | Art & Music Outdoors, Early Years Outdoors, RME Outdoors
“Be careful what you wish for because it may come true” (Proverb) Celtic folklore exists about the use of wishing rods which are found tied to beech trees. The beech tree is also known as the tree of wishes. Fallen beech branches are said to be invitations...
Nov 25, 2012 | Art & Music Outdoors, Community Involvement
Yarn bombing is a growing world-wide trend with guerilla knitters everywhere taking up the challenge of giving local spaces and places funky feel makeover. Whilst I had seen various photos and videos (Google image the term for a dazzling array) about this new art...
Nov 3, 2012 | Art & Music Outdoors, Community Involvement, Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Early Years Outdoors
One of the most impressive low level features at Glamis Adventure Playground is the monster. This mighty mosaic houses the sand pit and water feature and is an incredibly attractive work of art in its own right. By the looks of things, the monster was created through...
Oct 26, 2012 | Art & Music Outdoors, Community Involvement, Nature Play & Learning
Twenty-five years ago this month, storms ripped through the south of England causing massive disruption, damage and the deaths of a number of people. The town of Sevenoaks was left with one oak still standing. The BBC weather service was heavily criticised for not...
Sep 1, 2012 | Art & Music Outdoors, Personal & Holidays
I feel like I should be apologising madly for being a disorganised blogger. I know a lot of people pop by this site around this time of the year as the school year begins. In a perfect world, I’d be giving you my “Top 10 tips for starting outside with your...
Jul 28, 2012 | Art & Music Outdoors
During my holidays I encountered a sculpture which for me provided more fun and interaction than any other I’ve met. It was the Lakeland Panorama on the sea front of Morecambe, created by Russ Coleman in 2004. It reflects the view across the Bay of the Lake...
Jul 25, 2012 | Art & Music Outdoors, Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces
Very often my blog posts are based upon random acts of discovery. An incident, event or landscape feature appears during my daily life which just lends itself nicely to a blog post and this is one of those. During my holidays, I was wandering down the main shopping...
