May 12, 2016 | Maths Outdoors
I am rather shocked that it’s taken me so long to blog about the mathematical value of cones. They are a wonderful resource yet are often overshadowed by the sleekness of sticks and the smoothness of stones. So this post is written in honour of the cone and its...
Jan 31, 2016 | Maths Outdoors
Last summer I was visiting Saughton Park and Gardens in Edinburgh. It is a very welcoming garden. Within formal garden area, there is this bedding display. I was fascinated by the layout and shapes of the beds. It was clearly not the level of formality of...
Jan 12, 2016 | Early Years Outdoors, Maths Outdoors
This past year I have had my passion for ropes revived. It all began quite innocently during as I was co-presenting a Forest Kindergarten course with Marian Cairns. She was talking about Sammy the Snake – a piece of thin rope she used with children to help them...
Aug 24, 2015 | Maths Outdoors
Today has been a wet, rainy day. It was perfect for creating nature circles – or mandalas – depending upon how you choose to introduce and contextualise the activity. For me, I am interested in the mathematical element of this work. I’ve blogged...
Jun 14, 2015 | Maths Outdoors
Multiplication pebbles are a very simple resource. I have put 10 pebbles in one bag to represent the 3 times table. As illustrated above, each pebbles has the number 3 painted on it with acrylic deco pens. Each pebble is a different colour. For some children, learning...
Mar 23, 2015 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Early Years Outdoors, Maths Outdoors
One of my favourite fairy tales as a child was Dick Whittington. I was always fascinated by the idea of streets being paved with gold. Whilst in Adelaide, I discovered a similar concept. On the ground outside a cafe on Rundle Street, lots of coins had been embedded...
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....
May 13, 2014 | Early Years Outdoors, Maths Outdoors
Recently I was browsing Childhood 101’s blog and stumbled across this post about using Uno to play an attribute game. It reminded me of several summers of serious card playing where my sisters and I played a lot of “Black Jack” which is similar to...
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...
Feb 4, 2014 | Maths Outdoors
How many days has it been since your class returned to school last August or September? You may need to do some counting on a calendar. For schools in Aberdeen City this is Friday 7th February. Naturally this is a lovely opportunity to celebrate all things 100 and of...
Jan 7, 2014 | Maths Outdoors, Nature Play & Learning
Back in the Seventies, one of the most popular games which took the UK by storm was Mastermind. It was aimed at 8yrs olds and upwards. It’s a form of code cracking where you have to work out the hidden line of coloured pegs. It was developed from a traditional...
Jul 10, 2013 | Early Years Outdoors, Maths Outdoors, Nature Play & Learning
We are all encouraged to work out our environmental footprint, but have you ever considered your impact on daisies? Luckily they are tough little flowers that seem to withstand people treading on them. A nice maths activity is to find out how many daisies you can...
May 18, 2013 | Gardening, Maths Outdoors, Science Outdoors
Plant identification is a quirky matter. As a child, I was not especially interested in wildflowers, trees or other plants. Family walks were decidedly boring if there was too much plant talk and not enough running, climbing and swinging thrown into the mix. So when...
May 16, 2013 | Maths Outdoors, Technologies
I always feel it is good to follow up open-ended introductions to challenges and activities which allow children to further develop core skills in different curriculum areas. I have previously blogged about reflections and beginning symmetry outside. I enjoy the...
May 4, 2013 | Maths Outdoors, Science Outdoors, Technologies
Recently on the Creative STAR Facebook Page I showed this wonderful photo of a wind tunnel created by a space blanket. Sadly, it ripped almost immediately after the photo was taken. I really didn’t want to chuck it out as I felt that was a waste. So instead I...
Apr 30, 2013 | Early Years Outdoors, Maths Outdoors
In my last post, 10 Little Stick Activities, I mentioned the game of Pick Up Sticks. This is fun, good for all ages and a nice way to introduce sticks to a class. Here’s another useful little idea that one course participant showed me when training in Perth last...
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...
Jan 26, 2013 | Early Years Outdoors, Maths Outdoors
One ongoing challenge for teachers is ensuring that children who finish earlier than others have something meaningful to move onto. There’s lots of possibilities outside and this stick activity is one such example. It can be completed in pairs or by children...
Jan 6, 2013 | Maths Outdoors
The idea of objects representing numbers is not new and works well for reinforcing basic numeracy skills. In this activity children gather some natural objects from whatever is to hand and then create sums. Here’s what a Y5 (Primary 6) class devised when working...
Nov 7, 2012 | Maths Outdoors
This is a very simple investigation using sticks lying around. It works particularly well with twigs or sticks which can be easily broken or snapped to size. The challenge is to create the numerals from 1-9 with sticks. Now that is a nice challenge in the early years...
