OWN CORRESPONDENT
The outdoor classroom day’s website states, “Lessons learnt outdoors, whether maths, science or language, often stay with us for life. Being outdoors helps children focus, boosts creativity and imagination, and can simply be more fun.”
The notion of the outdoor classroom is based on the belief that children who have the freedom to play today, making friends, getting lost in the moment, and having fun, are better prepared for whatever tomorrow throws at them. Play helps children to build friendships, test their own boundaries, and solve their own problems. It’s central to a child’s development and their enjoyment of childhood.
The classes built on Ariel’s first outdoor learning day in May. Sessions were planned around the therapy disciplines at the school, including occupational therapy and speech and language therapy, as well as some core learning and creative skills.
They included a mini Olympics session for each class, where the children participated in team games such as tug-of-war, while working on gross motor and co-ordination skills. Rave O lessons were taught in the garden, with the focus on word building skills. MindUp sessions were held, using the current theme of gratitude. Through group discussion, the children explored what gratitude is and ways to display it. They recorded the person or thing they were most grateful for on a leaf, which culminated in the gratitude tree displayed in the school’s reception area.
Hebrew, art, and science lessons were also held outside, including sketching different parts of the school, and exploring the water cycle. The day ended with a water session under the trees, including a slip and slide, sprinklers, fozzie foam, and ice bites.
In spite of the incredible heat, the children all had fun and enjoyed the variety of activities and novelty of learning outdoors, thus meeting the goal of the campaign.
