The Council For Learning Outside the Classroom have come up with a great idea for dispelling any boredom amongst young people over the summer holidays. They suggest giving your pupils some fun and exciting ideas for outdoor adventures they can go on with their families. Homework, but of a much more fun variety. This will hopefully succeed in getting children out and about more and allow them to make the most of their time off with fun family activities.
The CLOtC make several suggestions for ways of approaching this and how to encourage your pupils to participate.
You could compile a Top 10 Things to Do this Summer list. Write this with your class during a brainstorming session. Keep it simple but fun, with items like making a daisy chain or planting a flower. Children could also compile their own list of summer ambitions which match their specific destinations. For example, generally you could suggest that all your students should try and play an outdoor game this summer with their family. On an individual basis a student off to Wales on holiday might put down that they want to go rock pooling. When everyone is back you can use the class list of things and the individual lists to discuss the summer. These resources can also be the basis for other activities in the new term. Encourage your pupils to take photos, draw pictures and write accounts of everything they did to share with everyone.
The National Trust have a great resource to draw on called 50 Things to do Before You’re 11 & ¾ including making a mud pie, flying a kite and playing conkers. The list has been designed to encourage outdoor adventure, foster new skills and get children to challenge themselves by trying new things. With a list of 50, phew that will be quite a six weeks!
The Field Studies Council have put together a work sheet for creating a weather station. Pupils can plot the summer weather from their own back garden and record their findings. Pupils who enjoy modeling and designing will have a interesting project to monitor daily and improve upon.
What games did your grandparents play? Encourage the pupils to speak to parents and grandparents about fun games they enjoyed and try some out. They could challenge their friends to a football tournament or make up a new game entirely to play outdoors.
Go exploring in nature, encourage your pupils to collect different leaves and survey the wildlife in their local park. What is the most common animal? What is the rarest? Can they find 10 or even 15 different types of tree leaf?
Handsam can help you to find some top rated destinations to suggest your pupils this summer with our outdoor destination list.
