Learning outdoors offers more benefits than the obvious! Teachers report some great benefits such as improvement to children’s behaviours and the class become excited to learn and interact more!
When adults think back to their happiest moments, 9 times out of 10, playing outdoors is a fond memory.
Outdoor classroom day is a campaign aimed to encourage children to play and learn outdoors – it may be a case of encouraging teachers to take learning outdoor for the first time or if this is something that is already being regularly done, take a day to celebrate the opportunity they have by being able to provide this resource – even inspire other neighbouring schools to get involved!
In 2018 over 3.5 million children took part in outdoor classroom day world-wide with more than 550,000 of those were in the UK & Ireland.
Outside of school, less and less children are spending time outdoors and games consoles and TV seem to be taking over – there are many reasons for this but playing outdoors plays a vital part to a child’s development.
Learning and playing outdoors encourages the development of self-awareness, confidence and self-esteem, develops social and communicative skills and provides positive health benefits – both physically and mentally. It also supports and assists fundamental movement skills and many many more…
In addition to this playing and learning outside also helps children to understand and respect nature, the environment and the interdependence of humans, animals, plants, and lifecycle.