Last week the FDLT Year 1 students had the opportunity to use the outdoors as a learning environment.We spent the morning beside the river exploring and measuring the landscape.
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- On the way to the river we met sheep, lambs and some horses.
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- Horses in a field we walked through.
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- We used the river as the basis for some measuring and exploration.
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- We used an augur to collect soil samples to investigate.
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- The riverbank revealed some of what lies beneath the grass.
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- Looking at the soil sample.
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- Collecting a kick sample to investigate later.
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- Using string, poles and a metre stick to measure the meander of the river.
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- A closer look – using a magnifying lens clipped to a mobile phone.
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- Story strips – we gathered a record of exploring the churchyard. This could be tried in different seasons and locations to make comparisons.
The activities the students tried out are those which pupils need to experience when learning geographical and scientific skills and they also provided opportunities to apply mathematical learning.
We also explored the book The Lost Words by Jackie Morris and Robert MacFarlane – a fantastic inspiration for English in the context of the natural world. There are supporting resources for this here.
In year 2 of the FDLT course students will take part in a module entirely focused on learning opportunities beyond the school site so this experience was a valuable introduction.
