The weather is all around us and, in Scotland, we sometimes see more cloudy, rainy days than we would like!!
Getting outdoors in all weathers is great fun and it helps develop learning in so many ways. You can think about risks of going out in different weathers, what clothes we need to wear for different types of weather, explore the impact caused by different types of weather and how different weathers make us feel.
We have shared some lessons here for early level learners to explore the weather using their senses:
Equally, it is important to learn about the weather and how it works. The UK Met Office produces fantastic materials for schools – lesson plans and resources for learning indoors and outdoors.
Lessons are grouped by age and topic, are fully resourced with printable materials and video clips.
YouTube Channel – The Met Office Learn About the Weather includes films which introduce the science of weather and climate and films which simply show us what an amazing planet we live on.
Meditation
Doctors in Scotland are now prescribing nature for Health and Wellbeing. Walking, bird watching and even cycling can give us time away from hustle and bustle. Our colleague Hannah Polland, from the East Ayrshire Council TAP Team has very kindly shared a video with us. The video tells a story called ‘Just Be‘ which Hannah is the author of and features her wonderful illustrations too. The video explores and encourages mindfulness and highlights the outdoors as being the perfect setting to relax in. Take time to ‘just be’ when you are outdoors. This means slowing down, using your senses and paying attention to the little things.
It’s important to allow ourselves time to stop every now and then. It is a way for us to look after ourselves and take care of our mental and emotional health.
A really nice way to relax outdoors and to be mindful of your surroundings is cloud watching. One of our team’s favourite cloud is Cirrus which looks like a streamer flying high normally on a summer’s day. Can you research cloud types and go Cloud gazing? Use the video below and the link to find out some more.