Dumfries and Galloway OWL Group are holding a Virtual Environment Fair is on the Sunday, 31st  May 11am to 4pm

Experienced practitioners share their knowledge and enthusiasm. A great opportunity to find out how we can use our wonderful outdoor spaces (small and large, near and far!) to support outdoor learning.  You can drop in and out over the course of the day and collect ideas to use in your own settings.

On Sunday, you can view the live stream on Facebook @OWLDG and @EnvironmentFair and You Tube as DGOWL Group.

Tickets for virtual workshops are found on  Eventbrite  and can be found by searching by workshop title.

Please share this great educational video of Mrs MacColl visiting the school beehive.

In this lovely short clip, the pupils are demonstrating ‘smoking’.

Lesson plans, activities and further support can be found here

All about the bees

As part of our developing online CPD resources, we have collated an ‘online library’ of book suggestions which we think that teachers, practitioners and those with a love of the outdoors might find useful.  There is a wide selection of books from those about the outdoors, adventure and nature, to outdoor learning, the policy behind it and how it can be implemented and wider educational theory books.

You can find the list here: Books To Read

Our team will be adding to this as time goes on, and of course, we would love to hear from you if you have any suggestions of books to share with others.

In East Ayrshire  we have some brilliant support teams.

Today Gywneth from the TAP team has shared a video about #professionaldevelopment #CPD

Giving 5 excellent tips for #earlyyears #outdoorlearning you can find it all here Early Years Practitioners

We are really excited to announce that we are launching a brand new, weekly news letter – what better news to start the holiday weekend!!

Landing in your inbox on a Wednesday, it will be filled with lessons, activities and resources for the week ahead to aid with planning for home and school lessons, links to resources you might have missed, notes on any special upcoming events and some inspiring outdoor learning content.

The newsletter is suitable for all those who want to bring a bit of the outdoors into their teaching and their life.

If you are interested and would like to sign up, please do so by clicking on the link below:

Sign up for our brand-new newsletter here!

Take a look as Natalie shows you how to make an easy paper plant pot to grow your seeds in before putting them into the garden or, a nice way to grow some plants if you don’t have an outdoor space.

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/learningoutdoorssupportteam/?p=3215

The Wildlife Trusts  have set their annual  30 Days Wild challenge .  Sign up and  you will receive a digital pack including a wall planner, 30 Acts of Wildness cards, window poster.

Loanhead PS pupils and families  and members of the LOST team  have signed up so why not join in the fun?  And, as today is Outdoor Classroom Day, with the focus on Playful Nature…signing up to this challenge, might be your perfect chance to get involved!

This year’s Outdoor Classroom Day is happening on this Thursday 21st May 2020.  Outdoor Classroom Day aims to inspire and celebrate outdoor learning and play both at home and at school.  Usually, this day is celebrated by teachers taking their classes outdoors for their lessons, however, this year, of course, due to the coronavirus crisis, things will look a little different, with the vast majority of teaching and learning taking place online and at home.

The organisation promoting Outdoor Classroom Day have decided this year to launch the movement – ‘Playful Nature’ – after collaborating with parents and teachers across the globe.

Their aim is to support children to continue to connect to nature, even during a period of lockdown and staying at home.  They believe that this connection is best made through play and have shared a variety of activities on their website which encourage a connection with nature both indoors and outdoors.  On 21st May – Outdoor Classroom Day – they are encouraging everyone to bring playful nature to their setting, family and home.

These ideas and activities can be found here: https://outdoorclassroomday.com/

We would love to see how you, your families and classes can engage with this very different Outdoor Classroom Day.  Of course, you can use any of the activities on our web site to engage with nature, or, check back here tomorrow morning for a very special activity which will allow you to investigate and connect with nature in your garden…or even on your windowsill!!