Tag: exploring

Kayaking at Daliburgh School

Tim and Andrew headed to Daliburgh School to run some kayaking sessions. There is a loch next to the school and they are looking at how they can make the best use of it as part of their learning. To see how kayaking could be run on the Loch it was decided to run short sessions for young people across the school.

Although it wasn’t the best weather with the rain the wind stayed away and everyone had a great experience. There was then discussion how they travel forwards and make more use of the Loch.

The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark

On the 20th February, before the evenings got too long, Mrs Mackinnon and her P1-4 class from Sir E Scott Primary came out for a night walk with Isi. They had been reading The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark as the basis for their project for the term, and wanted to experience the darkness for themselves – away from lights and buildings. We walked from the playground area in the Aline woodlands, down to the shores of Loch Seaforth and back again – a long way for little legs!

It was a very cold but calm evening, and the sun had just set as we left the carpark. We found lots of interesting things to talk about on the way, and the children especially liked seeing the snow on the Cliseam and other hills being lit up by the sunset. We spent a few minutes being very quiet to see what we could hear. We didn’t find any owls, but they were all surprised at just how quiet it was. When we got to the picnic bench by the loch, Isi gave everyone hot chocolate or juice, and a biscuit to keep them going for the return leg.

We looked out across the loch, which was very calm and looked like glass. On the way back, we turned off our torches and spent some time looking at the stars. We managed to find the Plough, Cassiopeia, Orion’s Belt, and some pictures the children made up themselves. Isi also had to remember some of her physics from school on the rest of the walk as the children had lots of questions about everything from the moon to black holes!

There were lots of smiling faces when we got back, although I suspect that they all slept well that night.

The John Muir Award

In the outdoor team we are passionate about encouraging everyone to  appreciate what is around us. We believe the John Muir Award is one very effective way of becoming connected with the place we live and making the learning place based. There is not a set syllabus, it is up to you how you meet the criteria, and it is open to all (families can get involved, and individuals generally from an upper primary level). If you would like to talk about the John Muir Award and how you can take part in it or use it Contact the Team

There are four challenges at the heart of the Award:

Discover a wild place:

This can be the school grounds, an area near your school or something further afield?

Explore it:

Do things which will help you understand and become more aware of your wild place. Experience it.

Conserve it:

Do something practical and take personal responsibility for making it better

Share your Experiences:

Let others know about your wild place, what you have done and what you have learnt.

The Levels

There are three levels of award – Discovery, Explorer and Conserver. There is a time commitment to each and it should be seen as a minimum and the majority of the time should be spent outdoors. There is no upper limit but time can’t be carried forwards to the next award.

Discovery Award – 4 days (or equivalent) minimum time commitment

Explorer Award – 8 days (or equivalent) minimum time commitment

Conserver Award – 20 days (or equivalent) time commitment, over at least 6 months

The Thinking

The Award uses the Head-Heart-Hand Model from Patrick Geddes:

 

There is a downloadable John Muir Award Information Handbook

 

Resources – John Muir Award

Various resources arrive in our in-tray, here in our hidden office, some of them we think are worth sharing. So occasionally we will put up short posts on things we think are worth a look at.

We received an email from the John Muir Trust about their Literacy and Nature Resource Guide. It is a file with some good links out to other sites and files, what we think useful to teaching staff here in the Outer Hebrides, is the John Muir Award and the CfE document which has details of how the John Muir Award can be linked to the Curriculum for Excellence.

There is their promotional film explaining the Trust and the Award:

If you would like to use the John Muir Award please contact the Isi or Tim and we can help you to set it up and deliver it.

Follow up with Stornoway Playgroup

As autumn has turned Stornoway Playgroup wanted to go and explore the Castle Grounds again. The story of our first journey can be seen here.

The journey this time took us up passed the water wheel over the golf course, with the great view of the town, into the broad leaf woodland, towards the college and the Caste where we found some shelters another group had been building. Then back past the Castle under the horse chestnut trees (Aesculus hippocastanum) to look for conkers. Finishing upstairs in the Sawmill café for a snack and a drink, which is always a treat.

Conkers collected from the Castle Gorunds

Although the conkers they found were small they were perfect for little hands. The different berries and fruits on the trees and bushes allowed us to talk about how the plants were able to spread their fruit and get other trees to grow, to touch on how things in nature are interconnected. We found and tasted blackberries and played with sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) ‘helicopters’.

Collected Autumn Colours

The next trip the Playgroup are going to take into the Grounds is to the water wheel building, when they are going to walk out and use the space as a place to ‘story time’ before walking back.

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