Today I gave each child a clipboard with an outline plan of our woods on – enlarged and copied from the OS map which we looked at in the classroom before going. Once at the woods we identified the paths and I asked the children to draw on features in the wood and create a key. They remembered making a key when we drew our garden designs. All the children needed help (often repeatedly) to orientate themselves but then most drew features in roughly the right place. Everyone said that it was tricky but they all did well. This is the first time I have asked children to work by themselves in the woods and most managed to stay on task. At the end I asked the children to pair up and check each other’s maps.
If I did this again I would spend more time at the start ensuring that children knew exactly where the paths were on my sketch map. Each map was double-sided so the children could make a rough copy before making a final copy.