Category: Outdoors

Outdoor Learning Day

The day started with a touch of frost. Despite this we tackled the Bee hotel wild flower beds. These have become full of grass with no flowers. We have dug out the grass, and will cover them up over the winter. in spring we will seed some more will flowers. We added some sand to make the soli a bit less rich and covered them which will hopefully kill any remains grass to make room for the flowers.

Camera Stand challenge

We feed the birds in the playground and have a NatureWatch camera to take photos of our visitors. The class were challenged to make a better camera stand, that could be adjustable and move around on a tricky slope.

Naturewatch camera on tripod
Naturewatch camera on tripod

Estimating Weight

Next we worked on some estimating weight for maths. Everybody got a small contained and filled it with sand. They then weighed their own box but did not tell anyone else. The children then estimated all of each other boxes. We will calculate the best estimator when we are doing some inside maths. There are some accurate estimates.

Photos & Poems

In the afternoon we took our iPads out to catch some photos of the winter light, it was a lovely bright, but cold day. We also wrote some haiku inspired by the season.

child in playground taking photo
child in playground taking photo

Firepit

We ended the day reading our haiku round the fire pit and finishing off with some marshmallows s’mores.

Children round a fire toasting marshmallows.

Autumn Haiku

After reading Write Out: Gathering Sensory Details for Haiku on Kevin’s blog I though we could join in. We are a little late for Write Out which inspired this, on holiday last week.

We watched the video embedded on Kevin’s blog and looked at his classes examples. Then we went out into the playground. A cold breeze and some drizzle did stop the Biggies gathering words. Back inside we polished these a little.

Hand written Haiku The Crispy Leaves The Birds are chirping loudly I'm cold everywhere
nights getting darker A full moon calls for werewolves marks hallween's start
The summer has slowly fading The Autumn has quickly come in The dark is waiting
The cold organge leaves birds chirping in the cold rain Marks winter's start
The Autumn is here Brown orange the colour of the leaves As they fall down
The Breeze is blowing Some of the leaves are rustling The birds are chirping
Trees are still, red, brown orange, the sand is smooth and the sound of woodpeckers chirping
Fingers are colder The soft rain feels electric grey forms in the sky
The cold air is coming the leaves fall into the wind The birds start to rest
Birds calling While yellow to red leaves appear Autumn is here
Occasionally I see a robin with starlings flying with the breeze
Leaves falling off the trees cold air blowing through the breeze Autumn is here
Ourtside in autumn Orange leaves, summer is gone with the hot sun

A walk around High Banton

On Tuesday, as part of out outdoor learning day, the Biggies had a walk around High Banton. We are studying the way people lived in Banton in the past so went to look at the houses and landscape.

First we had to get our selves kitted out with wellies and water proofing because it would be very muddy and wet at the bit that we would be going to. It was all the way up at drum Nessie farm in High Banton. We started by turning right at the end of the school. Road and then you fallow the road up to the cattery that is at the top of the road and then we saw what looked like a 19th century house and it had been done up it looked amazing.

Going through the cow field

Through the mud. A group of children walking through a muddy field

First we were tasked with a problem we had to go through a field full of cows. And that was the only way through so we had to we started by climbing over the gate but then we realised that the cows were all the way over at the other side of the field so we were fine.

Blair

Next we saw a garage that could have been a old house because it was built of rocks. …

We came out at the swan and got a picture of that because it first opened in 1853. Across the road from the swan there was a house that was built in 1811. We know that because it was engraved on the stone above the door.

Rebuilt 1854
Juliet
Banton Mill
Banton Mill

We then went down one of the roads out of Banton to the mill and took some pictures of it. The mill is really old and was opened in 1836 which is about 200 years ago. When we were coming back we saw the old police house that is just a normal house now but use to be the old police station for Banton. Then we were on the road the school is on and we got a picture of the newest house in Banton that was only finished this year.

In conclusion I really enjoyed the walk and it was nice to see the old houses and buildings in person and not on a screen. I was also nice to walk about and and see the old houses that people would have lived in a long time ago and still do. I didn’t really like all the muddy puddles but other than that I loved it.

Juliet
A satellite map of our walk.

In school 

When we had went back to school and we looked at all the pictures and we thought of where the were and cut the pictures that Mr J had taken and a map that he printed. We stuck the map on to a sheet of a paper and the the picture’s around the map. We had drawn lines to where the places were and if we knew the name of the place we wrote that and like The Swan and when it was made 1815.

Alex

Outdoor Learning Day June 2023

We started the day by going to the woods to gather a bit of firewood and different things to test as tinder.

The woods have changed quite a lot since our last visit, the grass & bracken is a lot higher. Down by the Gladstone we saw a woodpecker and later on a frog.

Back in school we tried different items as tinder with our flies and steels. not much success. The only thing that really caught was some bog cotton we had picked on our previous visit.

Next we mixed up some dough to cook over the fire later on in the day.
Dough in a bowl

We then explored a new App Seek by iNaturalist , which helped us identify plants and animals in the school grounds.

In the afternoon we rolled out out dough and wound it round some twigs, while the dough was rising we set up the fire pit.

Some marshmallows might have been toasted too.

Earth Day 2023

The Biggies are studying John Muir this term, so that filtered right in with Earth Day 2023.

The day before we had visited Dow’s wood. There we collected natural sights and sounds with our iPads and pencils.

On Friday in class we made composite images of our photos writing & drawing, click on a thumbnail to expand and see all the details:

We also made photos with the text from our favourite John Muir Quotes:

And later on we made some art, could you guess which quote inspired which piece of art:

Universal connection
Wilderness
Exposure to the mountains
A good look at the dark and the light
Forest wilderness
The grand show
Charcoal Flower!

The Biggies at Strathclyde Park

The Primary Sevens are visiting Strathclyde park every day this week, for some outdoor learning with Strathclyde Park Outdoor Education Programme.

Here is a collection of short ‘videos’ of the adventures. The playlist will be added to each day.

Scale Model Dens

Last year, the class went out to the playground and measures lots of the den building materials:

Outdoor learning Day November 2022

This year we took these measurements, scaled them down by a factor of 10 and then made scale models of dens.

Children working on scale models

Children working on scale models

the class also made scale models of themselves at the same scale as the dens.

The children then made wee videos of their learning using iMovie or clips.

There are a couple of videos still to be finished and we will add these to the playlist when done.

Outdoor learning Day November 2022

On Wednesday the Biggies had one of our outdoor learning days. We started with a treasure hunt to find words to treasure. We will share some of the words later on.

Then we worked on some measure for maths. We were measuring some of the pallets, tarps and other things we use for den building.

Finally we split into teams and built some dens. We ere working on our playing, leadership, communication, problem solving and practical skills.

A few days ago we as a class went out side and practiced using adjectives, nouns and verbs and how we did that was we described autumn on coloured paper basically to make a short poem.
For maths we done measuring and how we that was we brought out all of the different things in the shed and got partners to measure them in meter and centimetres.

Hazel

Yesterday it was our outdoor day. We stared the day off by doing some literacy, at literacy we we got some pieces of paper, the thing on the front would show what ever we see that is in that category, adjective, noun or verb. Wwe would write on the back. A the end we made leaf drawings. put those word in it.
Then for maths we had gathered all the Palettes and tarps, we went in groups and we had to measure those items. after lunch we used all of those Items to make a den and the den which was the best won.

Josh

On Wednesday it was an out door leaning day and when we were doing maths we put out the pallets, planks and tadpoles we measured them and took a photo to show the measurements of the pallets, plank and tarpaulins. Alex

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