Recommendations

What gets you excited about going outside? Understanding your ‘why’ can help you identify specific, intentional opportunities for outdoor learning. Experiential learning, connecting students to nature, connecting students to the built environment or community resources, restoring student attention, the opportunity for movement, just something different, or something else? 

Review the curriculum you teach for possible outdoor connections (i.e. going outside to study wind, pollinators, weather, sound, mapping, geometry, etc.). 

Create classroom supply “to-go”” kits with materials useful for learning outside (clipboards, portable whiteboards, outdoor rugs, etc.). More ideas here. 

Practice outdoor norm setting and procedures with your students. Review outdoor classroom management tips 

Join the Garden Leader Learning Community to learn from your peers who manage school gardens and regularly work with students outdoors

Identify safe outdoor spaces on campus that can be used for outdoor learning. Encourage staff to use those spaces. 

Share the benefits of outdoor learning with your staff by highlighting outdoor opportunities at staff meetings and other places. Administrative support is the most important ingredient for successful outdoor learning. 

Support one or more teachers with a Green Leader Stipend for 21 hours/semester. 

Hold a training orientation at the beginning of the year to help teachers get familiar with outdoor spaces on your campus, its features, and procedures for use. Empower green leaders at your school to organize a staff presentation or PD session about how to engage in outdoor learning, including school specific resources and  opportunities. This presentation can detail roles and opportunities for other staff at the school. 

Reach out to the Farm to School team for help starting or sustaining school garden learning spaces. Request help here. 

For K-5, book a free outdoor field trip to Great Kids Farm for a grade level. 

Identify neighborhood partners and resources that can facilitate outdoor experiences for your students. 

Form an outdoor learning committee at your school, involving teachers from different grade levels, admin, parents, and other community members to meet at set times throughout the school year to discuss goals, challenges, and new ideas for the use of outdoor spaces at your school

Apply for school garden and/or sustainability grants (e.g., Whole Foods, Sprouts, Green Healthy Smart Challenge, United Way) to fund school gardens, outdoor learning supplies for teachers, butterfly grow kits, seeds, etc. See our School Garden Toolkit for more. 

Leverage parent and community volunteers to help start and maintain community gardens around the school.

Subscribe to MAEOE and Green School email threads to receive monthly updates on green resources, PDs opportunities, and potential partnerships. Email green@bcps.k12.md.us to sign up. 

Incorporate journaling, art therapy, walking sessions, or meeting in green spaces to allow students to observe and reference the many metaphors nature provides in order to help them process and narrate complex feelings, emotions and experiences.  

Consider the therapeutic and relational benefits of your school’s outdoor spaces. Are there ways to incorporate the outdoors into individual and/or group meetings with students?

Conduct a nature scavenger hunt. The librarian can pull nature themed non-fiction books and see if the students can identify items from the scavenger hunt in the books...or in the outdoors. 

Create a habitat project and have the students research the components of a habitat, such as a school garden. 

Hold a nature-themed read aloud followed by an observation walk.

Have students practice reading aloud to the plants.

Track the growth rate of plants in the garden or the classroom by having students measure and record data. 

Practice creative writing by having students write descriptions of plants or animals, or craft a plant haiku. 

Illustrate the garden.

Practice computer skills by asking the students to make a presentation to teach younger students about the school grounds or garden. They can upload photos, share their observations, and experiment with fonts and colors. 

Host a team discussion. What can you do to support outdoor learning? Share this website with others on your team. 

The outdoors benefits not just students, but also staff! How can you incorporate outdoor time into your work day? 

Review the district’s sustainability goals in regards to Outdoor Learning. 

Develop a template presentation about outdoor for schools to use at the beginning of the school year.

Continue to support the Green Leader program, even as principals pay the stipend.

Identify outdoor connections in all content areas.

Assist with identifying funding to improve outdoor spaces.

Provide guidance to school leaders on outdoor learning.