Get Outside!
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Regular and frequent time outdoors is beneficial for emotional, mental, and physical health, as well as for creativity, learning, and child development. In this activity, students will examine the physical and emotional effects of a task done outdoors versus indoors. They will design, plan, and carry out an investigation comparing the two settings, and analyze their results.
Objectives
Students will
- Investigate the psychological and physical effects of working or playing outside compared with inside.
- Identify possible benefits of working and playing outside.
- Participate in an outdoor activity.
For the complete activity and more like this, purchase the Explore Your Environment: K-8 Activity Guide at Shop.PLT.org and/or attend a professional development training in your state.
Explore Your Environment: K-8 Activity Guide is a supplementary curriculum that is multi-disciplinary, with an emphasis on science, reading, writing, mathematics, and social studies.
Each activity displays explicit connections to practices and concepts expected by the following national academic standards so teachers can easily see where the materials will fit into their lesson plans:
- Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
- Common Core Toolkit, includes
- English Language Arts (CCSS.ELA)
- Mathematics (CCSS.MATH)
- College, Career, and Civic Life Framework for Social Studies (C3)
Our professional development further demonstrates these connections, as well as to state and local standards, contact your state coordinator.
STEM: Get Outside
Use your senses to investigate nearby environments. These enrichments for a new PLT activity, Get Outside!, model the practices of a real scientist by collecting and analyzing data and applying comparison and reflection skills to interpret research findings.
Fatima’s Great Outdoors
Fatima’s Great Outdoors Grades 3-5 Written by: Ambreen Tariq Illustrated by: Stevie Lewis Published by: Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2021 ISBN-13: 978-1984816955 Recommended Reading Do you remember your first ever camping trip? Are you still planning it? Fatima’s Great Outdoors follows the story of Fatima and the Khazi family, comprised of... Read more »
EE Resources
Sounds of Your Park
Listening to the sounds of nature has been shown to have many health benefits. Listen remotely to sound recordings from officially protected places from around the world. The Sounds of Your Park initiative is a continuously growing collection of sounds intended to celebrate the acoustical beauty and diversity of the world’s national parks and other protected... Read more »
#NatureForAll Trivia Game
The #NatureForAll Trivia Game tests your knowledge on parks and protected areas from around the world with this fun, interactive quiz. Topics include biodiversity, conservation heroes, current events and geography.
Healthy Trees, Healthy Lives
Healthy Trees, Healthy Lives is an interactive poster to learn about the many physical and mental health benefits trees provide in urban areas. Students can also read about how urban forests can improve our physical and mental health and promote healing.
Podcast: Keys to Forest Therapy
“Keys to Forest Therapy.” Trees Are Key, Episode 263. In this 14-minute podcast, a certified nature therapist discusses the connection between trees, nature, and people and explains how being in a natural environment, like a forest, is good for mental and physical well-being. Geared for adults, Trees Are Key is a series of over 300... Read more »
Five Ways to Make the Outdoors More Inclusive
Discover ways to help make our outdoor spaces, state and national parks more inclusive with these five ideas and action steps from outdoors experts and activists. According to the most recent National Parks Service survey, about more than 70 percent of those who visit or work in federal parks are white. Moreover, the outdoors industry workforce lacks... Read more »
Find Nearby Trails and Parks
AllTrails is a free app that helps users discover the outdoors. Use it to find a hiking path suitable for children, to search for local places to bike or fish, or to plan a national park visit.
Tips for Taking Students Outside
Friends of the Prairie Wetlands Learning Center has put together some short, simple, and practical recommendations to help effectively incorporate use of an outdoor classroom. Suggestions include finding an experienced mentor, scheduling a set time for taking students outdoors, and examining learning standards to see what are best taught outside.
Into the Outdoors – Forest Ecology
Into the Outdoors is an Emmy award-winning TV show with an emphasis on science education for middle school-aged students. The show’s new website, intotheoutdoors.org, provides free videos and other resource links on many environmental topics to make outdoor learning exciting and fun. While there are many exciting topics to choose from (such as sustainable forestry,... Read more »
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