Exploration Trail - Outdoor Workshop
As part of my educational background and a key focus on the Outdoors and Outdoor Learning, I have been lucky enough to run several outdoor workshops for schools, adults and other education providers.
My most recent workshop highlighted to others the significant potential and possibilities of taking learning into the outdoors, and this activity was designed around an idea I had. It is an activity that I would like to share with others so that they might be inspired by it and hopefully do something similar in their outdoor setting.
It is interesting, active and thought-provoking. It is an activity that can be easily implemented in the outdoors or adapted to suit the group's needs in another location.
Your Target Group
When delivering this activity to my target group, I aimed the workshop towards a group of teachers looking to utilise their outdoor learning space with a fun activity suitable for all primary aged children to take part in.
This task focused on a simple idea whereby the children would explore their surroundings by following an exploration trail. That would weave its way around a designated area. Within the specific trial was a series of learning stations whereby the participants would naturally follow the route and were then asked to stop and carry out an assigned activity, all preplanned and written on task cards.
All of the activities were fun, active and involved some degree of practical thought. They would also build on key skills and specific areas of learning.
Using the exploration trail within a school context and something similar wherever possible. It is crucial to link all of the activities to an existing curriculum. From my own experience, I feel that all types of curriculums will work. You might need to tweak it a little to suit your needs as a teacher or the curriculum itself.
Within an out of school context, like an after school club, you can easily adapt the learning stations to suit the group members who will be participating. So much so, if the group was formed of young adults or even adults themselves, you can easily change and make the activities more complex or increase the need for a higher level of skill and resilience.
You can start the activity pretty much anywhere, and all you will need is a suitably sized outdoor space for you to enjoy the exploration trail. The area I used was actually pretty confined, so I tried to make good use of the space I had at my disposal. In the end, I did have enough space to implement the tasks with ease, and the group did not feel restricted at all.
Once all of the equipment is set out and the trail set up, the group decides where the trail starts and ends. Principally, it is an activity that encourages learners to use their senses and naturally build on what they find out around them through discovery or play.
The group will then need to travel from one station to the next from a chosen starting point. Once they arrive at a station, each group will then complete an activity highlighted on a card. It is important to explain that the activity can be adapted in many different ways. To adapt the activities will mean you will need to change some of the elements according to the age of the group or the group individual needs. You can also focus most of your activities to involve one or two particular senses; that way, the tasks can become easy or difficult according to what you want. The possibilities are pretty endless.
In principle, why not try to include the following in your trail design:
Physical activity - that actually involves doing something.
A sensory activity.
A maths problem - to be modelled and solved using natural materials.
An activity relating to language.
Using natural materials to produce something Arty.
Writing tasks (that can be followed up in class)
Plenty of Kudos for completing the task.
By adding some if not all of these elements above, you will be soon creating a fun activity whereby all participants will begin to learn and develop a new set of key skills through a variety of different mediums.
Of course, the areas listed above are only some of my suggestions; with your enthusiasm for this activity, you can easily develop it and begin to take it any way you like. Overarchingly it is vitally important to have fun with this type of activity and try to make the most of the opportunities to be outside and active within your own unique style and learning approach.
Please click on the link here or the picture below to obtain this activity, where you will download it from my online shop.
Click here to download resources.
More Information
Suppose you would like more information about Outdoor Learning activities and want more resources to use. You can utilise my online shop and download many of the free resources I have available on there.
Alternatively, if you require more information on Outdoor Learning or are interested in developing fully functioning Forest Schools, I am more than happy to help. Please email hello@garethmate.com for more information or look at the appropriate pages on this website.