The humble wooden pallet.
Such a simple object that affords so many practical uses for learning.
I received this image from Community Playthings (@community_play)

Isn’t it magnificent?
You can read about it here: www.communityplaythings.co.uk/...
It is truly awesome – but it is a ship, it will always be a ship and can really only be a ship/shipwreck/pirate ship/sunken ship etc. In terms of children feeding their innate curiosity, beyond the obvious it is limited. In my opinion.
See my other story: Curiosity killed the Cat, but…
Children should be given the resources to create their own landscape outside, so yes, give them a pile of wooden pallets – at some point they will build a ship! But they will quickly make it a rocket, car, castle, cave, prison… and so on.
It is the flexibility that creates the power.
My best observation of this was as a student in Hull, we lived in a side road which had a bollard at the end preventing car access. Opposite our house lived 2 brothers and somewhere near their friend, all aged 8-10. We called them the A-Team.
One day one of these appeared in the road, like things often did…

Image Credit: www.dealry.co.uk
The A-Team swooped!
Daily they appeared with tools, bits of wood, plastic sheeting, pallets, tyres, car seats (we thought it best not to ask where they came from) and they would transform this cart into all sorts, hence their nickname. 
They had and developed serious skills, they planned, organised, discussed what they needed to find. Over several weeks ,before the council came and cleared it, they created wonders.
This sets me thinking when schools build “A Thing”, is it too specific and as such limits the play and learning opportunity?
So, the pallet…
It can be used for so much and it lends itself to many things.

• They make excellent wall mounted hanging frames for other equipment i.e. in a Mud Kitchen.
• This image from @imaginationtree for making a portable writing surface (cheap as chips).

• Use as a great ladder for climbing up and over things. 
  

Yes, it involves children taking a risk! Good - they need too! Watch them, they might slip, they might fall, but they will learn to do it better! 

• Bolt 4 together and line it to make a raised planter/compost bin.
• Line one with garden fabric, fill it with compost and you can plant in perfectly spaced rows!
• Build something! A den, prison cell, a raft (great on a flooded playground!)
• Create a staircase or tower
• They can be piled up neatly and stuffed with leaves, sticks, canes and so on as a giant ‘Bug Hotel’
• Use the fact they are square/rectangular to form the sides of 3D shapes. 

Can you make an Octagonal Prism?


Pallets are ‘flexible’ even if not literally.


When it comes to November 5th, if you've too many or some that are past their best – your school bonfire is sorted!

I read @misssmerrill ‘s post: You’re Never Too Old and it’s autumnal ideas for learning reminded me of a blog I posted from 2008. (Yes, 2008, I blogged before it was cool!)

I've taught both in rural and urban schools and as I live in the country, near a riverside, woodland and farmland I'm still saddened to meet Y6 children in schools who've never been in woodland or seen a cow! (yes, really). Milk comes from the supermarket (I was told this all too recently by a bright 9 year old).

We need to get children outside and back in touch with nature. We take it for granted but for some children, it is something they just do not get enough of! It is liberating, thought provoking and enlightening.
​
We often bemoan the screentime children get and this was brought home to me today when a child asked me: “How did you cope before the internet?”

A response came for another child before I had the chance to reply, “He probably went outside.” This was met by hilarity, as though leaving the house to play was the maddest idea ever.
​
These children have a gorgeous rural setting, look…

View from the my Staffroom.

Many years ago, in the dim and distant past, I would take an annual school visit to a village in the country, which was a new experience for many at the time being city dwellers. From where we based ourselves we were 5 minutes’ walk to woodland, 10 seconds to a field and 5 minutes to the river. "Wow! I've never been in a forest!" exclaimed *Kathy*, Y5, and it was only a small woodland but she was in another world.

The farmer took children around the farm yard to see crops, both growing and harvested, the machinery and animals. They were always fascinated and talked about it for ages afterwards, it is such a positive experience for them. Not least watching the sizable bull stare them down… in their bright red sweatshirts!

Every year the trip was successful, every year the children and parents thanked me and every year I tried to do it again.
It’s important for children to reconnect with nature, which is why I want to launch a “Bring Back the Nature Table” campaign.

I want to see one in every primary school and for children and adults alike to start investigating the amazing things nature shares with us – every season has its joys, but where better to start than Autumn?

So, come on leaf gatherers, cloud sculptors, fungi finders, feather fetchers and photo takers. Pine cone hunters and bark bringers unite and ignite the flame of natural curiosity under your children from 5-18! 
​
Use every media, from the real object to the recorded to inspire... it was my Nan who taught me to love a cloud sculpture!

I confess that I'm not the most tech-experienced, but I'm getting more opportunities to up-skill myself. I'm going to share some apps that I've used when working with children outside. 

The main premise of working with children outside is to reconnect them with nature and limit the screen-time they get, but it's impossible to get away from the great apps/features of an iPad that lend themselves to when you step outside the classroom

iMovie (Free with eligible hardware)
Lots of application for recording/editing videos taken during outdoor explorations. Perhaps most powerful when back in the classroom. Musical trailer to represent a PE Lesson or developing a full scale 30-60 second evaluation of the school's environmental practices.

Pic Collage (FREE)
Other apps are available, like Moldiv, but I think PicCollage gives simple templates to collect and share photos from the children's adventures in turning over stones/logs and sharing the images taken during the woodland walk or school visit.

Flipagram (FREE)
Use this to create short picture montages after performances and educational visits. Children can quickly create videos for sharing on social media or the school website.

PhotoBooth (Built In)
I'm a fan of all the image distortions on this app. I've let the children in EYS/KS1 go on a walk watching through the 'Thermal' view. "It's really like another world!" John (5)
Taking photographs through the filter, can then lead to some wonderful Warhol-esque artwork.

Voice Notes & Notes (Built In)
Record thoughts, observations, vocabulary, actions for use in writing later. Record shapes in the environment, using text or sound for younger or SEND children.

I-Beam Mag. Glass (FREE)
Great free app with infinite zoom. Fantastic for up-close photographs of leaves, bark, soil samples and mini-beasts.

Tim O's Compass (FREE)
Send the children on a treasure hunt like real pirates following the map. Develop awareness of direction.

Clock (Built In)
Use the clock, stopwatch or timer. I set it running as the children go out and then they know precisely when they should be back!

Calculator (Built In)
Work out maths problems while out and about!

Eco Explorer (FREE)
Designed by a Science Leader Steven Lewis-Neill, the app has 100s of web based activities and tasks for KS1/2 Sc2 Topics - easy login for children and will track their progress

Warblr (iPhone app) £3.99
Great app at a reasonable price - the microphone identifies bird songs and brings up a fact-file on the bird it picks up. Makes for a great survey of wildlife, outside of insects/bugs!

Birds of Britain Pro (Lite Version FREE / Pro Version £2.29)
Similar to Warblr, but fact-files on birds and sound files of songs. Free version has 30 birds, Pro version has 199 birds. I like the quality of the information texts on the go.

BBC Weather (FREE)
Using the app to develop the children's awareness of the symbols and make predictions of the weather over time, can be used in conjunction with cloud identification apps (Cloud Types £0.79 or Coton £1.49).

So here we are guys and gals, it's almost here. The new year beckons and teachers are trying to reset their collective body clocks, shake of the cobwebs and fire up the work laptops. You might be starting a new year, class, age group, school or role but what remains the same is getting the children back in the right mindset, enthused and engaged in the excitement and challenges ahead.

The weather is usually reasonable in early September and hopefully your pupils will be all still full of having spent the Summer, damming rivers, climbing trees, digging for treasure and sword fighting with sticks (even if it was only on MineCraft!)

Here are 5 ways you might take children outside to find out a little more about them and what they can do, as always not trying to be clever. Find your limits if you aren't a regular goer outside, but what children do and how they behave when you take away the walls will tell you a lot about them.

1. Playlets
Give them some sticks, leaves, litter, stones and stumps (perhaps a few puppets if you are inclined) and give them a scene or story title to improvise. writingexercises.co.uk/story-t... It's fun and can be challenging. 
Getting children to collaborate. Tell them they can include any props they can find.

2. Read stories and poems
Just take it out of the classroom, perhaps most common thing done outside. 
Reading poems about nature under trees and sitting on a tree stump can help generate powerful language. Obvious really. Write a poem, line or verse in the soil perhaps - will it be there tomorrow? 
Hang them on the fence or over the wall, passers by might read them.

3. Alphabets
A great one for EYFS/KS1 especially, but I've found that KS2 enjoy the challenge too. Make the alphabet from what they can find. Size doesn't matter but creative thought does. 
Take photographs and print a fabulous natural alphabet for the classroom. 
It looks good and it is theirs.

4. Place Value and Numbers
Draw boxes on the playground and use as PV grids. 
Use any small manipulatives, shells, stones, beads etc to fill the boxes, making numbers. 
Children can see the quantity in the box and how it has a position, then you can add another above or below and create moving calculations. 
Children will have that physical connection and see how the number combine and begin to deal with the principles of exchange when there is more than 10(0) - now what?

5. Go and plant something
On the first day. 
Go and plant something. 
Suggestions could be Garlic, Lamb's Lettuce or if you want a year's project, Delphiniums will flower in Summer. 
What a lovely way to close the year, with the flowers planted on Day 1. 
Dependent on your green fingeredness! 
The masses of learning potential from growing flowers, fruit and veg is enormous.

But you knew that!

Comment more ideas you have for 'Starting Outside'.

They say curiosity killed the cat, but I am at least thankful the cat had a look... 
Children need to have a look. Grab it. Squeeze it (unless it is a cat, they don't like it!)

I want a child to develop a lively and inquiring mind - so how can we encourage curiosity?

Curiosity is…
“in the small moments of discovery that big dreams are born. When little fingers are buried in the earth, an archaeologist has made his first dig. When curious eyes peer at stars through a paper-towel roll, an astronaut has made her first spacewalk. When chubby hands wrap a washcloth cast around a cat’s tail, a doctor has healed their first patient… Let the children play. Our future depends on it.” L R Knost

Do you have things to make children curious?

I don’t mean Challenge Based Learning/Games Based Learning/Mantle of the Expert and so on. All of these approaches have various benefits and like any system or approach to teaching and learning can work well and help children to succeed academically, socially and personally.

I mean ‘Curious’.
Puzzled, Perplexed, Inquisitive, Intrigued, Eager… [Insert thesaurus link here…]
I mean getting a genuine WTF?! Moment. (Perhaps not literally, but most certainly figuratively!)

Sometimes, I like to give children a ‘thing’.

Ø  A Bird’s Nest
Ø  A Skull
Ø  A Plant/Cactus/Leaf
Ø  A Piece of Wood/Bark
Ø  A Deer Antler
Ø  A Unusual Artefact

Anything which I think will spark a little interest from the children.

Children are inherently curious creatures! 

This goes without saying, but I have sometimes met children who aren’t. They just want to be told the answer, the explanation, they aren’t seeking the answer themselves. I worry that some times the answer is “Google it”. As though the internet has become to children (as adults – Guilty Your Honour!) the sole, all-encompassing fountain of all the required knowledge and understanding available. I recently taught a child (11) who referred to himself as a ‘Wikispert’ – he had everything he needed to know on WikiPedia – now that is scary! 

Although I was impressed with his noun creation.

When presented with a ‘Curiosity’, children’s discussion can be very powerful indeed.

Towards the end of some work on Teeth, I showed the children (Y2) a Skull (it was a Sheep). 
I asked them 1 question and 1 question only, the rest came from them.

My question: “What is it?”

Discussion grew organically and followed a sequence including all these responses, talking to each other, not me …

• It’s fake
  
• Definitely not real
  
• It’s a skull
  
• Not a human one
  
• It’s got teeth
  
• They’re big teeth
  
• They’re big, flat Teeth
  
• They’re Molars
  
• No canines though
  
• It’s from a Herbivore
  
• A what?
  
• A herbivore only eats plants
  
• Is it a Goat?
  
• Or a Sheep?
  
• It’s too small for a Cow or a Horse
  
• My dog has sharp teeth
  
• So does my cat, it’s teeth are REALLY sharp
  
• Yes, they are the canine ones, for gripping
  
• Dogs aren’t herbivores
  
• No, they eat meat
  
• A dog is a Carnivore, like a Lion or a Crocodile
  
• What does a dog’s skull look like?
  
• I bet it is different to this one….

                                                         And off they went!

The vocabulary they used, understood, shared and modeled together then led to some purposeful research, done both online and in the library just outside the classroom. The written and Art that was produced was excellent and was scientific in nature and saw the children applying the language that had been used in discussion.
                                                                                               (On a small aside – The OfSted Inspector at the back liked it too!)

I only asked 1 question, 3 words, 8 letters…

The rest came from curiosity.

We had the initial “Ewwwww!”, “Gross!”, and an internal “WTF?!”
They could then draw upon and apply knowledge and understanding and use it to build more.

Getting children to investigate and utilise that inherent curiosity they have in spades is important, the guidance is important too.

Remember the Nature Table?
I do – so many fond memories.
I find they aren’t as common as they used to be. What with Health & Safety, cleanliness and other such protocols – all of which have such valuable learning and experience value for young children, have limited its use.

Bring it back I say!
Either that or a ‘Curiosity Table’.
Something that could easily be changed for different themes and topics, gives the children time and opportunity to work out objects origins, uses, materials, ages etc.

They can question, practice and investigate. They can get it wrong and try again.

Sticks, tools, rocks, fossils, bones, egg shells, flowers, historical artefacts, nests, feathers, crops, various leaves…
Anything that allows you to start with “What is it?”

The simplest and one of the most powerful questions you can ask!
Second only to “Why?”

And aren’t these the 2 questions that children ask the most?

Let’s ask them instead!

I have transferred this post from an old blog post from July 10, 2008

I arranged a Maths Week in school, which was well received by all and thought I’d share.

I based it around the ideas in this document which might be useful if you are doing or planning to do the same.

Document Updated for download (June 2015)

Please leave any further ideas you might have as comments.
I would love to build up a bank of ideas for future years to make it bigger and better!

I also created a Maths Trail around the local church which the children really enjoyed:

Here are some ideas for Maths Trails for different age groups:

The end of the Easter break, the sun is out and even though Outdoor Learning can and does take place all year round, whatever the weather, this is the time when the more reluctant teacher ventures out of the classroom. 
I’ve been there, we all have.

When the sun shines everyone is more inclined to go outside. It is natural. I like to try and do it in cold, wind, snow, rain, fog - every weather type has its benefits and challenges and they each lend themselves to different learning experiences... be it writing letters home from the trenches with freezing fingers leaning on wet grass or if you are lucky, a friend's back. You might be surveying minibeasts and sampling different plant types on the field in light drizzle or building grass igloos in the bright summer sun!

The summer term is a term that comes with many pressures on top of those that come as standard. Testing and the Leavers' Show (Y6 teachers, you know it, right?) are just two, Y6 Prom (if you are that way inclined), residential trips (though not always). Summer is busy!

This post was inspired by a colleague who asked me what basic resources I thought should be on hand for use outside. 
Good question.

They wanted simple ideas to build on what they had already and so they could start collecting.
I went away and had a think...

This is a list of the resources I think are the easy difference makers.
They are all easy to find and source. They are relatively Low cost and High Impact. 

I wanted to include items on the list that could easily be used with children of any age (EYFS to KS2), for a diverse variety of learning experiences in different curriculum areas.

It is not a perfect or complete list. I would encourage reflection and discussion. 

I wanted to do a Top 10, but ended up with a top 27, I pared down and combined and ended up settling myself on a Top 12. Close enough!

I selected each item because they have a variety of uses and applications. 
Use your imagination. 
I am simply not going to patronise anyone reading with a suggestion list.

After I first published this list on my website I recieved feedback - I was glad of it.@SollyKathryn suggested: 

Tarpaulin to make a shelter or den or to sit on, Gutters and pipe, Water carrier, Light weight short ladder, fir cones, conkers, leaves etc.

I couldn't agree more - most were on my long list, but were combined or switched in favour of others.

I also had a long Learning Outside the Classroom brainstorm session via Twitter with@MissSMerrill, it was the sort of chat I need to go back and read again - Everything from Making Charcoal, books and growing plants to make dyes... Great stuff.

If you can do it inside, you can probably do it outside too... Bring the Outside In.

No one is in any doubt that education is important, no one is in any doubt that sometimes things need to be changed to be improved; it is the nature of all things, but what I want to know is why does Education (that really important thing!) get used as a political pawn in every government, pushed into the forefront of the battle without any true protection?

I have never professed to be the most clued up on politics. It bores me. 

I'm sorry, it does. 

As an employed, middle class man with a reasonable wage. Tax, welfare, and health have little impact on my daily life. Austerity? I can't say I've really noticed to be honest, neither have most people I associate with. No matter what colour you support I find it hard to see how there will be anything different happen. (Just my personal opinion.)

It seems to me that education is an excellent distraction device, it is something everyone can relate to. Everyone had it, they may have liked it or not. Done well or not. Lots of people think they know about it, even if they are the ones saying, "When I was at school..." and people have children who are at school, so it affects them directly. 

"Is little Cynthia happy?"

"Is Algenon going to achieve Level 5 in Maths?"

"I hope that Lucius passes his Y1 Phonics check."

"Am I sure that this homework is sufficiently challenging for Sacharissa?"

It gets people over excited, like this:

And when they get excited they forget other things...

Mr Gove was a Master of this distraction - he upset people, that was his job, because while he upset people and made his insane, self serving changes, filling up column inches, Twitter, Blogs and news time. People were distracted.

It is a masquerade, they are not thinking of the children, they are preventing us from thinking about other things. While the press demolish the teaching profession further as lazy, complaining loafers with long holidays and tell the rest of the nation how teachers are stuck in the past and unwilling to change and progress. They aren't having to talk about how the 'Bankers' (remember them?) are still getting HUGE bonuses and how politicians can fill a room to discuss their pay rise but no one turns up to discuss welfare reform or child abuse inquiries...

​(IMAGE REMOVED)

Education is important.It is what we do because we love it. As teachers it is a vocation which draws us in and we let it take over our lives a little bit, because we want it to.

But don't get distracted by curriculum, assessment, testing reforms. Free Schools and qualifications are not the focus.

"Will somebody, please, think of the children?!"

Yes, we will. 

The Teachers.

Professional and Dedicated.

@headguruteacher Tom Sherrington puts it best: