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Teaching science in elementary school is crucial for nurturing young minds, but as educators, finding the time and resources to create engaging lessons can be a challenge. That's where this podcast comes in. Welcome to Naturally Teaching Elementary Science. The show dedicated to supporting elementary teachers in their quest to bring authentic and place-based science experiences to their classroom. I'm Victoria Zablocki, a certified elementary teacher turned outdoor educator with over a decade of experience coaching teachers on effective science teaching methods. I'm passionate about making science accessible, understandable and fun for educators and students alike. Join me as we explore strategies for teaching science in elementary school with practical teaching tips, insightful interviews, picture book reviews and more. Whether you've taught for a long time or just started your teaching journey, this podcast is your trusty resource for enhancing your science curriculum. So let's grow together.

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Hey everybody, welcome back to the Naturally Teaching Elementary Science podcast. My name is Victoria Zablocki and I'm your host. And now that we're back into August, many schools are starting to return for the fall. And if you're one of those teachers that's getting back into the school mindset, I have five activities to help you practice your outdoor classroom routines and procedures the first week you decide to take your students outside. Just like with inside, where you have your routines and procedures that your students will follow throughout the year, you're going to also have outdoor classroom routines and procedures that they will follow, and the best way to get them off on the right foot is to practice those routines and procedures in fun and engaging ways.

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So I've developed five engaging activities that are purposeful for helping you practice those routines and procedures while you're learning outside. Before we get into those activities, though, remember, it's important to pre-plan how you want your students to interact during their outdoor learning time. So if you haven't listened to episode two, "Outdoor Learning Environment: 3 Things to Plan for Back to School", I suggest going back and listening to that one, because that gets you into the mindset of how you want your students to interact with outdoor learning time. So things that I mentioned in that episode are going to the bathroom before your students get ready to go outside; figuring out where you want your students to line up when they're ready to go outside. Where will your meeting location outside be? How will your students get there? Will they walk in a line? Will they run ahead of you? What are the rules that you consider for your outdoor learning time? All of these pieces are covered in episode two, and they'll help you plan before you actually make your way outside. That way, both you and your students are set up for success. Something else to note is that you want to make sure that each time you go outside, you practice these outdoor classroom routines and procedures just like you do inside. So the first couple weeks inside are very heavy on that, every single day, you remind them, you put your completed work in this bin, and you line up at the door when we are ready to go to specials... You're going to do the same things in your outdoor classrooms to make sure that they understand the expectations and that they also get practice with these expectations. It's going to take time each year is different. Each child has experienced different things, so it's important to get everybody on the same page with practice.

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So these five activities that I'm going to describe can also be used to remind your students of the routines and procedures after prolonged breaks, such as your winter break and your spring break, because as we all know, it's always good to use familiar and fun activities to get your students back into the swing of things after a long absence, because even though it's only a week, they often forget, and we need to remind them. So another thing to keep in mind is that the first week that you go outside your lessons will probably be shorter than what you expect to experience later in the year, you'll want to start out with shorter outdoor lessons that focus on practicing your routines and procedures and then gradually elongate your time outside as students get the hang of your expectations. Also, it'll take you longer at the beginning of the school year to get everyone used to going to the bathroom, getting dressed, to go outside, and lining up when they're ready. And as they get used to these routines and procedures, you'll gradually be able to add that prep time that you don't need anymore to your outdoor lessons. So don't put too much pressure on yourself thinking, "Oh, I wanted to have 30 minutes for outdoor learning time." It might start as 20, but it takes 10 minutes to get ready. So as the time goes on and they've had those opportunities to practice, they'll become quicker at getting ready, and then you can take that time and add it into your lessons. So I'm going to start explaining these five activities in a more structured schedule, and then they'll gradually release to unstructured activities by the end of the week, like this isn't for everyone, so if you are somebody who likes to start with unstructured activities and move your way into more structured, hang on until the end of the episode, and I'll come back around to a schedule that starts unstructured and then gradually moves into structured activities. But with most of the teachers I've worked with, they like to start structured and then slowly release the reins a little bit more for the unstructured activities. So we're going to start that way.

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So day one, and activity one, is to go and do a read aloud. So you could read a book like We're Going for a Nature Hunt, by Steve Metzger. And I like this book personally, because it gets your students really excited to go out into nature. The kids are walking around and they're discovering things. It encourages exploration, which you'll use with your outdoor learning experiences. And it's repetitive, so the kids catch on pretty quick. It's similar to going on a bear hunt, and they'll sing along with it, and they'll get really excited. It also encourages students to respect nature and keep it safe. At one point, they come across a bunch of wildflowers, and it says, "but don't pick them". And they also dig up a worm, and they remind them to keep the worms safe. So those things are also good, because they might relate to your rules that you've decided to use in your outdoor classroom. But with this activity, you're going to practice your routines and procedures by starting with going to the bathroom before they go outside. Practice, getting ready to go outside by getting on whatever gear or whatever clothing they might need. You're going to practice getting to your meeting location, and then you're going to practice sitting together for your read aloud. So it's four easy steps: go to the bathroom before going outside, get ready to go outside, get to your meeting location and sit together for a read aloud. So it's pretty standard and straightforward and similar to what they'll be experiencing inside. So it's a pretty easy bridge to go from inside to outside, because it's an activity they're familiar with.

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Day two, and activity two, is to actually go for a nature hike, which, again, is another reason I like to use that book. Because as you go throughout your school year, if you use the workshop model like I described in Episode 11, you could start with reading a book for the mini lesson, and then go for a hike based on the book for the exploration part or the practice part of the lesson. So if you read going for a nature hike as your book on Monday or the first day, then you could actually go for a nature hike on the second day, where they're looking for similar things that they found in the book, or other exciting things that they find in nature for this activity, the routines and procedures that you'll use in practice are again, going to the bathroom before going outside. They'll practice getting ready to go outside. They'll practice getting to your meeting location. They'll practice sitting for your read aloud; if you choose to reread the book, you don't have to. And then, because you'll be moving from that space to a new space, it's a good time to introduce your rules and expectations, so you go over those in this lesson, and then you practice going for a guided nature hike by walking together, either in a line or a blob. But it's an experience that the whole class is having together.

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Day three, and activity three, is to do an outdoor scavenger hunt. So this lesson is kind of a bridge between structured and unstructured, because it's part exploration, but then it's also part activity, right? So it'll give your students a focus, which is the scavenger hunt, but it also gives them the freedom to move around the space at their own pace and on their own terms. So for this activity, you're going to again be practicing going to the bathroom before going outside. Practice getting ready to go outside. Practice getting to their meeting spot. Again, you'll go over your outdoor learning rules and expectations, and then this will be the first time that you're going to introduce your exploration boundaries. So you're going to walk together around your space, the space that you've decided on before you've come outside, and you're going to point out the exploration boundaries. And if you listened to episode two, I've given suggestions for using natural boundaries, such as downed logs, wood chip boundaries, fences... I've even had teachers who have put ribbons on tall trees so that way they can visually see where their corners are in the exploration space. But walk together around that space, pointing out all of the boundaries, so that your students know where they're allowed to explore. And again, if you listen to episode two, you want to make sure you pre-walk this space so that you know that it's safe. There are some things to look out for, and I cover that in episode two. So you're going to practice exploring inside those boundaries by using a scavenger hunt. And again, remember that scavenger hunt gives them a focus, but it also provides them the opportunity to explore the space and to get used to those boundaries that they will use later in the year. If you don't happen to have a scavenger hunt or you're on the lookout for a new one, I have several scavenger hunts in my Teachers Pay Teachers store, and one of my favorites is the Four Season Scavenger Hunt Bundle for Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer. And you can use it at the beginning of each of the seasons, and it's a good reminder of the changes of the seasons, the ebb and flow of plants and animals, and it's a lot of fun for the kiddos. So you can check that out. I'll also put a link for them in the show notes. A new routine and procedure that you'll add to this activity is practicing calling your students back to you with your attention getter. So again, in episode two, I introduced the idea of having an attention getter that can bring your students back to you. And so while they're doing their scavenger hunt, you can go around and you can check in on everybody, but then when you're ready to call everyone back now, you practice using that attention getter to get all of them to come back to you, which will be really important throughout the rest of the school year.

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Day four, and activity four, is simply exploration. So for the exploration lesson, I suggest not having a structured activity like the scavenger hunt, so that your students can get the feel for the space and see how learning can come in a less structured way. Sometimes it's beneficial to offer them the opportunity to explore and to practice a skill without having a piece of paper or without having to record or without having to play a game. So sometimes it's nice to just explore. So by now they've had three days to practice your routines and procedures, and so now you're giving them that opportunity to practice exploration and the least structured activity so far. So if you really feel like you need to give them a prompt or something, you could say, "Our schoolyard has animals that live in it. It's your job to go around our exploration space and find evidence of those animals." This, again, is giving them a focus, but without giving them that physical responsibility for doing something. They can share with a friend if they want to, but they don't have to record or report back to you if they don't want to. And then that also gives them that opportunity to have responsibility for their body and the space that you've provided for exploration. So again, for this activity, they're going to practice going to the bathroom before going outside. They'll practice getting ready to go outside; they should be getting quicker because they've been doing this. This is day four. They're going to practice getting to your meeting location. And even though this is day four, they will probably need to practice this throughout the whole year. If you don't want them running ahead of you, you'll have to remind them every day. Or if you're okay with them running ahead, you need to remind them that when they get to your meeting spot, that they stay there and wait. So this will be something that you'll work on throughout the whole year, but it's worth it. When you get to your meeting spot, you're going to go over your outdoor learning rules and expectations, including how you'll call them back to you. This is something that you also will have to repeat throughout the entire school year. I suggest repeating and practicing this every single time you go outside. You're going to walk together around your space and have them point out the exploration boundaries that'll show that they were paying attention the day before, and it'll also put the responsibility on them. So if they go outside those boundaries, you can remind them, "Hey, you said that log was part of the boundaries, are you pass those boundaries? Yep, okay, we need to come back in." It'll give them the opportunity to practice exploring inside those boundaries again, and then also practice calling your students back to you with your attention getter. And I suggest this time to do it multiple times. So if you use the prompt that I said earlier, "Our schoolyard has animals that live in it. It's your job to go around our exploration space and find evidence of the animals." When a student shares with you something very interesting that they found, like a chewed leaf or a chrysalis hanging from a tree, use your attention getter to bring all of your students back to you and to that student so that they can share, then let them go explore some more. And then when someone new shares something, use your attention getter, have them come back. That will give them the opportunity to practice multiple times, and it won't seem to them like they're practicing. It'll just seem like they're finding really cool stuff, but it's actually giving them multiple opportunities to practice the skills so that throughout the rest of the school year they're familiar with that call and what it means.

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Day five, and activity five, is to play a simple game, and even though this is more structured than the exploration opportunity, the reason I want to use this one as your last activity for the week is because you'll likely be using a new space. So they got two days to practice exploring in one location. Now you could take them to a second location and have them practice using a new space. So for this activity, the routines and procedures that you'll use are practice going to the bathroom before going outside. Practice getting ready to go outside. Practice getting your meeting location, which, again, you'll be practicing that all year long. Going over your outdoor learning rules and expectations, which you will do all year long as well. And then you're going to walk together around a new space that's open, like a field or a meadow, and then pointing out game boundaries. Like I said, they have had an opportunity to use your regular exploration space. Now they're going to be taking the same sorts of expectations and using them in a new space. So then you could play a simple game such as season tag. And that's a game that I developed to teach how the seasons are made. And it can be found in my article, "A Helpful Guide to Teaching the Season Transition to Winter." And even though it's part of the article about winter, it can be played any time of the year. I just featured it in my winter season article because I wanted a different way of introducing the seasons in each of my different articles; this one happened to be in the winter. And then once you've finished your game, you can call them all back with your attention getter again, using that to be able to practice for the rest of the year.

16:03

So as promised, after explaining all five of the activities, I wanted to give you a schedule that would follow that unstructured to structured schedule. So if you wanted to do that, where your activity started as less structured and became more structured, I would suggest starting with exploration of the space. So again, giving them that opportunity to go to your regularly used exploration space, and they learn the boundaries and all of that, but then they get to go through and explore without having an activity. Then I would suggest the second day to do an outdoor scavenger hunt, because again, they're getting to use that exploration, but they're going to have a little more of a focus, because they've got that scavenger hunt sitting and waiting for them to be able to find different pieces from it. Then I would suggest playing a simple game. I would play a simple game after you've had the opportunity to introduce a familiar exploration space so that they can take those rules and those expectations again and apply them to a new space that you may not use quite as much. So on day four, you could read a book like We're Going on a Nature Hunt, and I would do this on day four, because that could inform which activity you do for day five, which if you read We're Going on a Nature Hunt. Then on day five, you could go for a nature hike.

17:18

And this is kind of a bonus; but another option for an activity, if you wanted to sub out one of these other activities that I've already mentioned, would be to science notebook outside. So you could do this activity in lieu of one of the exploration activities if you'd like, or you could have it as part of another partially structured activity. But if you did this, it would provide the opportunity for your students to practice going to the bathroom before going outside. Practice getting ready to go outside. Practice getting to your meeting location, going over your outdoor learning rules and expectations. And then it would also let you walk around your space and point out the exploration boundaries. And then they can practice exploring those boundaries by finding a spot to sit with their notebooks and drawing evidence of animals that they found. And then you can also use your attention getter to call them back, and that will give them practice for that as well.

18:14

So in a nutshell, we talked about thinking through what your outdoor classroom routines and procedures would be. And then also five, kind of six different activities to practice those routines and procedures the first week you take your students outside, this may or may not be the first week of school. You may decide to do a week or two of inside routines and procedures and then add in outdoor routines and procedures, or you could do it within the first week of school too, but this is designed to help you with the first week you decide to take your students outside whenever that may be. And don't forget that if you'd like some guidance in developing your routines and procedures, that you can go back to episode two of this podcast to get some ideas. Also, if you're considering using a scavenger hunt as one of your first outdoor activities. I have a variety of options in my teachers, Pay Teachers store, including the Four Season Scavenger Hunt Bundle for Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer, the Weather Scavenger Hunt, the Pollination Scavenger Hunt, the Living and Non Living scavenger hunt and more. So thanks for taking time to listen today. I know you're busy, and I truly appreciate the time you take to tune in. If you have any questions, wonderings or routines and procedures that you use, get a hold of me on Instagram at naturally.teaching, or you can email me at Victoria@naturallyteaching.com. Thanks again for joining me today and until next time, keep exploring, keep learning and keep naturally teaching.

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Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode of the Naturally Teaching Elementary Science podcast. I hope you found it informative, inspiring and full of actionable insights to enhance your science teaching journey. Connect with me on social media for more updates, science tidbits and additional resources you can find. Join me on Instagram and Facebook at naturally.teaching. Let's continue the conversation and share our passion for elementary science education together. Don't forget to visit my website naturallyteaching.com for all the show notes from today's episode. If you enjoyed today's episode, please consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps me improve and reach more educators just like you. Thank you again for listening and until next time, keep exploring, keep learning and keep naturally teaching you.