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.

[1:04]

All right, everybody, welcome back to the Naturally Teaching Elementary Science podcast. My name is Victoria Zablocki and I'm your host. So I wanna ask, does this sound like you?

After researching the benefits of outdoor education, you finally decided to give it a try, but then you go to start lesson planning and you don't know what to do. Sure, the idea sounds great, but you haven't seen it in action before, so you don't know where to start. During my time coaching teachers at the nature center, this happened to almost every single one of the teachers that I worked with.

This isn't how most of us were trained in college and it usually isn't covered with our mentor teachers the first year of teaching. It's a hurdle that's hard to get over. But that's part of why I started this podcast, to help give you the support, so that you can jump these hurdles and give your students authentic place-based learning opportunities.

My plan today is to share a variety of types of children's outdoor activities and games. By varying the activity types that you plan throughout your curriculum, you'll reach more types of learners; you can practice a larger variety of science skills; uou'll provide more memorable experiences that your students will learn from at a greater depth than traditional indoor activities; and you'll feel more in tune with your students and their understanding.

[2:26]

So the first type of activity that I wanted to talk about was a group meeting or a whole group meeting. So having a group meeting at the beginning of each of your outdoor lessons is usually a good idea, especially if you're teaching early childhood learners. These meetings give you a chance to introduce the concept for the day, and it gives you space to provide your students' directions. If you can swing it, try to use the same meeting spot for these group meetings so that it's predictable and comfortable for your students.

Some examples of activities you can do in your group meeting include things like reading a related picture book, and if you've listened to my podcast, you know that I love a good picture book. You could show models of the day's concept, so like looking at pictures or 3D examples of a butterfly life cycle before you actually go into nature and look for those life cycles in your green space. If you have objects to pass around, like seed samples or study skins, a group meeting is a great time to introduce these items.

If you're unfamiliar with a study skin, it could be the pelt of an animal or a stuffed bird, that's actually the real animal that's been taxidermied in a way that can be shared with children. These give the opportunity to see nature up close, and it provides a connection to their understanding that's almost unmatched.

So finding ways to do this during your group meetings would be super helpful. And stick around to the end of the show, because today's teaching tip is gonna be suggestions on how to get animal study skins for your classroom.

I do want to note, though, that you want to keep this part of your lesson brief, only about five to 10 minutes at most so that you can get to the experiential part of your lesson. So whole group meetings are a great addition to other activity types. It shouldn't be your entire time outside. It should begin each lesson and only last five, 10 minutes at most.

[4:20]

Activity type number two is a guided walk. Guided walks can be useful if you want your students to experience the same thing at roughly the same time. A guided walk can take the form of a hike led by a teacher, paraprofessional or another student that keeps the entire group together working on the same task.

Some guided walk lessons could include things like finding textures in nature as you walk down the sidewalk, looking for seasonal signs in pairs while walking through the schoolyard, going for a bird hike, finding the colors of the rainbow.

All of these opportunities resemble more of what's actually happening inside your classroom, and these could be a good transition into outdoor learning. If you haven't taken your students outside very often, this style of activity mirrors more of what's happening inside, and so it could be a good way for you to start transitioning your students to outdoor learning and understanding that what we're doing inside and outside are both important and both science, and this is how we do it.

[5:20]

Activity number three is a trail or sidewalk activity. So trail activities are opportunities that use the trail or sidewalk to guide your students through an experience. So it's different than a guided walk because that's going to be more like the teacher is leading a certain activity, whereas a trail activity is going to be set out along a trail and is more self-guided by the student.

So it could be a game, a journey, or you could simply have signs with information hung along the trail or sidewalk. And that main difference between this activity and other activities on this list is that they follow the physical direction and space of a pathway and are often self-guided by the student.

So some trail activities could include creating a physical model. And what I mean by that is you could use landmarks along the sidewalk or trail to create an experience. So an example could be mimicking the path of blood moving through your body. So if you have a wide sidewalk, that could represent veins or arteries. And then smaller offshoots could be capillaries. And you could draw with sidewalk chalk different organs that your blood travels through. And you could assign some of your students to be red blood cells and some to be white blood cells. And then the air around them could be the plasma that the blood cells are suspended in. And this gives your students a kinesthetic experience to remember the journey of blood through the circulatory system that is placed along the sidewalk or the trail to create that journey, that experience.

Another example could be a picture book pathway. And if you listened to Episode 3 of this podcast, you heard Steve Frisbee share his experience pulling apart picture books to put along trails for an interactive reading experience. If you haven't listened to it yet, make sure to go back because it's a really interesting listen, and Steve does a really good job describing different ways of using books to teach. But this one in particular uses the physical trail or sidewalk to guide the experience. And again, if you haven't listened to this one, I'll make sure to put the link in the show notes so that you can go back and hear how to make this happen with your class.

You could also input a trail game. So, you could use foam dice and whatever topic of your choosing, and create a game that moves your students along the trail to discover different aspects of your assigned topic. So, as an example, you could create a food chain trail game where you have signs hung up and your students are starting as energy from the sun. They roll a foam die, move that many numbers of signs ahead, read about which plant they were taken into, then roll another die to find out which animal ate the plant that they moved into. And then they move into that animal and so on and so forth. It makes it an interactive and interesting way to learn about the transfer of energy while also using the physical space of a trail or a sidewalk.

[8:13]

Activity type number four is exploration. And exploration-based activities can be very powerful for your children's learning, especially early childhood learners. And so exploration-based activities are more of that free movement, child-in-charge-of-their-own-body sort of activities, but within a defined space.

So some exploration-type lessons could be gathering leaves for comparison of shapes and colors, testing what objects in nature are magnetic, using a space to look for evidence of the food chain, and scavenger hunts are awesome for exploration.

And if you're looking for already made outdoor scavenger hunts, check out my Teachers Pay Teacher Store. I've got a variety of topics, including seasonal senses scavenger hunts, a pollination scavenger hunt, a living and nonliving scavenger hunt, and more. And I'll make sure to put links in the show notes if you're interested in those. But scavenger hunts give a focus, but they also give that exploration piece. So they're working on a task, but they're doing it in their own space at their own pace.

So not only can these types of lessons develop a sense of responsibility in your students, they can also give you the unique opportunity to check in on your students independently as they make their way through the activity that you laid out. Many times when we're in the classroom, we're leading every activity. And so we don't get to check in with our students, but exploration based activities are a great way to do that.

[9:43]

Activity type number five is data collection. So one note about this is that being in the outdoors gives you a wonderful opportunity to collect data. This is a scientific skill that's sometimes hard to come by naturally in the classroom. So take advantage of your schoolyard or green space to provide you with things to count, tally, measure, and more.

Some examples of data collection activities could be taking temperatures outside, measuring the height of plants, conducting animal surveys, like the worm survey from my Worm Weather Picture Book Companion. In the story Worm Weather by Jean Taft, the children find worms on sidewalks, in the grass, and a playground. So one of the science activities in this picture book companion is to take your students outside with the provided recording sheet and tally how many worms they find on the sidewalk, in the grass, and on the playground. It's a form of data collection as well as a form of story retelling, and it's as simple as that, but it gets them doing math, it gets them doing ELA, and it gets them doing science.

[10:44]

Activity type number six is an observational study, and an observational study is an opportunity to look closely at nature. So some examples of observational studies include individual observations, where your students sit and focus on something in nature by themselves. This could look like creating a sound map where your students are sitting in one location and drawing a map of the different sounds that they're hearing around them, using landmarks and different symbols to share what they're hearing around them in one spot.

Another example would be small group observations, where your students work together in pairs or small groups to observe a natural phenomenon. This is similar to the Great Sunflower Project. I explained in “Episode 15: Six Citizen Science Projects for Elementary Students and Teachers.” And in that one, your students work together in pairs or in groups of three, to be able to watch flowers and then count how many pollinators come to the flower, to be able to report to a citizen science project called the Great Sunflower Project.

Another example would be whole group observations, where your entire class works together to observe nature. And this is similar to the migratory bird observation activity I described in “Episode 20: Six Animal Migration Activities for the Elementary Classroom.” And in that one, everybody is looking to the skies and counting how many migratory birds that they see. And then at the end, you have a class discussion about how many they found, and then you take either the median or the average to be able to come to a conclusion of how many birds the entire class saw together. If you haven't listened to Episode 15 and 20, I'll make sure to put those links in the show notes so that you can check them out if you want to hear more about these observation opportunities.

So we've talked about six different activity types, and I'll review those real quick because that was a lot of information. So activity type one was group meeting. Activity type two was guided walk. Activity type three was a trail or sidewalk activity. Activity four was exploration. Activity type five was data collection. And activity type six was observational studies.

[12:58]

So the part that I've left out and haven't talked about yet is games. And one of the most powerful ways to use the outdoors for learning is the use of learning games. When concepts are gamified, they build a different understanding in your students' brains because they're experiencing the phenomenon firsthand. Or they're creating a memory that they can call on later to remember the information in greater depth and detail. And I'm hoping to bring a guest on in the new year to talk more about gamification and how she gamifies because she does it in a great way. But until then, I'm going to talk about three different types of games that you can use outside with your students.

So, game type number one is running games. And these sorts of games typically involve a lot of energy and oftentimes running, hence me calling them running games. And these tend to follow tag-like rules and experiences. So, some examples of running games include season tag, which I described in “Episode 17: Six Fun Fall Activities Aligned with K-5 Next Generation Science Standards.” And essentially, the amount of direct sunlight we experience each season was related to how quickly the students could move.

So, in summer, when we experience our most amount of direct sunlight, your students can run and they can tag while running. Whereas in winter, when we experience the least amount of direct sunlight, the students have to walk, and so their tagging is a walking experience. And in the fall and spring, when there's neither direct nor indirect sunlight, the students get to jog.

Another example would be migration tag, which I described in the same episode. And in this one, the students experience a tag game either by running by themselves away from predators, or in the second round, they'll run away from predators in a group. And then they're seeing whether traveling in a group during migration is beneficial or not.

[14:48]

Game type number two are role playing games. And these games put your students into the role of the organism or naturally occurring object that they're learning about. And this is a super powerful way for your students to learn, because again, they're physically feeling simulated experiences that put them into the life of something else.

And they create those powerful memories for your students to draw upon later. And it gives them a much deeper understanding of the content, because they've now experienced it. So an example of role playing games would be Invasive Species Tag, which I described in “Episode 4: Six Invasive Species Activities to Use in the Elementary Classroom.” And in this game, your students play one round as native plants trying to get what they need to survive. And in the second round, they play as an invasive exotic plant that has allelopathic properties. And allelopathic properties are chemicals that plants can spread into the soil or into the air, and it kills all of the plants around them, creating less competition.

So in the game, they get an advantage over native plants. And when your students get to experience that, now they understand why a plant might want an allelopathic property, because it gives them an advantage over all the other plants around them.

Another example is an animal migration obstacle course, which I described in Episode 20. And in that one, your students get to pretend to be birds migrating south, trying to avoid obstacles that make their journey more challenging. And again, they get to physically feel how more obstacles make the job of a migrating bird more challenging.

[16:27]

And game type number three is concept reinforcement games. And so these games use movement to be able to reinforce the information you've already taught your students. So essentially, it's a kinesthetic way to review what you've already learned.

So some examples of concept reinforcement games include matching games. So for your early childhood kiddos, you could print off the uppercase letters on some cards, and the lowercase letters on some cards. They run out into nature, find the cards, bring them back and match them together.

Another example could be some sort of relay race review game. And as a more concrete example, I described a photosynthesis relay race game in Episode 17. And for that game, your students are in charge of collecting poker chips that represent carbon dioxide, water and chlorophyll, and then they have to move together to make their way into the sunlight to process the carbon dioxide and water to produce glucose and oxygen. So, they're already familiar with photosynthesis, but they have to show you that they know by collecting the appropriate pieces in order to be able to make the food for the plant.

So, I want you to keep in mind, this is just a short list of different kinds of children's outdoor activities and games. And you're going to find new and creative ways to spend your time outside with your students as you practice going out more and finding out what resonates with your kids. But this is a good starting off point. So, just keep in mind that mixing up activity types will reach more of your learners and will keep things fresh and exciting, which will up your engagement in your class.

[18:00]

And as I mentioned last time, something new that I'm starting is each episode, I'm either going to share a Teaching Tip, a Nature Note or a Science Snippet. And so today's teaching tip is going back to the group meetings we talked about towards the beginning of this episode, where I talked about having study skins as part of your group meeting.

When I taught through the nature center in the public schools, these items were available to me because of the nature center's permits. And they really brought learning to life for most of the children that I worked with to be able to hold a river otter in your hands and see just how long they actually are. They're like five feet long with their tail. And how thick their fur is; it provides a whole new level of understanding. But you may be thinking, well, that's great, Victoria, but how can I get my hands on these sorts of teaching tools?

So my teaching tip today is a few different thoughts to be able to help you get study skins in your classroom. So if you have a local nature center, you could check in with them to see if they have study skins that they can loan out. The nature center that I worked for didn't have the permits to loan every different type of study skin that they had, but they did have different game species that they were able to put in a kit that teachers could check out. So in the state of Michigan, citizens can own parts of animals that have hunting seasons.

So deer antlers and fur, river otter fur, beaver fur, turkey feathers, duck feathers, snapping turtle shells. Those sorts of things could be owned and in possession of citizens without having to worry about special permits from the DNR.

Another option would be to check in with your local university. So I went to Central Michigan University and they have permits to loan out their zoology specimen, including birds, mammals and insects. And if you have a university with a Natural History museum, you could check in with them to see if they have items that they can loan out. And if you are in my area, I'll put a link for CMU's zoology loan program in the show notes so you can check out what they have.

You could also try to acquire some study skins on your own. So I've gotten lots of materials for teaching from garage sales, and oddly enough, you can find things like rabbit pelts and deer antlers for relatively cheap prices. It is like finding a needle in a haystack, but it's doable.

So just make sure that you check your state laws and do your research on federal laws as well. As an example, without permits, you can't own any part of migratory birds, their eggs or their nests due to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, unless they're an excluded species like game animals here in Michigan.

But if you want a more sure way of acquiring these teaching tools, you could use money from your classroom budget or your grade level budget to purchase a few items each year from Acorn Naturalists. They don't have full furs available, but they have a lot of replicas, including skulls. And I'll make sure to put their link in the show notes as well if you're interested. But I know teachers have a lot to purchase, so that's why I listed this as the very last option.

So I know this has been a really long teaching tip, so I'm going to end it by saying that even though these experiences are super cool and interesting for most students, some of your students may not enjoy them as much. Some children just can't get past the fact that the animals are dead. So each time I would bring the dead animals, as we would call them, to a classroom, I would always start my introduction of these tools with a few disclaimers.

So I would say, “I have some animal first to show you today, and even though they're dead, we did not kill them. They came to us already dead. Sadly, animals die from old age, being hit by cars or getting sick. But we can have them taken care of by experts so that you can see them up close.” And then that disclaimer usually helps those weary students feel more comfortable and after repeat exposures to these types of teaching tools, they'll warm up to them and they'll enjoy learning from them.

[21:57]

So in a nutshell, today we covered nine different kinds of children's outdoor activities and games for teaching science. So activity type number one was a group meeting. Activity type number two was a guided walk. Activity type number three was trail or sidewalk activities. Activity four was exploration. Activity five was data collection. And activity number six was observational studies.

And the first type of game that we talked about was running games. The second type of games were role playing games. And the third type of games were concept reinforcement games.

And don't forget, if you're looking for scavenger hunts to help you with an exploration activity, check out my Teachers Pay Teacher Store where I have a variety of topics already made in scavenger hunt form for you in both color and in black and white. And if you use the book Worm Weather and you're interested in that picture book companion that includes the worm survey, check that out in my Teachers Pay Teacher Store. It's there as well.

And I'll also include links to the scavenger hunts and the Worm Weather Picture Book Companion in the show notes. 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 children's outdoor activities and games that you use, get a hold of me on Instagram at Naturally.Teaching, or you can email me at Victoria@naturallyteaching.com. And don't forget to check out the show notes for this episode at naturallyteaching.com/episode22. I've listed all of the different podcast episodes I talked about and all of the different resources that we talked about as well. So thanks again for joining me today. And until next time, keep exploring, keep learning and keep naturally teaching.

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 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 at 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.