Outdoor Fun

So I taught my outdoor education lesson today and it went way better than I thought it would. I explained the rules for the game in the classroom and assigned them their “roles” for the game. It is sort of a “predator and prey” type game with different titles, all about animals and survival and that kind of stuff. It was a little bit of a chaotic start since they were really excited and a little chatty while I was explaining the rules. The game is kind of complicated so I was worried that they would be confused and it would be a mess. But they caught on immediately and barely had any questions.

When we got outside I slightly lost control as I’m not really a yelling-type person and they kind of spread out outside. But we eventually got the game going and they seemed pretty enthusiastic about it. My co-op said that this was the most active she’s seen some of them in a long time so that was exciting. Half way through we switched the “roles” in the game and I had some of the more shy students in more dominant roles and that seemed to be a good change since they had a real job to do. At the end I did some questioning and they were willing to volunteer lots of answers so I’d say the lesson was a success.

For next week, we’ve once again been given the instruction to basically do whatever we want, whatever subject. I’m kind of running out of ideas off the top of my head for lessons so I’ll have to do some googling. I seem to always resort back to English when I’m out of ideas so I might try to do a science experiment or something for next week. Wish me luck.

Outdoor-based Learning… Help!

So I’ve been planning my outdoor education lesson for Monday and I am really excited. It has proven to be fairly easy since I already had a game in mind and all I had to do was simplify it a little bit. BUT.. now that I am trying to find outcomes and indicators for my lesson plan things aren’t so easy. There is not one thing in either grade 7 or 8 physical education curriculums that has anything to do with outdoor education.. I am not even going to go into how awful the implications of this are or why I think this is so wrong or I’d be here for hours.

So… Now what? What do I do? I’m thinking of looking in the Science curriculum since the game has to do with animals and the endangerment of them. But that isn’t really the same thing. Now I am just looking for an outcome to have an outcome not because that was my original goal. Should there not be an outdoor education heading in the Sask curriculum? Or at least ONE outcome for it? I’m at a loss of what to do here.. Suggestions are welcome! Otherwise wish me luck.