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the blog: on education outside

Homma elementary school walking field trips

This post is written specifically to support colleagues and visiting TTOCs at Homma elementary school. Teachers from other schools are encouraged to make a similar document specific to their own walkable spaces and places for outdoor learning. The following is a list of recommended walking field trips we have visited with students. Please check with Sarah or I if you’d like to double up on your walking first trip to gain confidence or experience travelling to these spaces.

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Homma elementary school walking field trips

This post is written specifically to support colleagues and visiting TTOCs at Homma elementary school. Teachers from other schools are encouraged to make a similar document specific to their own walkable spaces and places for outdoor learning. The following is a list of recommended walking field trips we have visited

Read More >

10 Tips for Teaching Outside the Classroom

Teaching outdoors is nothing new. As a species, humans have evolved to learn outdoors. For thousands of years, we have actively learned from experience alongside our elders. It is only recently in our evolutionary path that we have asked children to learn under florescent lighting, within four walls. Teaching Outside

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Planting potatoes

How to grow potatoes with kids

One of the most challenging aspects of growing food in school gardens is choosing crops that can reliably be harvested within the school year. Potatoes are a great school garden crop because they are familiar to kids, nutritious and tasty to cook up, plus they’re ridiculously joyful to harvest! This

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Playful learning outdoors in May during Covid-19

To support the families and teachers we work with in the outdoor classroom, we’ve put together this list of ideas for playful learning outdoors in May during Covid-19.  You can download a PDF version for Playful learning outdoors in May during Covid-19 here: Playful learning outdoors FI-converted Our outdoor play

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Growing space tomatoes with the Tomatosphere project

EVERYTHING can be taught in a school garden If you haven’t heard me say it before, it is worth repeating that literally EVERYTHING can be taught in a school garden! And that includes abstract and complex topics like the extreme environment of outer space, along with how our survival as

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Imaginative Play: Anywhere Artist

One hundred years ago Soviet psychologist and play theorist, Lev Vygotsky, argued that play was a purposeful activity for children. Vygotsky believed that a child’s greatest achievements were possible in play and that imaginative play, in particular, was an opportunity for children to become adaptive, while problem solving ways to

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Imaginative play with a box

This post has been written to support imaginative play with a box at home. If you have boxes available from deliveries, or are expecting deliveries, save your boxes for potentially hours of imaginative play at home! Imaginative play is essential for children to make sense of the world around them,

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Playful learning outdoors in April during Covid-19

To support the families and teachers we work with in the outdoor classroom, we’ve put together this list of ideas for playful learning outdoors in April during Covid-19. Thanks to our amazing french immersion colleagues at Homma who translated it into french for distribution to their families. You can download

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How to Start Seeds in Paper Pots

There are hundreds of adorable examples of how to start seeds in eggshells and toilet paper rolls floating around on the internet. Pinterest has entire boards devoted to the subject and, as a consumer of all things gardening with kids, I’ve tried most of them. To save you the frustration

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Risky Play with Height: Life Lessons Last a Lifetime

Risky play with height includes climbing, jumping from or swinging over heights, hanging, dangling, or dropping from heights, as well as balancing over any variety of heights. The known risk of physical injury from risky play with height is from falling. Local knowledge, and a risk benefit assessment, can reduce

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