The Outdoor Classroom @ Rhyl Primary School -North London. UK

When researching about outdoor classrooms I came across a blog called outdoorclassroom.wordpress.com and the blog is called The Outdoor Classroom @ Rhyl. The first picture and caption that caught my eye said “Massive Baking Session in Outdoor Classroom” and  the picture below was beneath it.  

From reading and scrolling through the blog there are many great pictures of what their outdoor classroom looks like.  I saw pictures of assembly’s and ceremonies that they have in their outdoor classroom and I thought that was really inspiring and beautiful.  Another picture and caption I came across was “ Community links- building a garden with a local school”. The picture below.

I think it is amazing that students from this school want to help out and making the outdoor learning environment better for another local school. As well I think it is important for communities to come together and support one another and it is beneficial for children to learn this at a young age.

This last picture I would like to show is really inspiring to me. The first one is a wood fired pizza oven covered in a mosaic pattern located in the outdoor classroom. The school uses this oven to teach children about baking and cooking, and they use it as a community resource for events. I think having this oven is a fantastic idea that actually allows the children to really “get their hands dirty” and enjoy their learning and experiences directly in front of them. I think this idea gives children the notion that they really can achieve things if they are given the opportunity. Lastly this oven brings the community together and through that I believe that people make connections with their environments and the people that surround them. 

I think that this is an amazing blog, and if you get a chance check it out! Just from reading this blog I think that Rhyl Primary School is amazing and that the children who go to this school really benefitting from having an outdoor learning environment and a close nit community that supports them.

Here is the link to the Rhyl Primary Schools Blog:

http://outdoorclassrooms.wordpress.com/

Are outdoor classes inclusive?

Outdoor classrooms provide opportunities to every child, even those who may have exceptionalities. From researching I came across an article published by the Toronto Star that I found to be extremely interesting. It is about Blaydon Public School in Toronto and how they brought together their special needs class and their mainstream kindergarten class outdoors, and they were amazed at what they were seeing.  Below is a very inspiring quote that I took from this article.

“The teachers say his is one example of how daily outdoor time is changing the way their young students — including those autism and other special needs — learn and behave”.

Through reading this article I learned that recent studies have found that exposure to green space can reduce symptoms for children with ADHD. As well I learned that there is less known about how that exposure affects children with developmental disabilities such as autism, who may have sensory-integration dysfunction that makes them overly sensitive to sounds, touch and activity and who are often unable to speak or communicate.

The article is titled Kids with autism benefit from outdoor classroom and you can access it from the link below.

http://www.thestar.com/life/parent/2013/07/05/kids_with_autism_benefit_from_outdoor_classroom.html

As well I tweeted this article and the video attached to it on Twitter because I think it is a really inspiring, informative and amazing article that my fellow colleagues could learn a lot from by reading it. 

Here is a screen shot of my tweet:

If you want to take a look at my twitter account my twitter name is @haileydulberg91