Teaching outdoors is easier than you think. The outdoors is a place to inspire learning, get fresh air, lift moods, and reduce virus transmission.
Your students will love it!
Get started with these great, real-world lessons in math, science, reading, and writing.
Lessons, videos, and student handouts
Preschool
Children ages 3 to 7 are natural explorers. Use these guided explorations to help young children discover learning concepts outdoors.
- Give each child a small baggie or sand pail, then go outside to allow children to collect short, straight twigs. Then use twigs to learn about shapes.
- Encourage children to collect an assortment of leaves they find on the ground. Then use these ideas to practice art, science, and literacy with leaves outdoors.
- Discover colors in nature, pretend you are a rabbit, or practice drawing what you discover, using 14 Ways to Explore Nature Outdoors With Young Children.
- Practice using our senses of hearing and smells through stories, wearing big ears, and identifying smells outdoors.
- Have children collect natural objects such as leaves, cones, pebbles, and twigs. Then introduce descriptive words such as “smooth, soft, hard, & bumpy” and allow children to sort the objects into different categories.
- Before heading out on a winter nature hike, show children photos of natural items they might see outdoors in Minnesota. Then bundle up and see what you can find!
Elementary
Full lessons
- Standard Unit of Measurement: Tree Circumference - Grades 2-3. Follow along to measure a tree's circumference using estimation, your hands, and a measuring tape (or a string and ruler). Use it along with the full teacher lesson and student worksheet. Standard Unit of Measurement Video Lesson and student worksheet
- The Star in the Cottonwood Tree - Grades K-8. Read a Dakota story outdoors, and then break open twigs.
- My Tree Journal - Grades K-2. This journal helps students explore, draw, measure, and celebrate a tree.
- My Tree Notebook - Grades 3-5. This notebook helps students explore, measure, write about a tree.
- Conservation Volunteer Magazine, Young Naturalist - Stories and Teacher Guides
- Nature's Alphabet, Teachers Guide - Students photograph letter shapes they find in nature.
- What Pooped Here?, Teachers Guide, and Study Questions - Students take a nature hike to look for signs of animal life including scat.
- Squeaks and Whistles, Grunts and Hums, Teachers Guide, and Study Questions - Students go on a "Sound Safari" outside to discover animal, physical processes, man-made, and other noises.
- Clues in the Clouds, Teachers Guide, and Study Questions - Student create a "cloud log" recording their observations about clouds
Student handouts and videos for outdoor learning
- Schoolyard Safari - Grades 4 and up. Give students these handouts to guide them as they look for animal signs outdoors and learn about habitats.
- Observe Tree Bark student page,teacher answer key
- Winter Animal Adaptations video - Explore your neighborhood to find different signs of animal life and learn about Minnesota animals adaptations.
- Use a ruler and proportions/fractions to calculate the height of a tree - Grade 4 and up
- Soil Study video - Grades 4 and up. Learn how to sample soil, separate organic from inorganic matter, and make a soil shake.
- Looking at Leaves - Go outside and collect some leaves. Then answer these questions.
- Macroinvertebrate ID keys from MinnAqua – Students use these sheets to identify critters they find in the pond
- Minnesota Season Journals: grades 3-5. Each journal contains vocabulary, diagrams, worksheets, and a structured way to record phenological observations of plants, animals, temperatures, and precipitation. Fall | Winter | Spring
- Junior Ranger Activity Booklet: grades 3-5. Pages include outdoor bingo cards, mazes, and coloring sheets, covering topics such as camouflage, movement, fish, plant ID, senses, shapes, and habitat.
Middle School
Full lessons
- Estimate a tree's age Students identify a tree's species, measure circumference, and use math to estimate tree age. (Includes student handouts)
- Conservation Volunteer Magazine, Young Naturalist - Stories and Teacher Guides
- Wild Things in Winter, Teachers Guide, and Study Questions - Students search for and study animal tracks. Look at direction, speed, gate, and think critically about what the animal was doing at the time.
- Outside Shots, Teachers Guide, and Study Questions – Students take photos and create a picture book, field guide, or scavenger hunt for younger grades.
Student handouts for outdoor learning
- Biome booklets - Send students outdoors to collect information about their biome.
- Measure tree height using trigonometry
- Measure a Big Tree video Students measure tree height, circumference, and crown spread. Then they can compare their results to Minnesota's biggest trees
- Beginner's Guide to Minnesota Trees Students can use this guide to identify trees. The last pages include a simple, easy-to-use dichotomous key.
- Macroinvertebrate ID keys from MinnAqua - Students use these sheets to identify critters they find in the pond
High School
Full lessons
- Monitoring Forest Health lesson - Students head outdoors measure biotic and abiotic elements of a forest, schoolyard, local park, or backyard: measure a plot, assess soil pH, crown spread, diversity of other plants and animals, tree size, etc. Full lesson includes 14 student handouts.
- Teaching With iTree- Three full lessons send students outside to identify and measure the diameter of a tree. Then they enter those values into iTree to calculate the value of that tree's benefits in terms of energy savings, water quality, and carbon sequestration.
Student handouts and videos for outdoor learning
- Measure tree height using trigonometry
- Measure a Big Tree video Students measure tree height, circumference, and crown spread. Then they can compare their results to Minnesota's biggest trees
- Beginner's Guide to Minnesota Trees Students can use this guide to identify trees. The last pages include a simple, easy-to-use dichotomous key.
Outdoor Classroom Management Skills
Managing a class outside is similar to your indoor classroom. Set expectations, have clear goals, and follow through with any discipline or reward.
If you're new to teaching outdoor or looking for tips on safety, weather, or rules, we have some ideas for you. How to Teach Outside.