Subiaco Primary School is an Independent primary school which caters for students from Kindergarten to Year 6. We have a strong sense of community at Subiaco Primary School where staff work together with parents as well as members of the community to reach common goals for our students. We have excellent connections to the Subiaco community through our weekly Farmers Markets which are held on Saturday mornings as well as the swimming pool which is available to the community through a yearly membership. We are surrounded by beautiful nature landscapes and have generous play spaces for our students to play within.
Outdoor Play and Learning
At Subiaco Primary School, our Kindergarten and Pre Primary classes provide our students with daily/multiple opportunities to engage in outdoor play and learning experiences. Our outdoor play areas are designed to inspire creativity and imagination, develop muscle strength and coordination, increase flexibility and fine and gross motor skills as well as physical skills relating to different types of sports, such as cricket, football, tennis and soccer. Toys that require balance and coordination, such as bikes, scooters and wobble boards are also provided. In our large sandpit play areas, we have established loose parts play where assorted pipes, tubes, cable reels, hoses etc of different sizes and weights are provided for the students to use however they choose. We also have a fantastic ‘wet’ nature area which consists of a mud kitchen, climbing ropes and a hand pump which is connected to a running tap and allows water to flow through a trough and down into a small dug out tunnel which the students often dig themselves. Our teaching staff also ensure that we provide calm spaces for those students requiring some quiet time as well as opportunities for further creative activities, such as crafts, musical instruments, imaginative play as well as dress ups. Sustainability is a large focus at our school and in our Pre Primary classrooms, we encourage our students to explore and to learn from the environments around them. Our Early Childhood Teachers involve our students in the establishment and maintenance of our edible gardens and fruit trees, planting of seeds and propagating natural Australian plants as well as our worm farms and compost pits. This year, we have introduced a new waste management system where we are educating our students to reduce the amount of rubbish which is sent to landfill. We have a bin for food scraps which is added to our compost pit, a recycling bin for items which can be recycled, a green bin for gardening waste as well as a general rubbish bin for items which can not be reused or recycled. Our students can often be found engaging in weeding or other gardening activities during their outdoor play at recess and lunch times.
Why Subiaco Primary School supports Outdoor Classroom Day
Outdoor Classroom Day was established to promote the benefits of providing regular opportunities for students to learn, play and to be inspired by the wider outside world around them. It is also aimed at inspiring teachers to make outdoor lessons a regular part of every school day and celebrating all the ways that children can and should learn outdoors. Outdoor Classroom Day also recognises and values the importance of providing numerous uninterrupted periods of play outside for children where they are encouraged to explore, discover, use their imagination, strengthen friendships and learn through hands on learning and manipulation.
We strongly believe that our students are naturally drawn to playing and learning outside the classroom supports the development of healthy and active lifestyles by providing children with opportunities for freedom, movement, physical activity and promoting a sense of well-being. As Early Childhood teachers, we acknowledge the importance of play in assisting our students to develop critical life skills such as resilience, problem solving, being resourceful, team work, creativity, communication and that it is also central to our students enjoyment of their childhood. We also believe that whatever children can be taught inside the classroom can be transferred to outdoors learning. When we first heard about Outside Classroom Day, we were inspired to participate as, although we often spend time outside, we had never dedicated a whole day to outside playing, exploration and learning. We thought that this would be a great opportunity to expose the students to different ways that they could learn and play outside and we were also interested to see the effects it could have on our students motivation and willingness to have a go and try new things which they may not have necessarily had the opportunity to try before, such as whittling sticks, making nature mandalas and pressing flowers. We also wanted to provide our students with further opportunities to strengthen their connections to nature, experience seasonal changes and to work collaboratively alongside of their peers to initiate play, solve problems, make discoveries and to share their knowledge and understandings with others.
Learning experiences shared with students
Over the past two Outdoor Classroom Days that we have participated in we have provided the following experiences:
Taking students outside for learning
I often take my students outside daily for some form of learning, whether it be reading a story underneath the shade or letting my students sit on the grass outside in the sunshine for our news telling opportunities. My students and I also enjoy participating in STEAM challenges outside on a weekly basis, with our favourite outdoor challenges being making/testing paper airplanes, making bubble wands and blowing bubbles as well as measuring how far a pom pom can travel using the pom pom shooters we made using cut up pool noodles and balloons. Conducting STEAM experiences outdoors allows my students to play, move, discover, learn, explore and to discuss and share their learning and understandings with each other in a relaxed and open environment. I also utilise learning opportunities outside of my classroom every day by displaying a question of the day outside of my door which students are encouraged to answer before entering the classroom. After recess has finished, my class then remains outside for an additional 15-20 minutes where we interpret the results we have collected based on the question, do our daily calendar routines (day/date/month- songs to accompany these concepts) and then I will often use the space available to introduce/revisit our maths concepts, such as making/identifying patterns and looking for 2d and 3d shapes in our environments. All Pre-Primary classes also utilise the spaces outside of our classrooms by opening up our doors and allowing our students to free flow between indoor and outdoor play where we set up different experiences for them such as blocks, arts and craft, water play and other sensory activities.
Benefits of outdoor learning opportunities for children
Learning: When I take my learning outside I notice that my students:
Behaviour: When I take my learning outside I notice that my students:
Participation in team work
When I take my learning outside I notice that my students:
At Subiaco Primary School, we feel very lucky to have an amazing outdoor play environment right outside of our classroom doors that provides places for our students to explore, experiment, discover, be active, healthy and to develop their physical capabilities. -We have fantastic staff who acknowledges the importance of playful learning and meaningful play within our teaching programs and we strive to provide learning and play opportunities based on our children’s interests, abilities and experiences. -Our staff often facilitate outdoor learning during free play times through involving/including our students in our sustainability projects as well as providing music and movement activities, such as dance where we join in with the students and experiment with dance moves and sequences of actions. -For many children, playing outdoors at school may be the only opportunity which they have to play freely and take safe risks within their play. -Learning outside of the classroom provides students with opportunities to connect with nature and experience different weather/seasonal experiences.
Story shared with us by Cassandra Waghela
The Outdoor Classroom Day Team would like to thank Subiaco Primary School for sharing their story with us.
If you’ve previously taken part in Outdoor Classroom Day, you’ve probably got some great stories to share – and we’d love to hear them!
To be featured in our Outdoor Classroom Story section on our website, please tell us a bit more about your school, and your participation in previous Outdoor Classroom Day campaigns.
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Thanks for joining the movement, we can’t wait to see what you get up to on the day! Please share this with your colleagues and friends to help us make it possible for every child to get outdoors to learn and play every day 🙂
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Time to play is critical for every child – share your moments with us by tagging #OutdoorClassroomDay and make every day a day to learn and play outdoors!
Thanks for joining the movement we can’t wait to see what you get up to on the day! Please share this with your colleagues and friends to help us make it possible for every child to get outdoors to learn and play every day 🙂 Check out the resources tabs for ideas for the day – and to make learning and play part of every day!
Thanks for joining the movement, we can’t wait to see what you get up to on the day! Please share this with your colleagues and friends to help us make it possible for every child to get outdoors to learn and play every day 🙂
We’ll send you a newsletter shortly, but in the meantime why not print out this poster and take it to a teacher you know…?
Time to play is critical for every child – share your moments with us by tagging #OutdoorClassroomDay and make every day a day to learn and play outdoors!