Summary of our Project
In today’s technology-driven times it is common to find more and more kids glued to the television and their gadgets. Kids of today are increasingly spending their time indoors which is negatively impacting their development and health. Studies indicate a steady escalation in childhood obesity.
On the other hand, playing outdoors offer several mental and physical health benefits to the growing kids. Exposure to outdoor play can positively shape the personality of kids, draw them nearer to nature, help them to develop essential social skills and give impetus to their creativity and imagination.
Playing outdoors should be a vital part of every kid’s growing up years. It is a wonderful way to learn various life skills, a great chance for kids to flourish, run, jump, make a mess, explore their self in natural surroundings. Therefore, it is important for schools to play a conscious and a proactive role in developing a positive outlook towards outdoor games among kids. This being the case , with the aim of finding new ways to use outdoor games in education Lithuania, Turkey ,Portugal, Slovakia,Greece and Romania came together " LET'S GO TO LEARN OUTSIDE " project has born. We aimed to build an outdoor learning repertoire and use outdoor activities in education effectively.
Therefore we shared the task as below:
WORK PROCESS
C1- Portugal "Art outdoors": Painting wall murals, photographing "Safari",Ice breaking team building activities;
C2- Romania "Science outdoors": Meteorological, astronomical, biological, hydrological outdoor observations and activities;
C3- Turkey "Games and sport outdoors": Archery, Horse riding, Cycling and traditional games activities;
C4- Greece "Music Outdoors": Organizing "Street music festival", creating an "Outdoor Orchestra", "Outdoor music area" from recycled material;
C5- Slovakia "Drama outdoors": Drama games, Improvisation show, Fashion show, creating a puppet plays;
C6- Lithuania "Math outdoors": Geometrical, symmetrical and multiplication observations and outdoor activities in nature.
We planned 6 Learning Teaching Training Activities where 100 students aged 9-14 years and 36 teachers will be involved in the project work and take part in the mobilities.
The project will use outdoors education in two ways:
a) by researching each partner countries’ geography, history, tradition, culture, individually, using the portfolio as a product;
b) by finding common “nature hero” to follow, in order to develop active citizenship. Pupils will regularly share information about activities done outdoors, among them, communicating via internet and through planned meetings.
Via " LET'S GO TO LEARN OUTSIDE " We aim:
Generally:
- to ensure equal access to everyone in the field of fostering talents, and the promotion of value- based social mobility
- to have professional development activities to support widespread dissemination of existing and future good practices
- to increase talented young people’s social responsibility and their effort to shape communities
- to ensure all talented people to get real chance to exploit their talents
- to disseminate the talent development outcomes in the EU Member States
Specifically:
- to give children a break from teacher-led instruction
- to encourage alternative thinking
- to build self esteem and foster self worth
- to reduce stress in school environment and make school more enjoyable
- to encourage problem solving through cooperation
- to give children the opportunity to express themselves differently
- to increase students' vitamin D level which is very important in early childhood
- to decrease obesity
- to provide opportunities to channelize pupils's natural energy in a meaningful way
- to build a game and lesson plan repertoire for teachers and students
- to help teachers to learn new teaching techniques and methods through outdoor games in basic lessons
EXPECTED RESULTS:
Each one of us will share our best practices and ideas about how to deal with this project topics in schools interacting with families and local communities:
- Public Twinspace: portfolio, exhibition, DVD, first summer school, videos, photo exhibition, calendar, handbook, puzzle, conference, second summer school, magazines;
- Project website: presentations about partners' schools, countries, photos, Outdoor learning activities, results..
- Articles after each meeting in local newspapers, schools' websites, social sites;
- Methodological publication with lesson plans and descriptions of activities for Outdoor learning;
- posters, brochures, Erasmus+ corners at schools.