Podcast 404, Teaching and Learning Outdoors with Paddy Madden (21-9-20)

On this week's programme I speak to Paddy Madden about teaching and learning outdoors. Among the topics we discuss are: How weather engages the senses when we learn outdoors Benefits of teaching outdoors Forest bathing Noticing Nature Cloud watching, listening to the sound of birds, smelling flowers. Daily 15-minute walkabout Teaching outdoors across the curriculum Book: Sue Waite Children Learning Outside the classroom A silly symphony Preparing for outdoor learning Learning outcomes Ways of Knowing by John Quinn A spiral curriculum – revisiting topics at a more complex level Teaching outdoors in September What to do when a wasp enters your classroom Spiders Planting a square metre of wheat

Integration across the curriculum using topic of wheat Painting – called The Gleaners (I mistakenly called it “The Garners” in the recording) Places to visit at this time of year Fruit and seed walk: Dry fruit (e.g. helicopters, nuts) and succulent fruit (blackberries, rowan berries, sloes) How school grounds can sometimes be barren Paddy’s vision of ideal school grounds Creating raised beds in a school grounds Furniture for outdoors learning Making a pond safe for a school setting Making clipboards from recycled corroboard How to position a bird box correctly The value of a compass in school for showing directions Why he dislikes terms such as a “bug hotel” or a “bug viewer” Working outdoors in an urban environment Using window boxes to grow food Using binoculars with early finishers The “Engage with Nature” website Nature as a stage The value of unstructured play Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv John Feehan’s books Richard Louv: "The more high-tech we become, the more nature we need." Sacha Hamilton, the Duchess of Abercorn and activities of the Pushkin Trust