What is the Outdoor Classroom Day or El Día de las Clases al Aire Libre?
The Outdoor Classroom Day started in 2012 with a group of schools in London. The benefits of learning outside the classroom gave this initiative traction to become a global movement that is celebrated each year on May 18th.
What are the benefits of taking a class outside the classroom?
According to the Outdoor Classroom Day website, “learning outdoors creates lasting memories, helps build a greater awareness of the environment, provides more opportunities to think independently, and gets children feeling challenged and excited by learning.”
What can I do to give an outdoor Spanish class?
If you are interested in take your Spanish class outside this day, here are some things you can do:
- Learn about the initiative and get your school involved – Visit the Outdoor Classroom Day website to learn about the initiative and take advantage of the free resources they have available. The website also includes a Spanish version, but the English version includes more resources. Resources include e-books, posters and class ideas!
- Do a digital camera scavenger hunt – Here are the details to do a digital camera scavenger hunt. If smart phones or digital cameras are not available you can adapt the lesson plan Nature Study Outdoor Treasure Hunts (with Spanish language option) to your current unit or class level.
- Draw a city in chalk – Review the directional words and city vocabulary in Spanish by drawing a oversized city map with chalk. Make your students take turns to direct other to certain places on the map. Here is a simple map example you can use.
- Play Veo, Veo – Veo, veo is a popular game in many Spanish-speaking countries similar to I Spy. It’s easy to play in pairs or small groups of students. Here is how to play it.
- Do a Culture Picnic or any other of these cool outdoor activity ideas! – Here are fun activity ideas that you can do outside… our favorite is the Culture Picnic.
Check out our list of Spanish Class Activities.
