Thinking Outside white pine mark

Thinking Outside

Collections

The learning activity guides are sold in seasonal collections. I tested each lesson with my own classes on an ordinary schoolyard and wrote it so a teacher who has never taught outside can run it the next morning. The blog tells the stories behind them; the collections give you the lessons.

The first two collections arrive this fall. Subscribe at the bottom of this page, and I will let you know the day they are ready.

Coming this fall

The Getting Started Pack

A red wagon packed with clipboards, a magnifier, jars and field guides, parked on the schoolyard

The routines that make the first outings work, from the paperwork to the first session with students: a session from start to finish, finding your green space, choosing the learning block, the letter home, the manifest for the office, the kit, the ten-minute conversations with your principal and your custodian, preparing volunteers, dressing for weather, finding home base, the gather-back signal, sticks need space, forest jewels, the wagon greeting, and journey sticks.

Kinder to Junior · any season · $25 CAD · print-ready PDF

Coming this fall

The Fall Art Collection

A wooden frame laid on the grass holding an arrangement of green, red and yellow leaves

Art lessons for September to November, made with what the yard yields: Shades of Green, the true colours hidden in a leaf, ephemeral art, self-portraits, finding the rainbow, collaborative leaf art, nature weaving, painting outside, leaf patterning, leaf printing, leaf tiaras, fence weaving, little characters, and more. Each activity fits inside one block and needs almost nothing from the art cupboard.

Kinder to Junior · fall · $25 CAD · print-ready PDF

Later this school year

Three more collections follow the same pattern. If you want a taste of the Trees Collection now, the free guide Which Tree Knows You Best? is a lesson from the middle of it.

A maple trunk with a red bandage over a patch of missing bark, autumn leaves above

The Trees Collection

A year of thinking outside with the trees on your yard.

A student lying in long grass, looking closely at a dandelion seed head

Sound & Quiet

Listening walks, sit spots, and mindfulness practices.

Two students painting blue and green splashes across the snow with brushes, a paint tray beside them

Winter Art Collection

Explore creative ways to engage in thinking outside in winter.

Try three complete learning activity guides for free!

One for every level of Thinking Outside, each with an assessment tool and its student journal pages, in exchange for an email.

Subscribe at the bottom of this page and they arrive in the welcome email. I will also let you know the day the collections are ready.