Educational research shows that sensory-rich environments recover personal resources such as emotions and stimulation. In order words, the more we can appeal to our students' senses, the more experiences and emotions they have to draw from to create. Research from the University of Curtin in England supports this through evidence of much more vivid language and descriptions from those students with direct outdoor experience compared with those who used their imaginations inside the classroom.
Here are two prompts that will have you take your children outdoors for a writing lesson.
Cloud Scapes*
What You’ll Need:
- A blue sky with clouds.
- An open, comfortable space to lie.
- A yoga mat or equivalent to lie on if the ground is damp.
- Alternatively a seat by a window, where you can comfortably relax.
Choose a day when you will be relaxed lying on the ground looking up at the sky. Find a comfortable spot. Look at the clouds in the sky. Can you see a face? Can you see a unicorn? Can you see a fairy-tale castle? Can you see a whale or a dolphin? What do the clouds make you think of?
Can you make up stories to link the different things you can see among the clouds?
Crime Scene Creative Writing*
The crime scene is one potential hook. For younger children a ore appropriate prompt may be "How did teddy get stuck up the tree when his picnic is still at the bottom?"
- A teddy
- Hazard tape
- Chalk
- Loose parts: leaves, twigs, pine cones, stones, etc.
There are many ways that this activity could run, so guide the children to stay focused on the goal of writing as they devise their own way of responding to the stimulus.
In advance of the lesson you could prepare a robbery crime scene outdoors. Brief the pupils that they are going to be detectives encountering an incident.
The pupils can invent a chain of events which led to the robbery and write the resultant story.
The pupils can devise questions for a witness using: who, what, where, when and why and prepare a written interview.
The pupils could introduce different suspects and invent motives for them or role play being the different characters under interview.
Pupils could even be challenged to set up their own crime scenes.
In advance of the lesson you could prepare a robbery crime scene outdoors. Brief the pupils that they are going to be detectives encountering an incident.
The pupils can invent a chain of events which led to the robbery and write the resultant story.
The pupils can devise questions for a witness using: who, what, where, when and why and prepare a written interview.
The pupils could introduce different suspects and invent motives for them or role play being the different characters under interview.
Pupils could even be challenged to set up their own crime scenes.
*Both lessons are freely available at Learning Through Landscapes.
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