“The way a crow shook down on me the dust of snow from a hemlock tree
Has given my heart a change of mood and saved some part of a day I had rued.”
California girl here, born and raised. Not the snowy peaks of Tahoe type of Cali girl; the temperate valley between foothills and the Pacific Ocean kind of girl, where scarves seemed essential on days measuring 50 degrees outside.
And then I moved to North Carolina. Not the coldest of places, but we play host to 4 seasons. I struggled for a long time with the winters here and then after years of misery, I decided, enough. No more SAD winters, no more complaints. I wasn’t going to miss out on opportunities to witness winter’s wonders. I bought a better jacket and I headed outside! I’ve learned to love the refreshing cold air that wakes my brain and my body. I’ve learned to love the buds and the bark of trees rather than just miss the leaves. I’ve learned to love the sharp twinkling of stars that seem more visible without all that humid summertime air. I now long for the quiet of snow! I’ve learned that winter isn’t a time to hide, it’s a time to be brave if you must, dress warmly and take all your bundled students outside with you. Nature education is an all-year teaching strategy!
But what to do outside and how to do it? Great questions.
Start with communication and warm clothes! Certainly some of your students will come unprepared, regardless of your reminders and notes home. How about a clothing stash in your room? Raid the lost and found box at the end of the school year before it’s trucked to the thrift store. Ask parents for hand me downs. Wash them and store them away until it’s time to close the gap between the prepared and unprepared. Kids seem to tolerate the cold better than we do anyway, but it is important to encourage appropriate gear.
While it is comfortable inside, hibernating the winter away inside a classroom is not good for the health or the academic success of your students. Studies have concluded that even just 1 lesson outdoors per week boosts student performance and behavior and improves a student’s relationship with both their peers and their teachers. I teach in enough classrooms to know stir crazy kids, prisoners of the cold, are hard to manage. Regardless of the age, getting students outside is a classroom management strategy; a way to meet the physical needs of students, enabling better behaviors and more focus during work.
Regular visits outside also decreases the likelihood of contagions working their way through your roll sheet as dry mucus membranes from controlled indoor air systems weaken our natural defenses against disease. A breath of fresh air might actually stave off extended sicknesses!
Winter blues and cabin fever aren’t imagined conditions. They are the result of too much time indoors, denying our bodies liberty to move and fatigue, denying our lungs fresh air and our systems the vitamin D they derive from natural sunshine. Restlessness, low concentration and hyperactivity will all improve with regular time spent outside!
But what can we do outside, after all, it’s cold?! The trees are dormant, the insects are buried deep; gardens are at rest. Actually, winter presents unique opportunities for learning and below is a compilation of activities you can do outside. By creatively connecting outdoor activities to your required objectives, teaching outside the literal box of your classroom should leave you pleased with the learning and behavior outcomes of your students!
Yes, it’s cold outside, so dress warmly and open yourself up to the possibility of new discoveries and a rich connection to your natural environment, for yourself and your students.
WILDLIFE: Birds, squirrels and deer are all very common sights around schools and neighborhoods, all year long, winter is no exception. Winter is a great time to invest in a feeder and get donations from families for some seeds. There are also lots of bird seed crafting ideas that will fuel the creativity of your students while attracting wildlife to a window for students to watch while inside or out!
The variety of bark from 3 different trees found next to each other in the woods.
EVERGREENS: It’s hard to overlook the evergreen trees and shrubs when the deciduous woods are so dormant and bare in the winter. Evergreens vary widely, from their bark to their berries and cones to their needle and leaf structure. Do some comparisons as part of your living things or plants unit. Evergreens are also critical to the survival of wildlife and continue to make us oxygen throughout the winter, long after deciduous trees have taken some time off.
Kids love to collect rocks. Start a class collection for study and then return them back outside once complete.
ROCKS: Turn your attention to the Earth. Collect rocks for mineral tests, identify rock types and make observations about the placement of rocks. How did they get there? What purpose do they serve? What’s underneath? Connecting abiotic environmental factors to the larger ecosystem is a valuable lesson at any age.
ICE: Wait for the coldest days of winter to set up water and ice studies. Place cups of water around school: in the shade vs. the sun, next to a building vs. further from a building/shelter. Measure the diameter of the cup pre- and post-freeze. Add salt to some cups. What about sugar? Set them out overnight and allow mother nature to do her thing. Your students will be excited to come back and see what happened!
Candleflame and shield lichen found near each other on a short walk.
LICHEN: A perfect example of symbiosis, lichen are a partnership between fungus and bacteria. While it often goes unnoticed by lay people, it’s actually pretty common and once identified by students, they’ll be able to find it everywhere on their own. Search it out, identify the type, investigate with a magnifying lens, sketch it. I bet you could find a local park employee who could come and lead a lichen lesson if you aren’t well versed.
SCAVENGER HUNTS: These can take lots of different forms and are enjoyed by students of any age! The one I’ve linked to is for our youngest students, so find one appropriate for your age group or make your own. Do it as part of a walk to keep warm and active. Your hunt can be all auditory, be really specific or really vague (ie count the number of birds we see in 10 minutes. This can be data for graphing if you repeat data collection!) While on the hunt, collect items to make a natural garland to celebrate the season inside your classroom. What a beautiful celebration of nature that can add color and cheer to your room!
GARDENING: Leaves can be raked to act as mulch and insulation for plants; weeds can be pulled in the beds you often walk past. Let kids take some control over those beds! It doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming to be effective. Teach students about seed stratification (exposing seeds to cold to encourage their germination) by setting up seed trays that you monitor all winter. Plant bulbs around school for a fun spring surprise. Do a school wide litter clean up.
All people require breaks from work and the younger the child, the more frequent those breaks should be. By going outside for free play or for a lesson or activity, you are gifting your students fresh air and exercise, sunshine and a chance to refocus, destress and calm down while encouraging a healthy habit that will serve them for life—connecting to nature regardless of the weather or season.
Like Robert Frost writes “….has given my heart a change of mood and saved some part of a day I had rued.” Be open to the opportunities of simple wonders only mother nature provides and reap the joy and the physical benefits that come with it. Happy Winter, Rachel