Outdoor Learning Activities for Littles

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This year we are striving to follow the 1000 hours outside program and have been incorporating more outdoor learning activities than before. As the temperature is warming up, I am striving to get outside more and more! We utilize a multitude of learning activities such as free play at home, free play at a community playground, field trips, taking work outside, nature walks, sensory play, gardening.

Free Play

Free play is our favorite of our outdoor learning activities. We go try to go outside at least for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon, but I am really trying to do more! Most days I let my 4 year old and 2 year old pick what they want to do and just watch them. I believe they need to figure out how to entertain themselves. This does not mean I am not paying attention, but I let them be free with what they choose to do! I usually pull out my camping chair and park myself so I can see everything and just watch. This is a great way for them to learn about interacting and playing with each other as well as the world around them.

They learn how to interact and play with each other because they have to use the same area. Most of the days, my 4 year old will just ride her bike or scooter, while my 2 year old wants to push his lawnmower or his ride on cars. They have to use the same sidewalk. They learn how to pass each other without hurting each other and use their words to ensure they have a clear path to play. This is a great social skill. They have to learn how to stand up for themselves, but also allow others to pass too!

They also learn all about the world (way more than I can teach them). My daughter loves to find the worms after the rain. I would never do this, but she loves it! She would bring one inside if I let her. Here is a great article from Hess Un-Academy about Bug Identifitication. There is even a super cute journal for your child to use as they learn more about the bugs and other creepy crawling things outside at their house.

This is an image of a girl holding a bug on her finger. The title of the image is on the top of the image. It reads, "Bug Identification with Kids."

They learn about birds and other creatures we might see outside. Once we see a new creature, we look it up and learn more about it. We did a whole “unit” on birds because a bird built a nest on our gate. They learned about the whole process from building the nest to the birds hatching and even death because one of the baby birds died. I would have never thought to look in this one part of our fence, but my kids were playing over there and we found the nest.

Another great place for free play learning is at a playground or other community area. My kids go on playdates every week and we go to the park even more. They have to learn how to interact with many children and adults! They learn all about how to ask a friend to play to figuring out what to play. They learn how to play with younger kids and older kids. They learn the social “rules” of the playground. So much learning takes place while I sit back and observe. I will help if needed, but I feel like they need to learn on their own. They won’t learn if I am always there telling them what to do! This can be controversial and needs to be handled on a case by case basis (aka each child is different), but still the more our kids explore the more they learn!

Field Trips

Field trips are amazing outdoor learning activities!!!! They are super simple to setup as well! Check out my great post about out of the box ideas for field trips here. Our favorite field trip is the zoo! We go all the time. We love seeing all the animals and our zoo has a ton of play equipment to break up the walk as well. Need some ideas of how to connect the zoo back to your child’s learning check out my zoo field trip pack below.

$14

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Taking Work Outside

An easy way to get our outside time in is to take our work outside! We love to do this on a nice day. If it isn’t too windy, it is perfect. We will take all our worksheets and games outside and do them as we feel like it between some free play. This is a great way to break up the day. This is also a great way to get a reluctant child to do their work. We also do our games outside with a twist. I have set up letter hunts or number hunts for my daughter to find or practice a skill. One day we needed to review our letter sounds, so we jumped from letter to letter. I said the letter sound and she jumped to the letter. It got her moving and practicing a skill she needed to work on.

A little girl is outside counting by 5s. She is standing on a number about to jump tot the next. This is an example of a game, one of the outdoor learning activities.

Another one of the best outdoor learning activities is to do an outdoor unit study. You could focus on bugs like above or birds or plants or anything!!! If there is something your child enjoys you can make it a unit study. Here is a great unit study from The Schoolin’ Swag Blog on insects! They made a ladybug habitat and even had a insect themed birthday party! So much learning can come from the smallest of idea (or in this case creature). Another great unit study I found was on birds from Kristin Moon Science. You can check it out here. This one is geared towards bigger kids, but little ones will also enjoy the videos and building a nest. Hess Un-Academy also has a Bird watching study here. There is a cool journal at the end for your child. Another activity that was really fun was a mini study on pollination. Kristin Moon Science has a great article for older children on Pollination found here. That was a bit old for my littles so we did another activity learning about how pollination worked and even headed outside to see flowers and bees in real life. Check it out here!

A small cartoon bee is in the middle of this image. Underneath the bee it reads, "Pollinating Activity: Teachingwithfaith.com." On the two side edges there is a polka dot border.

Nature Walks

We also love nature walks. Our area has so much to explore. There are just walking trails and there are more intense areas to hike! We love going for a hike. One way to help engage young children on a nature walk is to use a Nature Hunt. I have a great three page hunt below that is designed for little ones.

This is a spiral bond book. On the cover is a trail lined with trees. The title is, "Nature Hunt Pack; Teaching with Faith." — $2.00

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You can even turn your nature walk into a small unit study. This is what The Schoolin’ Swag did when they went out hike. You can read more about their experience here. If you have an older child, you can have them read about Crickets and predicting the temperature from Kristin Moon Science here before you go. As you walk, have them figure out what the temperature is based on what they hear, of course you will probably have to do this in the evening so maybe a great activity for camping!

Nature walks are a great way to get kids outside and still learn! Let me know in the comments about the best place in your local area to go for a nature walk! Don’t forget about your state and national parks!

Sensory Play

A little girl and a little boy are standing at a water table. They are filling up the water table using a hose.

This is probably by far one of our favorite outdoor learning activities. We love sensory play! The easiest sensory play to set up outside is water play. We have a water table. I fill it up and off they go! They will do everything from paint with the water to dump and pour it into a pool. They love to water the grass. What a great way for little ones to explore with water without worrying about it getting everywhere. We have colored our water before, we have added different toys and tools, and we have even added some dirt to make mud! The nice thing about doing this outside is you can just hose them off. We also have done chalk outside as well sand play at a park. The options are limitless. Fill up a bin, place outside and let your child go!

Gardening

Another great outdoor learning activity is gardening. This can be difficult if you live somewhere where you are limited in your yard space or soil. Many cities and communities have community gardens if you cannot have one in your yard. My daughter grew a tomato plant last year in a pot. She loved taking care of it and checking on it every day. We even brought it in for the winter and kept it alive! We are going to have her help us again this year in planting it and taking care of it. There is a great perk of gardening: you get fresh fruits and vegetables! Your child also can learn science through watering it and watching it grow, patience because plants don’t go overnight, and your an even have them track it and measure it to bring in some math. When you track it you can add in some writing and language arts through learning and writing about the parts of the plant as well as how high it grew. For littles you can teach vocabulary by describing the plant every time you see it. The children can see how it changes as it grows. They can learn the different parts of the plant by touching the parts. They can learn about vegetables and fruits colors as they grow and develop. Then they get to eat the fruits of their labor!

This image has a boy enjoying playing in the leaves. The title of the image is on the bottom of the boy playing. It reads, "6 Outdoor Learning Activities for Littles: Teaching with Faith."

I hope you find some great ways to be outside this spring and summer. I hope your child (and you) learn something new about the world they live in. I hope you enjoy seeing your child change and develop just like the plants around them!