This book is ideal for teachers and home educators who want to incorporate outdoor education at all levels of the school curriculum.
Given that the average European child now spends 90% of their life inside, outdoor classrooms are becoming ever more vital in our schools. Outdoor Classrooms will show you how to:
- set up vegetable gardens
- teach children about growing food
- bring food security into the curriculum
- introduce the concepts of human and planetary health
- explore the subject of sustainability within a practical framework.
Beautifully illustrated throughout, Outdoor Classrooms – A Handbook for School Gardens is presented as two streams of thought:
Carolyn Nuttall takes us through the history of school gardens and articulates the need for a revival, before leading our journey into the fanciful; a schoolyard to fire a child’s imagination and delight in the natural world.
Janet Millington then offers a comprehensive and practical plan for developing a school garden. “A successful, supported school garden has the potential to benefit an entire community”, says Janet. Janet links the learning to the curriculum, providing samples of unit plans and describing a programming method based on lists of skills and knowledge to take the whole curriculum into the outdoors. She also addresses vital issues such as how to look after the garden during school holidays.
“Outdoor Classrooms is a glimpse of a new way forward in teaching and learning. It is a book for its time.” Robyn Cook, author, parent and school garden volunteer.
“A very useful resource for teachers, adults and parents linked to schools. It is brimming full of charts, lists, diagrams and pictures to encourage you to get gardening. There are also long term plans and many curriculum links. It is very practical. Every school should be sent a copy of this book.” We need books like this to inspire head teachers and teachers to get children into the outdoors.” Vicky Gould, parent and retired teacher.
Available in iBook and Kindle formats
Book Details
Published: June 2013
ISBN: 978 1 85623 113 8
Size: 210mm x 275mm
Format: Paperback, 168pp. Beautifully illustrated throughout with hundreds of line drawings by Mary-Ann Cotter, Kay Schiefelbein and Jane Bottomley.
Author
Carolyn Nuttall, co-author of Outdoor Classrooms, is a graduate of the University of Queensland, a trained teacher and a student of permaculture. She is a pioneer in garden-based learning. Since 1992, when the children in her class made a small vegetable garden in the grounds of a school in Brisbane, Australia, she has become a champion for better school grounds and better teaching and learning methods. Outdoor Classrooms is her latest book, co-written with Janet Millington. It comes with the message that school gardens are places where children can learn important skills, lessons and values from work in the garden and that teachers can discover a bountiful device for teaching the curriculum.
