10 ideas to take literacy learning outdoors (2024)

Summer term is here! We can be hopeful of plenty of sunny days and opportunities to go outdoors. We’ve found some brilliant ideas that will allow you to get out whilst teaching those essential literacy skills.

1. Natural materials for letter recognition and formation

Step away from the paper and pencils and let the kids go hunting for alternative resources to practice with. It will really get them thinking about theirletter formation.

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2. Sight word puddle jumping

Who doesn’t love jumping in puddles? Get your class moving whilst learning theirsight wordsand best of all it’s super fun!

3. Story telling baskets in a story tree

We love this idea! Encourage creativity, imagination and storytelling and it’s easy to adapt for any topic. Lots of lovely inspirationhere.

4. Nature word hunt

Hunting for letters and words in nature is a great way to get your class active and learn at the same time. Thisnature word huntis easy to set up, a lot of fun, and effective!

5. Wash the word

Chalking on the floor is a firm favourite with kids. Thiswash the word activityis a great idea to get them mark making and then clearing up after themselves!

6. Gardening for letters

Thisvegetable patch letter gameusing alphabet carrots is great fun for little ones, but could easily be adapted for older children. Once they’ve pulled up the carrots, how many different words can they create?

7. Outdoor writing station

Children love the opportunity to freestyle with their writing. Setting up anoutdoor writing stationgives them the opportunity to mark-make on a variety of surfaces and encourages those essential skills.

8. Action phonics

Learning phonemes and tricky words in style with these phonic necklaces gets kids active and out of the confines of the classroom. There are lots of action packed ideas for using themhere.

9. Real and alien word hoops

We often ask children to identify real and alien words in classrooms. This twist on the activity gets them out of the classroom and gives plenty of opportunities to practice. There are some great ideas for extension activitiesheretoo.

10. Alphabet tracing

Using chalk to draw the letters and allowing the children to trace over them is a great way ofmemorising letter formation.Using materials you find outside such as stones, leaves and sand to trace over them means the children will pay extra attention to the way the letters are formed and have fun doing it!

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