Outdoor classrooms and timber shelters for schools and nurseries offer a great way of managing teaching facilities in the school grounds. By having the benches in an Octagonal shape inside the shelter you have a full class of children facing the teacher and ready for the lesson, and full access to the grounds when you are ready to set tasks. Finally you also have a focal point for everyone to return to when it is time to review progress.
We all know that the children tend to love their outdoor learning sessions and of course their outdoor classroom, but encouraging them to take ownership of their shelter will help make sure that it is looked after.
Hand painted pencil fencing can achieve that. It is quick and easy and can be arranged very cheaply.
1. What you need:
Half round stakes pointed. Short lengths of approximately 1m only required. These can be purchased from your local timber merchant. Our local merchant charged just £1.25 per pencil. We attached one to each strut in the balustrade and required 63 pencils in total.
Exterior Paint in a variety of different colours. You can either purchase this from PTA funds or ask parents to donate any unwanted bright colours that they have at home.
Brushes - again, ask parents to donate. The more you have the more children can get involved and the quicker the project will be completed.
Plenty of open space for the children to paint safely.
2. What to do:
Decide how many pencils you want and how they will be arranged on the timber shelter. If there is a balustrade around the outdoor classroom then fixing pencils to every or every other strut ensures an even spacing.
Organise how many pencils are being painted which colour and how many children to paint each one.
Get the children to paint the pencils, not forgetting a blob of paint on the tip to make it look authentic.
When dry fix to the balustrade of your timber shelter with galvanised screws with the pointed edge positioned just under the handrail to prevent any risk of injury.
It could be fun to get the children to bring the pencils that they painted themselves and watch it being fixed so that they can see how their artwork has improved their school shelter.
Finally - sit back and enjoy the improvements at the end of an afternoons work.
----------------------------------------------------
When looking for a school shelter look for a timber one. Timber is the only natural construction product which is traditional, sustainable and renewable. Cabinco Ltd construct outdoor classrooms and timber school buildings throughout the UK. For more information http://cabinco.co.uk/timber-shelters/
EasyPublish this article: http://submityourarticle.com/articles/easypublish.php?art_id=276378
No comments:
Post a Comment