Counting outdoors

1. Ensure all learners have a recording sheet for the living things or natural patterns you want to observe. You could begin by facilitating a quick decision, asking learners to name each of the things on the sheet. Have they seen them before? Have they seen them on their learning site? Where do they think they might find them?
2. Sitting in a space outdoors, set a 3-minute timer and ask learners to observe an area, ticking on their recording sheet when they spot one of the things listed.  
3. Some spaces, seasons and weather conditions will be better suited to spotting different creatures, so groups of learners could sit and observe different areas outdoors.  
4. Here are some suggestions of animals learners could record:

• insects and bugs: butterflies, bees, ants, ladybirds, caterpillars, worms
• animals: birds, squirrels
• aquatic life: frogs, snails, tadpoles
• plants and trees (these could be counted by walking around and exploring an area): flowers, trees, mushrooms, leaves (on a tree or on the ground), grass patches or clumps

Learners could also search for repeated patterns – these could be documented by taking a photograph, or creating a rubbing with a crayon and piece of paper.  

• plant and leaf patterns: leaf arrangements (e.g., alternating or opposite on a stem), veins in leaves (branching patterns), petal shapes and numbers (like daisies with repeating petals), flower colours in a garden (red-yellow-red-yellow), tree bark textures (striped, scaly, etc.)
• animal and insect patterns: butterfly or moth wings (symmetrical designs), stripes on animals (bees, some caterpillars), spots on ladybirds or certain birds, repeating movements (like a squirrel hopping or a bird pecking) 

Reflection

If carrying out this activity near the beginning of your Nature Park journey, learners may not spot as many living things as they would like – discuss why this might be, and how you could make changes to see more of these things?  

Carrying out this activity after making changes to your site will help children to quantify the impact they have made. Compare your observations from before and after your changes – what was different, what was the same?