CIS’ respected outdoor learning programme in the spotlight during Outdoor Classroom Day.

By Angela Henderson, Principal, CIS Tanjong Katong Campus

Outdoor learning plays an integral part of a student’s education at CIS. No matter the age or subject, we aim to extend lessons into the outdoors whenever there is the opportunity for students to learn in a purposeful manner. On May 18, we invited friends from the wider CIS community to come and experience first hand our renowned approach during Outdoor Classroom Day at our Tanjong Campus.

Outdoor Classroom Day is a global initiative designed to inspire and celebrate outdoor learning and play. Throughout the morning on May 18, our kindergarten and primary school students together with thousands of other schools around the world, participated in a wide variety of engaging outdoor educational activities.

Classes for our youngest learners included exploring math concepts like volume, weight and size in our mud kitchen. Meanwhile our older students learnt about math fractions using nature (e.g. create a plant where ¾ of the leaves are green) and plant biology (such as stem and leaves) through drawing and observation.

The benefits our students gained from these outdoor learning experiences were tremendous. Amongst other things, outdoor learning sharpens brain development, creativity, teamwork and social and gross motor skills. It also helps generate a greater awareness of the environment and create memorable and authentic learning experiences (if you think back to your most memorable childhood experiences, I bet most of them were outside!).

Unfortunately however, modern day distractions and limited exposure to natural environments in residential areas especially here in Singapore, mean many children lose out on these opportunities. At CIS we are committed to turning the trend around; we have designed our programme so that all our students from Kindergarten right through to Grade 12, have every chance to enjoy the benefits.

For more information about CIS’ outdoor learning programme visit www.cis.edu.sg/learning/outdoor-learning