My Green School
25
M: we sit down on the floor or we might just stand M: We Just talk M: We just sit, just talk M: Just talk about what kinds of plants there are M: How we can help this environment ... M: What we have to do to make these plants grow bigger and healthier It also seems that the children’s understanding of the rationale behind these lessons is to understand how to help the environment. This environmental focus is reflected in children’s descriptions of the kinds of activities they do outside, and also in their reflections on the kinds of subjects that could be taught outside. I: Do you think that everything you do in the classroom you should be able to do outside? F: Only in Science ... and literacy, like if you get facts and then write it down F: How to help the environment While the children have only experienced lessons outside the classroom with the subjects of science, art and literacy, this also has implications for how they understand green spaces as a learning resource. For example, for the children learning outside is about understanding a concept by seeing it. F: ... if we see it with our own eyes we can learn more ... I: Have you got an example? F: For example like when we go over there the teacher shows us like the fruit that’s been decomposed and then turned into soil. It actually, she actually shows us the soil... Not like in a picture or something. ... F: If we’re doing about, like, the environment it helps us because we’ve experienced it and we know how to like do the stuff and we know how to do the cycle of a plant.