Strategies

There are many strategies that can help increase the time students spend outside during the school day. Like the barriers, the strategies that make sense will be different for different educators and different schools. We hope teachers and administrators will find strategies that seem easy and obvious — small lifts, small changes to existing practices – that would be easy to try, as well as ideas that are new or involve more extensive change. Some of these strategies are simple steps or small changes that can make taking students outside easier, and some involve more extensive or integrated changes across a school or curriculum. They include ideas about curriculum, instruction, logistics, building support or enthusiasm for time in nature, increasing access to and developing outdoor spaces, and enhancing existing or creating new opportunities. These strategies are primarily things that can be done by or in individual classes or schools, but they may require actions by educators at different levels (class, school, or district). Some strategies can be done by individuals working alone, and some require collaboration among staff or across a school.

Each strategy is linked to multiple barriers that it could help address. We encourage you to start with the strategies that seem like the easiest ways to address the barriers you experience (see the barrier descriptions in the previous section for a list of all the strategies for a specific barrier). This will likely be different for each class and school.

This sections provides details about the what, how, when, who, and why for each strategy. Strategies are listed in categories on this page, and then organized alphabetically by strategy name for the descriptions.