Let’s Branch Out: Simple Ways to Bring Nature Into the ELT Primary Classroom

Sometimes, the best ideas come when we step outside or simply look out of the window. A quick break to observe the changing light throughout the day, breathe in the fresh air, or spot native animals/ birds nearby can spark fresh, engaging ideas — for ourselves and our students — whether online, hybrid, or in person.

There are many benefits to incorporating nature into the primary English language teaching (ELT) classroom, as demonstrated by the Nature Learning Initiative — one being its positive impact on developing cognitive abilities. By observing nature and connecting with it, our younger students can engage in different levels of thinking, which ties beautifully with Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning in the language classroom.

Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning

With this in mind, bringing nature into your ELT classroom doesn't require drastic changes. Whether indoors or outdoors, there are plenty of simple ways to incorporate nature into your classroom for diverse younger learners. In this blog, I introduce three ways to integrate nature-based learning opportunities within a language classroom, which are designed to progress from lower to higher order thinking in Bloom's Taxonomy.

1. Notice Your Surroundings

The first way to engage students is by encouraging them to notice contrasts or differences. Looking out of the window, from the balcony, or into the garden is a simple way to encourage younger learners to passively engage with their surroundings. According to Bloom's Taxonomy, noticing promotes cognitive processes like remembering and understanding. When students absorb what they see, hear, or even smell, they begin to make associations between words, objects, and actions, which helps build their vocabulary and improve comprehension. Here is an example of how you could bring noticing to the classroom:

Activity: What Do You Notice?

Choose a place you would like students to focus on at any time of day — this could be out the window in the classroom or the walkway for a quick activity shift, or even on the way to the library or field when students are moving between classrooms.   

Once you have their attention, ask them to spot something they have noticed — perhaps have them focus on one of the five senses. Students can share in pairs and groups (if time permits) before being invited to share to the class.

To add variety, you can adjust your question by incorporating adjectives and prepositional phrases:

• • For specific areas: Add prepositional phrases to your questions. For example, "What do you see in the sky?" Or "What do you see near the stairs?"
  • For opinions and personal observations: Add adjectives to prompt students to think more deeply. For example, "What do you see that is different?" Or "What do you see that is interesting?"

If you would like to change locations, invite students to share in the classroom pictures of natural places they’ve visited, such as parks, forests, beaches, or mountains. This allows students to reflect on these places, share observations, and reinforce the vocabulary they have built through associations among word, object, and action.  

2. Experience the Great Outdoors

Provide students with opportunities to experience the outdoors. Walking in nature or exploring nearby surroundings fosters active engagement with nature, especially when students can use their senses. This type of experience promotes the next levels of higher order thinking, such as applying and analyzing from Bloom's Taxonomy. By picking up leaves, examining plants, and observing bugs from a safe distance, students deepen their understanding of natural processes. When students can describe and share their observations in the target language, they are able to apply what they have learnt and continue to develop their ability to describe events and processes in a structured manner. There are plenty of ways to turn a nature walk into a language activity for kids, including:

• • Creative Story Prompt: After the walk, encourage students to share a creative story based on their experience. They can either write a story plan and draft first or discuss in pairs or groups about their story ideas first.
  • Informative Report: Have students write a short report or summary about the environment they explored. This can include details of the plants, animals, and observations made during the walk.
  • Step-by-Step Procedure: Ask students to draw the map and describe the steps of their nature walk, outlining the sequence of events. For instance, "we started at the front gate and then turned right at the wooden bench."

Understandably, it may not always be possible to go on nature walks at school due to various restrictions. However, apart from assigning nature walks as homework, technology offers several opportunities to immerse students in natural environments through augmented reality (AR) programs or online games, such as Minecraft Education. These virtual tools can provide a different but related experience, allowing students to explore and engage with nature from their seat.

3. Create Meaningful Projects

Last but not least, the third way is to encourage students to create. There are countless project options that involve hands-on contributions to preserving and enhancing nature with a focus on language. These could range from growing seedlings in paper cups and cuttings in jars of water to a research project on composting or recycling to setting up a worm farm or garden bed on the school grounds.

The exciting thing is that each project can be designed with all the features of a task using key features from Ellis’ (2024) open-access article on task-based and task-supported learning. The four main sections of this type of learning are:

• • Focus on meaning: What Is the communicative purpose?
  • Type of knowledge gap: Do the learners need to convey information, reason, or opinion?
  • Specific linguistic/nonlinguistic resources: What kind of linguistic (home and additional language) and nonlinguistic resources are needed to understand and complete the task?
  • A clearly defined communicative outcome: How do students know that the task is completed?

Each can be completed in small groups to encourage more interactions in the classroom. For additional ideas, I have created a table of examples focused on the theme of nature:

Each of these offer opportunities to evaluate and create, which are two higher order thinking skills from Bloom’s Taxonomy. You can also alter activity conditions for added variety to tailor the activities to your students.

Incorporating nature into the classroom brings in a breath of fresh air — something we all need as teachers and students. When we make nature-based activities or tasks a regular part of the routine, they can become class favorites to balance natural golden light and artificial blue light in the classroom. The key is to decide what you want your students to do: Notice? Experience? Create? Once you’ve defined your goal, explore simple strategies to make these activities engaging for your students based on their routines and surroundings.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the post “How to make Repetitive Tasks Enjoyable: Reflection for Action” for some great ideas on keeping classroom favorites fun. Bernadette Musetti also recently posted “A Year of Ecoliteracy,” with activities for every month, broken down into Part 1 (January to June) and Part 2 (July to December) – perfect for adapting to younger learners.   

I hope these ideas inspire you to branch out (pun intended) and bring the outdoors into your classroom.

Happy Teaching and Learning!