We are very excited to present the 2018 International School Grounds Month Activity Guide. This new publication is an expanded version of the school ground Activity Guide we have been producing over the last few years. It is designed to help schools use their grounds to the fullest during the month of May for International School Grounds Month and year round!
The guides are appropriate for ages 3-18 and are full of cross-curricular activities that enhance and promote play, learning, health, outdoor connections, and community. They also contain great background information on the school grounds movement, the benefits of taking children outside, and how we are working to shift the norm of how school grounds are designed and used.
We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of our authors who contributed this year and in the past. The Activity Guides would not have been possible without their fantastic written contributions and the generosity of their organizations in sharing their work. We are grateful for the time and energy they put into their submissions and for their efforts to support this movement.
With our colleagues at Green Schoolyards America, we also produced a 2018 edition of the companion book, the Living Schoolyard Activity Guide. Together, the two Guides now include a total of 235 activities written by 187 organizations in 27 countries. (Did you know you had that many like-minded colleagues? It’s amazing!) All of the activities in both Guides are intended for use anywhere in the world, so we encourage you and your community to share the links for both of these free books!
The map above shows the fantastic geographic diversity of the author-organizations that contributed ideas to this publication series. Organizations that contributed to the International School Grounds Month Activity Guide are shown with red markers. Organizations that participated in the Living Schoolyard Activity Guide are shown with yellow markers.