Emergency Sub Plan: No Outdoor Space

For an indoor room with a window. It is not a compromise, it is a legitimate hour of observation work.

What you need

**Minutes 0 to 10.** Window observation. Everyone writes or draws ten things they can see through the glass that are not made by people. Ten is difficult on purpose.

**Minutes 10 to 25.** Weather evidence. What can you tell about the weather without going outside. Wind from moving objects, sun from shadows and their direction, recent rain from wet ground. List the evidence and the conclusion separately, which is a real scientific distinction.

**Minutes 25 to 45.** One plant, drawn carefully, from life. Twenty minutes minimum, which will feel far too long and is exactly right. Ask for one detail drawn magnified. That magnified box is where the looking actually happens.

**Minutes 45 to 55.** Pairs. Swap drawings. Each partner names one thing the drawing shows that they had not noticed on the real plant.

**Minutes 55 to 60.** Collect the drawings. Put the best six on the wall.

The session

A window. Paper. Pencils. One plant if you can find one, from anywhere in the building.

If it rains

Move to a covered area and run the observation parts only. Nothing here requires dry ground except the drawing, and a clipboard solves that.

For the person leaving the plan

Print this, put it in the folder, and write the class name and the boundary at the top. That is all the preparation this needs, and it stays useful for years.

More no prep sessions

See the teacher starting point for the routines that make any outdoor session work.