Two print-ready sheets, 84 outdoor science investigations, every one fifteen minutes or less — and every one labelled with how long it actually takes. Five minutes, ten, or fifteen. Find your topic, find your age group, find the number that fits your gap. Then go outside and investigate something real.
Because these aren't worksheets taken for a walk. Every box is something children do: shake soil in a jar and watch the layers settle, race ice cubes in sun and shade, scratch two rocks together to work out which is harder, throw a hoop and count what's living inside it.
No lesson to write. Nothing to order, print or cut. Every investigation uses what's already underfoot — sticks, stones, leaves, soil, a jar of water and a bit of chalk.
What's included
- Sheet 1 — Ages 3–7 (Early Years, Year 1, Year 2 / EYFS & KS1): plants, animals & minibeasts, materials, seasons & weather, habitats, our senses, and working scientifically.
- Sheet 2 — Ages 7–12 (Year 3–4, Year 5, Year 6–7 / lower & upper KS2): plants, animals & humans, living things & habitats, materials & states, rocks & soils, forces & magnets, and light & sound.
- 84 investigations in total — two per box, each with its own timing.
- Print-ready A4 PDF, landscape, built to live on your planning wall or clipboard.
Why teachers love it
- Timed, so you can trust it. Every investigation says 5, 10 or 15 minutes. No starting something the bell will cut in half.
- Genuinely no-prep. Natural loose parts, a jar of water and chalk. That's the resource list.
- Working scientifically, built in. Predicting, fair testing, observing and recording — with its own column on the younger sheet, and running through every topic on the older one.
- Real investigations, not fresh-air filler. Every box maps to a core curriculum strand from EYFS through upper KS2.
- Built by a forest school leader and primary teacher — investigations that work with a real class outside, not just on paper.
How to use it
Print both sheets and keep them where you plan. When a gap appears — a brain break, an early finisher, the last twenty minutes on a Friday, or the moment the rain finally stops — scan the grid, pick a time, take them out.
Fifteen minutes of real science beats forty minutes of reading about it.
| File | Action |
|---|
| outdoor-science-quick-activities-ages-3-7.pdf | Download |
| outdoor-science-quick-activities-ages-7-12.pdf | Download |
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Version
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Subject
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Ages
4-6, 7-9, 10-12
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Topics
Electricity, Forces and Motion, Light and Sight, Living Things, Materials, States of Matter
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Files
2 (436.12 KB)
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Tags
DownloadScience
Two print-ready sheets, 84 outdoor science investigations, every one fifteen minutes or less — and every one labelled with how long it actually takes. Five minutes, ten, or fifteen. Find your topic, find your age group, find the number that fits your gap. Then go outside and investigate something real.
Because these aren't worksheets taken for a walk. Every box is something children do: shake soil in a jar and watch the layers settle, race ice cubes in sun and shade, scratch two rocks together to work out which is harder, throw a hoop and count what's living inside it.
No lesson to write. Nothing to order, print or cut. Every investigation uses what's already underfoot — sticks, stones, leaves, soil, a jar of water and a bit of chalk.
What's included
Why teachers love it
How to use it
Print both sheets and keep them where you plan. When a gap appears — a brain break, an early finisher, the last twenty minutes on a Friday, or the moment the rain finally stops — scan the grid, pick a time, take them out.
Fifteen minutes of real science beats forty minutes of reading about it.