Tuesday 25 May 2010

Collaborative Outdoor Play Ideas

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http://creativestarlearning.co.uk/developing-school-grounds-outdoor-spaces/collaborative-outdoor-play-ideas/

13 comments:

lizzie said...

How about ropes with a pully / cog system that can pass pictures / notes through to friends on the other side of railings? Have in my mind the washing lines you see between houses in spain / Italy?

lizzie said...

How about a rope system with cogs/pulleys. They can send notes / pictures through to friends on the other side of the railing. Have in my mind the washing lines that you see between buildings in spain / italy?

Debi said...

I don't have an idea to contribute, though I'd love to see what the kids would come up with given a rope to share. A ramp between the two spaces would be intriguing, too.

Juliet Robertson said...

Hi Lizzie and Debbie

Thanks for your thoughts - I like the potential of pulleys and ramps! The mind is buzzing!

Best wishes
Juliet

Catherine said...

You seem to have lots of great ideas. I thought maybe ribbons to weave through the fence.

Michele - @OCPlayParks said...

I was thinking pulleys, too. Even pulleys with water jugs or boxes of treasure.

It also makes me think about fishing poles. Make poles out of stick and string and fish for nature goodies from the big kids?

Juliet Robertson said...

Cat - The fence is very wide for weaving with ribbons (which actually can make it a good challenge in itself) I did think that other less-traditional materials may have potential too including willow sticks...or materials/objects that make a sound when pulled through.

Michele - I love the fishing game! This would be a good challenge having to fish for all sorts of objects on the other side of the fence.

Thank you both very much.

Anonymous said...

Juliet, what about a series of pipes that can sit between the rails that are tippable between the two areas - then they can tip water, sand, pebbles etc between the rails.

I also like Catway's idea of weaving using thick wide ribbons.

And, dare I say it - how about a gate? :)

Let the Children Play said...

I was thinking pulleys as well, because we are going a bit pulley mad at preschool!

What about letter boxes on either side with openings at the back so that they can post letters to each other?

Or some kind of musical wall / banging wall. There are some images for insipration on my post:


http://progressiveearlychildhoodeducation.blogspot.com/2010/05/taking-music-play-outside-part-2.html

or this amazing music wall from Filth Wizardry:

http://www.filthwizardry.com/2010/05/music-wall-rip-music-tree.html

Another thought is rigging up some sort of communication system / talk tubes, or tin can phones.

A shared cubby, with one wall on one side of the fence and another wall on the other side of the fence.

Marble tracks using lengths of guttering and plastic tubing.

Tug of war with ropes.

Bean bag tosses through the fence.

Shared container gardening with herbs or veggies, with containers backing each other and the fence in between.

Bamboo gutters on either side of the fence so they could have races with cars or marbles.

I think thats it from me for now! I love a challenge :)

Teacher Tom said...

Oh man, these are all terrific ideas, Juliet! And the comments contain ideas that are just a good. It makes me want to build a fence just to try them out.

My only thought is some sort of postal system. Of course they and just pass things back and forth between the railings, but some sort of mailboxes might be fun.

My "word verification" is "gated."

Juliet Robertson said...

Caro - You'll be delighted to know there is a gate! Of course it's designed to stop nursery aged children leaving the area. Which, of course, means they sussed out how to do this within days of moving into this new nursery.

Jenny - Music has it's possibilities. I think the children would have fun experimenting with instruments hung along one side and children on the other side sneaking up and giving them a surprise bash. Alternatively slim objects that can fit between the rails such as wind chimes would be an option.

Pipes, tubes and pulleys work well. I have some hamster pet extendable plastic tubes which would work well for many of your suggestions.

Container gardening will be done on a back-to-back system in order to increase the potential biodiversity value of one part of the site.

I think for games, with balls, bean bags, marbles being passed or posted with also be great. This is an area where the children's creativity will get going.

And of course posting...oh yes. I bet a birdbox or two would work well here!

BIG THANKS AGAIN to you all.

Anonymous said...

I love you ideas - 1 and 2 combined would be awesome!

mad said...

wondering if there's some way to make a kind of 'connect 5' type of game using the railings... might be a bit advanced for the nursery but it's a framework to build on..