Creating Outdoor Classrooms
By: Eric Strickland and James Dempsey
As we, playground designers, were making our presentation of the playground plan to a school playground committee, I could see we were losing one of the members. The ever-present “we didn’t need that when I was a kid” member clearly was not impressed with the various items and play areas we were describing.
I was saying, “And the dramatic play area also features a simulated firehouse and village façade, as well as simulated traffic signs for the tricycle track. The outdoor classroom area has an art easel, a water table, and…”
“Excuse me,” he winced. “What is an outdoor classroom, and why do we even need a water table on a playground? When I was a boy, all we had…”
I missed the end of his all-too-familiar objection.
“Imagine this,” I said boldly. “You put about an inch of water in the pan and invite all the kids in the class to try to put their hands together and push the water out of the middle of the water pan, dry the pan and keep the water from flowing back from the sides to the cover the entire bottom of the water table pan.”
“Well, they couldn’t do that in a hundred years,” he said dryly.
“No, they couldn’t,” I commented, with my voice rising in my best teacher impression. “But imagine this: We worship a God who did that in a split second with a whole sea and only used his voice to make it happen…and that’s why we need a water table on a playground.”
After a long pause, the older committee member nodded his head in acceptance and eventually became our biggest supporter.
While I’ve taken a liberty or two in retelling this true story, it serves to point out a perspective that is critical for children’s healthy development and essential in creating “good” playgrounds: Children learn about self, others, the physical world and even the spiritual realm of life through play.
The outdoor environment is ideal for children as a place to play and to learn. Think a minute about the natural behavior of children, particularly those younger than eight years of age: They’re noisy, messy and very active. For these three characteristics alone, the outdoor environment is particularly suited to children. The outdoors gives them the freedom to be loud, make a mess, run, jump or climb to their heart’s content. And teachers don’t have to restrict these behaviors outdoors like they must in the classroom. Teachers can watch for the opportunity to assist children at the water play table, maybe even to illustrate the power of God at the Red Sea.
Some learning will occur as children use the open spaces and interact with other children, even on bad playgrounds. Some will occur as children use playground equipment and play components, even poor ones. But optimal learning will occur only when the outdoor environment is designed and equipped to help children see the lessons God has for them (and us) to learn in everyday situations on the playground.
James Hymes, one of America’s most influential educators, coined the phrase “teachable moment” to refer to that exquisite moment when a child’s curiosity and a teacher’s experience come together. A teacher must be observant enough to see a teachable moment, plus quick-witted and knowledgeable enough to use it. If you think about it, Jesus did this through parables. Many lessons from Scripture can become playful teachable moments, but how?
How do we build environments that make teachable moments common?
Like any other successful venture, creating teachable moments takes planning.
Moreover, with young children, the most important planning involves the environment.
Planning a “Teachable Moment” Playground
When children are curious and exploring the world around them, half the battle is won in creating teachable moments. Good playgrounds incite curiosity and exploration by giving children a chance to choose among many appropriate alternatives to meet their needs at the moment. It is helpful to think of children’s needs for play in four categories, or types of play: Exercise Play, Construction Play, Dramatic Play, and Games with Rules. Researchers have long acknowledged these four types as common in the early years.
1. Exercise Play
Since young children can’t sit and learn from lectures, they need to be moving, using their hands and bodies to experience life. Young children require many options for this high-energy activity, and climbers and swings serve to satisfy their need to move.
The best climbers for children are “complex”-- they have several ways up and several ways down with multiple climbing options and several slides. The best equipment possesses a range of difficulty levels. This means that a complex climber with four climbing options includes at least one easy way up (stairs, for example) and at least one difficult way up (a vertical climbing wall with imitation rock grips, as an example). Each climbing option should challenge a different part of the child’s body (arms/ back, shoulders, calf muscles, etc.).
As you consider the purchase of playground equipment, consider variety of climbers and slides, and how each challenges the child. If you have room for more than one slide, choose multiple styles, including straight wave slide, curved slide, double wide slide or perhaps a spiral slide.
Swings are important for several reasons--the social skills shared, the development of the inner ear and balance through the rocking and pumping motion, and the sheer fun of swinging Many uninformed buyers assume swings are unsafe, but swings built and placed correctly (not too tall and placed out of the way of children’s traffic) are both safe and fun.
What can be learned through exercise play?
First, children learn self-reliance by learning to master their own bodies in motion. Coordinated and healthy children are more active than awkward, fearful children. Feeling confident in one’s ability to get along in the world allows the child to look outside themselves, appreciate the world around them, and ask questions about the world.
A questioning child is a curious child. While this may seem like simple emotional health, the basics of intellectual skills like understanding space around us comes from crawling over, under, through, and around things. This awareness of space is the foundation of geometry. Many other basic understandings have their roots in the child’s experience of their world (God’s world) through active play.
2. Construction Play
Children need opportunities for planning building, creating, and interacting with various media (paint, sand, blocks, etc.) in the creation process. The outdoor environment provides access to sand for sand play, surfaces to paint (sidewalks are great for water painting), and space to build great block creations.
Good outdoor environments provide these media in abundance, in areas designed to make this type of play fun for kids and not too much trouble for teachers. One way to achieve this balance is by providing storage near each type of media: sand cubbies or cabinets for toys that support sand play; bins for paper, paint, and brushes near an outdoor art easel or a table with a smooth plastic surface for painting; a storage building for large outdoor blocks, trikes, and other important movable parts.
While parents are concerned about what their children bring home from school (the product), children show that they are more concerned with the process of creating. They may be momentarily impressed with their artwork, but most often, they are quickly off to the next challenge, and the importance of the event is the experience itself.
As they master the process at one level, they learn to plan, judge results, and start over to achieve a particular end. How better to imitate our Creator than to learn to appreciate and experience creativity?
3. Dramatic Play
Dramatic play transports children from the present time and situation into worlds of fantasy and opportunity. Children playing together and pretending to be something else (cowboys, astronauts, pro athletes, teachers—anything of interest) must learn to negotiate roles, share materials, make their ideas clear to others, and appreciate others. Some children gain leadership skills by convincing others to join in. Language, social skills, and general knowledge are developed through this wonderful play behavior.
Three key components support dramatic play on a playground: tricycles with accompanying trike track; a playhouse; and loose parts (balls, blocks and dolls) to serve as props. Other supports--like thematic facades, store fronts and gas stations--serve to embellish the dramatic play area and allow more children to engage simultaneously in this important form of play.
Bible themes can easily be integrated into the dramatic play area, prompting children to experience Bible stories previously only told or read to them. One such Bible story that is easily dramatized on the playground is the Nativity. A typical playhouse can be stocked with hay and a manger, while decorations can represent the animal characters in the story. A doll can serve as baby Jesus, and the children can fill the various roles in this wondrous drama.
4. Games with Rules
Particularly suited to children ages six and up, “games with rules” play involves rule-oriented games. Children need open spaces for the traditional games of baseball, kickball, soccer, or football. Fences keep children from running into the street to chase a ball, and they also serve to keep unauthorized or unsupervised visitors out.
Children learn to think, strategize, and cooperate while playing games. They also learn to win and lose, to handle success, and to respond to defeat. Good teachers help children to learn both lessons, while also watching out for danger and enforcing rules of fair play.
Good playgrounds provide variety and balance in a setting that promotes a healthy lifestyle of activity and curiosity. Christian schools with good playgrounds help children to experience God’s creation and the loving care of adults in a learning setting perfectly suited for the active child.
Eric Strickland is founder and owner of Grounds for Play, www.groundsforplay.com. James Dempsey is owner-partner and senior vice president of sales for Grounds for Play.
Sidebar
Playground Safety Checklist
Is your school playground a safe place to play?
Each year, more than 200,000 children go to U.S. hospital emergency rooms with injuries associated with playground equipment. Most injuries occur when a child falls from the equipment onto the ground.
Use this simple checklist to help make sure your school playground is a safe place to play.
1. Make sure surfaces around playground equipment have at least 12 inches of wood chips, mulch, sand, or pea gravel, or are mats made of safety-tested rubber or rubber-like materials.
2. Check that protective surfacing extends at least 6 feet in all directions from play equipment. For swings, be sure surfacing extends, in back and front, twice the height of the suspending bar.
3. Make sure play structures more than 30 inches high are spaced at least 9 feet apart.
4. Check for dangerous hardware, like open "S" hooks or protruding bolt ends.
5. Make sure spaces that could trap children, such as openings in guardrails or between ladder rungs, measure less than 3.5 inches or more than 9 inches.
6. Check for sharp points or edges in equipment.
7. Look out for tripping hazards, like exposed concrete footings, tree stumps, and rocks.
8. Make sure elevated surfaces, like platforms and ramps, have guardrails to prevent falls.
9. Check playgrounds regularly to see that equipment and surfacing are in good condition.
10. Carefully supervise children on playgrounds to make sure they're safe.
Source: Consumer Product Safety Commission
Product Roundup
SofTILE KrosLOCK
SofTILE KrosLOCK is a leader in providing a great value for your playground budget. SofTILE's exclusive patent interlocking feature combined with their hollow core impact pedestal provide assurance that your playground surface will provide years of maintenance-free fun, protection, and compliance to the industry safety standards. Sofsurfaces has recently announced their 10-year warranty for materials and workmanship and compliance to the latest fall protection standards. For extreme durability, ease of installation, and unlimited design potential appeal, choose SofTILE KrosLOCK.
www.sofsurfaces.com
Landscape Structures
Landscape Structures Inc. (LSI) offers premier playground and skatepark equipment for kids of all ages and abilities. Their innovative PlayBooster line of playground equipment encourages kids ages 5 to 12 to burn off extra energy and exercise their imagination between classes. They offer creative climbers, too. Their Spacenet climbers are three-dimensional webs made of incredibly durable, Corocord cable, the highest quality cable available. Spacenet climbers provide an interactive play experience, are UV-stable, and are virtually maintenance-free. They also offer the Mobius Climber, Cascade Climber and dozens of other climbers that let kids’ creativity soar.
www.playlsi.com
Zip Slide from GameTime
GameTime has announced their new Zip Slide. Zip slides are available in multiple deck heights, and in both single and double slide configurations. The new slide offers many new features. They are steeper than other slides available, with a decline angle of 45 degrees, as opposed to most slides with a 30 to 35-degree angle. This allows a faster descent and a more modern look than other slides. The run out is designed to slow riders at the end to allow comfortable exits and is equipped with drains to help prevent water from accumulating. The plastic hood features overhead handholds to aid children as they get into a seated position and is designed to minimize the possibility of children in wheelchairs from inadvertently entering the bed way. Zip Slides use a smaller overall footprint, saving customers on surfacing costs.
www.gametime.com
BCI Burke
BCI Burke’s 85-year commitment to producing innovative and imaginative play spaces is implemented through the company core values of affordable quality, child development, steadfast safety, and ongoing customer service. The Burke design team specializes in creating dynamic play areas for children ages 2 to 12 that meet the distinctive needs of each religious organization. Their newest products--including StarNet climbers, DynaCushion Play Mats, Sk8parks International skating obstacles, Geosculpt Boulders, Nature Play Boulder and Tree House and Circuit Play--amplify their boundless passion for kids’ play experiences.
www.bciburke.com
Noah’s Ark from Romperland
The “Noah’s Ark” structure is the latest addition to Romperland’s new Adventure Play series. The new Adventure Play series uses smaller decks and posts to accommodate a variety of play components. All components are made of the same durable, high-quality products as Romperland’s Ultimate Play series. Direct bolt connections allow for exact installation and tamper-proof, stainless steel hardware reduces maintenance time and costs. Freestanding or in-ground installation is available to accommodate all site conditions. The philosophy of innovative and value-driven design along with uncompromising commitment to quality has made Romperland a leader in the playground industry.
www.romperlandplay.com
Apex from Park Structures
Park Structures introduces the Apex, the newest innovation reaching great heights in climbing. The Apex was developed for use by ages 2-5 and 5-12. For little climbers, the Apex Climbing Attachment provides full body support that developing young children need. For older children, the Apex provides a completely new challenge when configured as a Lateral Climber. The Apex is truly an innovation for early childhood. The Apex Lateral Links and Attachments provide endless climbing possibilities that simulate real rock climbing. Since the gripping areas are not predefined, the Apex encourages children to use their creativity in finding routes either laterally from deck to deck or up and over to the other side.
www.parkstructures.com
FENTEC Activity Panels
Have full-color FENTEC activity panels to customize your outdoor playgrounds. New from WOW PLAYGROUNDS is the phenolic poly removable and exchangeable panel with colored photos and drawings of your choice to enhance the play value and appearance of your new playground. UV stable and color fast, this process is highly versatile for Church School logos, prayers, games, memorial dedication and to give that very personal look to challenge the creativity and skill of the child or to provide to memory those values being taught in the classroom now outdoor on the playground. Illustrated is the WWJD custom panel in two colors; however, any graphic in full color is available to be used and can be developed with the playground design team.
www.wowplaygrounds.com
Play Mart
Play Mart Playgrounds offers play equipment made with 100% Recycled Structural Plastic (RSP) supports, decks, and railings. Being solid-color-throughout plastic, RSP is virtually maintenance free--no splinters, splitting, staining, painting, or sanding, saving you time, money and energy. RSP is backed by a 100-year warranty. Play Mart gives you the choice of a recycled product that meets all the national and international safety guidelines and also closes the “recycling circle” by recycling consumer waste.
www.playmart.com
Navajo Structure from Progressive Design Playgrounds
The Navajo structure from Progressive Design Playgrounds is compact with a space saver design, ideally suited for schools with limited space and budget. This structure provides a nice combination of sliding, climbing, imaginative and cooperative play activities that are ideal for the 2-5 age group. The Navajo structure can easily be customized to meet your specific space and activity needs or age requirements. Progressive Design Playgrounds can also customize this and all of their other structures with religious-themed panels and rooftops.
www.pdplay.com
