Natural Playgrounds: Play Returns to its Roots
By: Margaret Ryan
Growing up in Virginia, my friends and I played outside almost every day. We played an imaginary wilderness game in a nearby field, rode bikes, hiked near the Potomac River, played hide-and-seek, and held weekly Monkees fan group meetings in my backyard tree house.
In the winters, we made igloos and snow candy. During the summers, my best friend Louisa and I walked to our daily swim team practice, trekking through the woods and crossing creeks to reach the neighborhood pool. Looking back, I realize I spent a lot of time outside with my peers freely playing and exploring. When it came to play, often my parent’s role was to open the door and say, “Take it outside!” And, that is where we all stayed until it was time for dinner.
When I was a kid, when we talked about play, it meant doing an actual activity. Today, the word play often conjures up images of toys. Times have certainly changed. I live in San Francisco with my husband and two young girls, and, in the city, opening up the door to let my children roam freely is not an option. My husband and I must make a concerted effort to get our girls outside and playing with the natural elements rather than their indoor toys. Our girls’ free unstructured play in nature often requires scheduling it on the calendar and taking a long car ride.
In the age of digital toys and few supervised outdoor community play spaces, it can be tempting to let kids slip into the habit of indoor passive play. Child development experts strongly advise resisting this route. Now, more than ever, it is important to get children outdoors among natural elements for the sake of their physical, mental, and spiritual health.
Numerous studies find that the natural world is essential to a child’s physical and emotional well-being. The correlation between outdoor play and social, cognitive, and behavior development is well-documented, with evidence supporting benefits such as improved recall of information, creative problem solving, and increased creativity among children.
A growing number of children's advocates and political leaders express concern that disconnection with nature adversely affects children, sparking a nationwide back-to-nature movement to reconnect children to the outdoors. Natural playgrounds (playgrounds that incorporate natural elements like sand, water, stones, and plants) are quickly gaining visibility as a result of this nationwide movement.
Jim Greenman, author of Caring Spaces, Learning Spaces: Children’s Environments that Work, believes the natural world is an optimal learning environment because it is filled with patterns, textures, and continual change. According to Greenman, children need a balance of instruction and opportunities to learn.
“In early childhood, our job is to help children live in the world, but also to love the world,” said Greenman. “Interaction with the natural world is the most powerful way to teach them to love the world.”
Greenman, who is also senior vice president of education and programs at Bright Horizons Family Solutions, a leading provider of employer-sponsored childcare and early education, went on to say that many of the qualities that developmental toys are meant to replicate can be found in the natural world.
He explained, “It is all there in the sense of possibilities in terms of doing the things we want them to do to be successful in school, like counting, sorting, measuring, and even learning language.”
Ron King, president of The Natural Playground Company and an industry pioneer who has designed 50 natural play spaces in the last eight years, agrees.
“When I visit schools, it is evident that teachers put so much effort into the classroom, but then outside is a mess,” said King. “I don’t understand it because outside is a learning environment as well.”
King created The Natural Playground Company more than a decade ago after observing the way children play. According to King, kids naturally gravitate toward the elements from picking up stones along a path to running through a grassy field. Natural play spaces provide a dose of discovery that King believes can get lost because of structured activities and play areas that dictate to children how they should play.
King said, “Natural playgrounds are meant for children to discover how to play.”
Over the last few years, leaders in childhood development have become increasingly aware of the necessity and benefit of incorporating natural elements into their programs. As one example, earlier this year, Progressive Design Playgrounds (PDPlay), which designs and manufactures environmentally sound commercial playgrounds and recreation site furnishings, launched a line of natural playgrounds called Outdoor Learning Environments in direct response to feedback from childhood development experts.
Outdoor Learning Environments are play spaces that allow children to explore their surroundings with sight, hearing, touch, and smell. They come in many different configurations depending upon the school, the community, the climate, and resources available. They range from vegetable gardens, to slides built into grass hills, to stages where pretend play capitalizes on natural surroundings to stimulate young minds.
More elaborate natural playgrounds include science labs, greenhouses, ponds, dirt trails, trike trails and mazes, and reading amphitheaters. They often include local plants and boulders, contributing to the authenticity of the natural environment. These outdoor classrooms function as play areas on their own or as additions to traditional physically challenging stand-alone play structures, such as overhead ladders, ring mazes, and climbing walls.
John Ogden, president of PDPlay, believes the playground industry is on the verge of a major shift, with more and more customers requesting natural elements to be incorporated into their new or existing playgrounds.
“We designed our line of Outdoor Learning Environments because our customers told us they want play spaces that engage children’s minds and their bodies,” he said. “As a designer of commercial play structures and natural playgrounds, we are in the unique position to offer our customers play spaces that are dually mentally and physically challenging.”
Rebecca Candra, director of La Jolla United Methodist Church Nursery School in San Diego, said their children’s existing play habits led the community to add an Outdoor Learning Environment last month.
“As childcare experts, we understand the value of nature-based play,” she said. “What is really interesting is that children, when left alone, inherently gravitate to the natural elements, like dirt, grass, and water. The children are thrilled to have a play space that combines natural elements and monkey bars, and they benefit from the combination socially, physically, emotionally, and academically.”
Designing a natural playground is a collaborative process between company and client. A company representative visits the play site, takes measurements, and interviews the customer to gain information about what they desire to achieve through a natural playground. With this information, designers create a custom play space that may include a wide range of natural elements ranging from water to the shade of a tree.
Play value is paramount according to King, who measures value by learning moments. If children spend more time on a boulder than a traditional play platform, then, dollar for dollar, it is a better value. According to King, natural playgrounds have an inherent ability to provide endless stimulus and hold the interest of children. Or, in other words, they are fun.
And, since children learn through play, fun is really what it is all about.
Natural elements may be the key to creating great places for kids, and that is the power and potential of natural playgrounds.
Margaret Ryan is a freelance writer and public relations strategist with a proven track record of successfully launching new products and building brands across a broad range of industries from playgrounds to consumer technology. She jointly owns Progressive Design Playgrounds in Oceanside, California, with her husband John Ogden.
Product Roundup
EnvyLawn Playground Grass
When you want to find the perfect balance of safety and appearance, you can't go wrong with EnvyLawn Playground Grass. EnvyLawn is an artificial grass that is made out of the highest quality polyethylene fibers and is designed to provide an attractive and safe surface for any playground. EnvyLawn is heavy-metal safe and is IPEMA certified for fall heights up to 12 feet without any requirement of crumb rubber infill. In addition, EnvyLawn is 100 percent recyclable in a single-step process and contributes LEED points to a project.
www.challengerind.com
Child’s Play
Child’s Play Inc. is a full-service park and playground company doing business in Texas and Oklahoma. Child’s Play provides a turn-key project with no pressure and one-stop shopping options for customers. Child’s Play offers some of the best playground equipment, canopies, pavilions, site amenities, artificial grass, and safety surfacing in the playground industry. Child’s Play meets the following safety standards: CPSC, IPEMA, ADA, A.S.T.M.
www.childsplayinc.net
EcoPlay Playgrounds from Safeplay Systems
Safeplay Systems custom-designs, manufactures, and sells play structures made from recycled post-consumer HDPE plastic – milk jugs. A single EcoPlay Playground keeps an average of 30,000 milk jugs out of landfill. EcoPlay Playgrounds exemplify a philosophy of "sustainable design for healthy living." Not only are the play structures made of recycled material, they can also be re-recycled ("sustainable design"), and their playground structures contain no PVC, no fiberglass, and no toxins of any kind ("healthy living").
www.safeplaysystems.com
Evos by Landscape Structures
Kids simply can't resist Landscape Structures’ "gyroscopic" Evos playsystem, with its unique arched design that's so unique, it's patent-pending worldwide. Evos playsystems offer almost endless physical, mental, and creative challenges. Kids love deciding how to play on equipment they've never seen before. They can't get enough of the suspended play events and bouncy Corocord climbing cables, which build upper-body strength and core strength as kids balance and counterbalance their bodies against the forces of gravity. Imaginations get a workout, too, as kids navigate a playsystem with no prescribed entry or exit points.
www.playlsi.com
Play Mart
Leading manufacturing of recycled plastic playground equipment, Play Mart's playgrounds contain 100 percent recycled plastic with a 100-year warranty. Their structures contribute toward LEED certified projects. The equipment is also low maintenance: no splinters, no chipping, no fading. An entirely new section on their Web site, the "Green Zone," offers a wealth of information on how Play Mart is “Recovering yesterday's plastics for today's play.”
www.playmart.com
PlaySafe
PlaySafe believes that by creating and operating a company designed to help with the education, recreation, and safety needs of people, they can and have made a difference. They look forward to working with your school to improve the lives of your students. They offer Consulting Services, Playground Audits, Maintenance Training, ADA Upgrades, Strategic Master Plan Development, Fundraising, Park Planning, Feasibility Studies, Expert Witnesses, Recreation Program Development, Design Review, Exam Development.
www.play-safe.com
SofTILE KrosLOCK from SofSurfaces
SofTILE KrosLOCK has been developed, engineered, and thoroughly tested to meet the demands of today’s most informed playground surfacing consumer. In 1993, SofSURFACES launched the industry’s first locking safety tile. In 1999, SofSURFACES pioneered radical design changes to become the first manufacturer to engineer durability into their products design. In 2006, SofSURFACES announced the industry’s first warranty, including compliance to the latest fall protection standards.
www.sofsurfaces.com
Surface America
Surface America, a leader in the playground and recreational surfacing industry, has been transforming what America plays on since 1993. Surface America’s playground surfacing products are IPEMA Certifiedand include poured-in-place, molded tiles, and synthetic grass with infill. Trail and pathway rubber surfacing is poured onsite and provides ideal shock absorption. Other outdoor applications include speckled roll goods, tiles and poured urethane for water play areas, walkways, and rooftops.
www.surfaceamerica.com
Grounds For Play’s Adventures in Growing
The varied physical activities of the Adventures in Growing series develop a wide range of physical skills and stimulate active play. The high sidewalls and narrow slide bed allow even the youngest users to safely enjoy sliding. With multiple 2-sided, 3-sided, or 4-sided combinations available, the Adventure Tower, Adventure Challenge, Alpine Adventure, and slide fit the needs of your crawlers, climbers, steppers, and sliders. You can link multiple units together for more complex play.
www.groundsforplay.com
Shade Systems
Shade Systems manufactures outdoor shade structures offering the patented Turn-N-Slide easy canopy removal and re-attachment system. Standard on all Shade Systems frame-supported shade covers, the Turn-N-Slide makes it easy for just one person to quickly remove and re-attach the canopy in case of hurricane or winter weather. On playgrounds, sports fields, pool decks, and concession areas, a perfect solution for harmful sun exposure is a durable and attractive shade product from Shade Systems.
www.shadesystemsinc.com.
Detailed Play PRO
Detailed Play PRO offers a complete line of playground equipment play structures for schools, including plastic play structures, early childhood play structures, and larger metal play systems. These world-class units have punched steel decks and stairs with PVC finish, galvanized 3.5" diameter steel tubing with powder-coated finish in your choice of color and rotationally molded plastic slides, hoods, roofs, and polyethylene wall panels, all in your choice of color. The products are designed for constant use by children ages 2-12.
www.detailedplaypro.com
NEOS 360 from Playworld Systems
A version of the classic NEOS game, NEOS 360 will add excitement to electronic gaming in outdoor play spaces while improving agility, balance, fitness, and social skills. With a new circular design, NEOS 360 will have kids spinning, dashing, and moving up and down to enhance the competitive and challenging tasks of each game. Interactive sound and buttons make the NEOS 360 exhilarating and fun, while offering eight games with player options.
www.playworldsystems.com
International Play Company
International Play Company (IPC) researched the outdoor market exhaustively prior to introducing its new “heavy-duty” line of outdoor play structures. IPC reviewed countless designs and numerous installations before deciding on a product line that is challenging, safe, and built to last. IPC’s Outdoor Products include heavily reinforced decks. The product line also includes redesigned heavy-duty clamping systems, oversized uprights, and engineered metal structural elements.
www.iplayco.com
Playland
Playland International is a leading manufacturer of commercial playground equipment. As part of Superior International, the company offers Playland commercial playgrounds, Superior Shade structures, SII Steel Structures, Play On Surfacing, Webcoat Site Amenities, and Childworks products. The company has become the one-stop shop for all of your playground needs.
www.Playland-inc.com
