Play Water Pump Races

The Tulip Festival in Woodburn Oregon attracts visitors from around the region. Even on rainy and cold days you can find people there (this rainy and cold day it was me). They have some neat kids activities. One I was particularly interested in was the water pump duck races.

Kids or a helpful adult pumps the hand pumps until enough water floods their chutes to push their ducks along. I like the activity because it has a lot of variation; each pump has little differences, each chute has a different amount or size of ducks, and everyone pumps differently. 

Only the older kids understood that is was a race, but the little ones had just as much fun. I can see this providing hours of fun at a school or early childhood center too.

A few design details:
- both ends of the chutes sat over animal  troughs that held the water
- the pumps were actually pumping water from these troughs
- the chutes were made of gutter materials
- loos parts of the rubber ducks made it all worth while

This is another venture into the world of hand pumps. I liked these, for their intended purpose. It would not work in all applications, but on this drizzly spring day it was engaging, functional  and entertaining.

See my other post on hand pumps Finding the Perfect Hand Pump

The Five Way Tire Swing

A Month of German Inspiration

This is one of the mist engaging pieces I saw in Germany. (Completely against the ASTM safety rules in the US.) This 5 sided wood pole swing structure lets kids swing toward one another and makes for a very dynamic and social swinging experience.

A Month of German Inspiration

Introducing the bug hotel, built by high school students to house bugs near their garden. It is also beautiful and artistic.

Play in Unlikely Places

A Month of German Inspiration

A reminder not to take myself to seriously! These hand rails on the stairs provided a bunch of play value too. Kids seem to find something to entertain themselves no matter what.

Water Channels

A Month of German Inspiration

This hand pump and water channel were by far the most popular event in this very busy schoolyard. You can see the boulder water channel that continues into the playground. I am not sure what the vision was, but when we were there the water never got further then 20 feet from the pump. This left the serpentine boulder 'creek bed' dry. In the end I think it was more of an obstruction to running and chasing in the rest of the play area.

Little Forts: In, On and Around

A Month of German Inspiration

There are so many types of little forts, houses and play buildings. Kids use every inch (and side) of these spaces. At this school the roofs were getting just as much use at the inside. Remember this when you decide what is surrounding your fort or house. Make the spaces safe for climbing, jumping and falling.

Wild Play in the City

A Month of German Inspiration

In the heart of the Berlin, this long linear park gave kids a sense of wilderness even though it is packed between two 4 story apartment buildings. At first it seems kind of boring, lots of messy vegetation and undeveloped paths. But, this is the empty lot nature experience that urban kids need they can roam, build and manipulate to their hearts content.

A Month of German Inspiration

This neat little log wall separated the play area from adjacent uses. Large wood burned designs gave it a nice organic feeling.

A Log Without The Collapse Danger

A Month of German Inspiration

I really liked this piece because it was simple and afforded the experience of climbing on and in a log type structure. The steps and slide really enhance the active play options.

Fall Surfacing?!?!

A Month of German Inspiration

I am not sure that German kids are tougher then American kids, or less prone to falling. But, their play environments are not as focused on fall surfacing and use zones. It allows a freedom that we don't see. On this hill a variety of climbing net activities were arranged above a cobble stone pavement. Not only was it stone, but it had a protruding stone every 24" or so. In the Us you would probably see poured in place rubber surfacing. I think the approach above fits the City landscape and has a stronger natural feeling while offering a more interesting risk for kids.

Climbing Play Spider

A Month of German Inspiration

This wooden spider and his accompanying net offered a fun climbing event for little ones. Custom wood creatures were found all over Berlin.

Build Your Own Fort!

A Month of German Inspiration

This adventure play area was fantastic! If I lived near this as a kid this is where you would have found me every day. Each kid can rent a numbered platform for 2 weeks and build their own fort. Two of my favorite management aspects were-
1. They were organized - see the tool rental cabinet above
2. They were creative - kids could pick up old nails and trade them in for new ones to build with!

Creative use of ping-pong tables

A Month of German Inspiration

This concrete ping pong table was everywhere! In so many schools I saw groups of kids using it creatively. Here a dozen kids walk in a circle around the table while the ball goes back and forth, turning a 2 person game into an active group event.

A Hidden Art Studio on the Playground

A Month of German Inspiration

 This rock with small bowl shaped divots, sat under a willow dome. It served as a quieter place on a busy schoolyard for a small group of girls to gather. The activity today was' tattoos' with a wet colored pencil. It actually worked really well!

A Month of German Inspiration!

I visited Germany, Berlin specifically, a few years ago and did a 4 day bike tour of nature playscapes. The spaces were amazing. Their outlook and approach to play are very different then the US. I returned feeling energized and hopeful. This month I want to share some of those images with you. I will focus on visuals with a little explanation rather then my regular depth into a topic.

This climbing wall was designed by the school children. they helped carve it out of native stone. There were about 8 large stones all lined up. It seemed to be one of the most popular spots on the playground! May of the schools we saw had carving rocks for the kids to use on the playground.


PS: If you get irritated with the frequent emails, stick with me. I will be back to my usual blog approach next month. :)

Come see the giant logs and lend a hand: Silver Falls State Park

Last week the crane was out in full force at Silver Falls State Park. The Bear, Cougar, and Bird themed discovery areas are under construction. The Silver Falls State Park Animal Discovery Area was design around a 1/4 mile loop path and 15 animal themed areas. The setting and access to natural materials will make this a fantastic project!

CURRENT CONSTRUCTION
A four foot diameter fir tree was felled, portioned into pieces, peeler and place in the natural play area. The left chunk will be the crawl through 'cub den'. The right chunk will be hollowed out and become the 'bear cave'.

Park staff found just the right root wad for the 'cougar den' and it was placed on site.

Log and rock scramble areas in the Cougar area are underway. Hand holds will be added to the large logs so kids can climb more easily.

YOU ARE INVITED!

The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department has asked ON Play (The Oregon Natural Play Initiative) to host a construction workshop in October. Join us to tour the current construction, talk over the plans, get dirty and build some bird themed features: install a bird blind, plant a ‘bearry garden’, build a nest kids can fit in and many other wild things.

When: Sunday October 28^th  10:00am – 2:00pm

Where: Silver Falls Group Camp Area (north side of the park)

What: Construction Workshop and Tour

Who: On Play members and interested friends and community members

Please RSVP to Michelle: Michellem at greenworkspc dot com 

Hope to see you there!

Nature Play Toolkit

GreenWorks recently created this nature play tool kit for Portland Parks and Recreation while working on the Westmoreland Park nature play area. It outlines some of the main activities, materials and concerns in nature play areas. It is a bit of a graphic menu for nature play design. These are a few pages from the draft version for review and comment.

On a schematic level these images help explain nature play to public and maintenance audiences. It can help garner support for a project or help bring everyone onto the same page. While it is many steps away from a design that is complete, safety reviewed and ready for play, I think it is an inspiring start.

What do you think? How would this toolkit be useful to you or your organization?

Natural Play Area Guidelines

The Tualatin Hills Parks and Recreation District  (THPRD) in Oregon has put together some interresting nature play guidelines. I have not seen many parks districts or departments attempt to put together a set of guidelines for nature play. This might be the first document of its kind! I think this document includes many of the basic concepts and approaches taken in public playgrounds in the US. It is worth the read and is a great place for parks providers to start when creating their own guidelines.

THPRD breaks the concept of nature play into two catergories as follows:

Off-trail play areas

Will involve opening designated sections of existing natural area parks for

unstructured free-play, where kids can discover and participate with nature on their own terms. These areas should have characteristics that will allow for an interactive experience with native habitat, including a diversity of plant size and species, fair level of ecological health, and variation in terrain. The needs of successful play areas should be balanced with natural resources concerns and general habitat health.

Bruce Barbarasch of THPRD ducks into one of the forts in an off-trail play area. Bruce has been the leading force behind the creation of the Hyland Park off-trail play area.

Natural playscapes

Involve the design of nature-inspired play areas, incorporating natural elements (plants, water, topography, logs, boulders, etc.) and built play structures to provide for a sensory experience of nature and a variety of types of play activities. As a hybrid of nature and traditional play areas, these playscapes will adhere as much as possible to existing applicable safety guidelines.

Camille Park Nature Play Climbing Logs

THPRD's Nature Play Goals

- Provide children of all ages, abilities, and socio-economic backgrounds with safe, accessible spaces in which they can interact freely with the natural world.

- Allow these spaces to be as inherently natural a setting as possible, and, when existing spaces aren’t available, to design and maintain spaces with nature as the guiding inspiration.

- Appreciate the potential for play inherent within children, and to provide a setting that encourages the use of creativity and imagination rather than, or in addition to, one which allows only for prescriptive physical activities.

- Recognize the value of these spaces as means for environmental education on various levels, including spontaneous and formal adult teaching, as well as that provided by hands-on, unstructured play.

- Make areas attractive as community features.


Do you know if any other nature play guidelines that I have not seen? Please let me know.

Nature Play in Parks: Two New Oregon Examples

Tualatin Hills Parks and Recreation District (THPRD) has opened two fantastic new nature play areas. One is an Off-trail Play Area and the other is a Natural Playscape. These play area types are defined further in my previous post on THPRD's Nature play guidelines.

Hyland Forest Park:
This piece of forest is set aside and free play is allowed. Fort building, exploration, digging and other activities are all allowed. It is part of a free play pilot project in the parks district.

The entire area is delineated by these signs, maybe every 30'.

There are lots of fots already built and ready to add on to!

There are more delicate built items like the 'soup bowl'

Camille Park:
This is also in the THPRD park system, but it is a very different park. They consider this one a natural playscape. It is a mix of natural themed equipment and natural materials.

Walking up onto the play area it is almost hard to tell it is a play area!

the more traditional equipment area

The awesome log stack!

Logs are set on concrete footings and rebar adds support so they wont move around.
But these logs are huge! I can't image they will move for a long time.

Another view that I think is peaceful and beautiful especially compared to what a colorful climbing set would look like.

sand play

Natural Play in Montessori Settings

I have been looking for a Montessori program for my little one and at the same time doing some landscape improvements at our house that will facilitate play. While she is a bit young for a slide or climbing equipment there are lots of things that are montessori based that she can do now. To me Montessori spaces are inviting in nature: they are inspiring, organized, and calm.

http://www.arborday.org

MARIA MONTESSORI

One of the central tenants of the Montessori philosophy is the connection with the natural world. Children should have the daily opportunity to experience the outdoors with structure and purpose. She placed a great emphasis on nature and nature education. Dr. Montessori also felt that the outdoor environment should be an extension of the classroom.

http://naturalplaygrounds.com

“It is also necessary for his psychical development to place the soul of the child in contact with creation, in order that he may lay up for himself treasure from the directly educating forces of living nature.” Maria Montessori

FACILITATING MONTESSORI WORK
Many of the ideas are not space based they are 'work' based. Much of Montessori education is based on prepared tasks or work that children can practice and achieve. How can Montessori work be adapted to outdoor spaces and materials? As a designer this leads to what types of spaces are needed? What materials are offered, where are they stored, and how?

Here is a basic Montessori math activity. We need exactly 55 pine cones (children check their work by using all the pieces) usually stored in a nice basket, chalk (also in the basket), a large, flat, and safe space where they can write and organize without being interrupted.

from http://livingmontessorinow.com

ORGANIZATION AND MATERIALS
Materials and spaces need to be organised so appropriate work can happen and so children are drawn to the work.

from http://progressiveearlychildhoodeducation.blogspot.com

APPROPRIATE OUTDOOR WORK
Much of the Montessori work for little ones happens around practical life skills. If only we can get kids to weed! At least digging, wheelbarrows, sweeping and planting seem to be within reach.

I could not find this web sourfce again after catching these littel ones at work. Please let me know if you know the source.

How do we inspire a deep and true connection to nature? I like this Montessori farm approach (dispite being bit by a chicken as a child)!

www.mountainlaurelmontessori.org

HOW TO MAINTAIN THE OUTDOOR MONTESSORI AREA

The process from inspiration to design can be a long and detailed endevour.  But, there are some wonderful resources out there. The Montessori Print Shop has learning materials as well as a specific section on playgrounds. They have a lot of helpful playground forms including an injury log, inspection forms for daily, monthly and yearly and seasonal maintenance. While the forms may seem like extra work they will be invaluable for maintenance, extending the life of your playscape, protecting children and liability.