Visit SportsPlay at the NRPA Expo Booth #6316
We make kids happy! We can make you happy too! We’re looking for high caliber distributors who want to sell more! SportsPlay Equipment makes many unique play and playground products at value price points. We operate an open distributor network without assigned geographic territories and are always looking for aggressive companies who want to offer more products and make more sales. Make your move to sell SportsPlay Equipment. . .and sell MORE. We’ll make you happy!
1-800-727-8180 | www.sportsplayinc.com Send email inquiries to: smeyer@sportsplayinc.com Check out our social media sites:
PLAYGROUND MAINTENANCE TECHNICIAN TRAINING The two-day Playground Maintenance Technician Training focuses on practical playground maintenance activities, inspection principles and best practices in making repairs. This program does not focus on play theory or memorizing standards.
Participant Benefits
• Learn about materials! Learn how to maintain playground equipment made of metal, plastic, wood and concrete • Learn about safety! Understand how to take damaged equipment out of service safely, keep proper records, and identify potential legal issues related to playground maintenance • Learn about surfaces! Learn how best to maintain unitary and loose-fill surfaces as well as fasteners and connectors • Cost effective! Train front-line maintenance staff at an affordable price • Ensure your equipment lasts through its useful life! Improve playground user safety and prolong the useful life of equipment
Upcoming Playground Maintenance Technician Programs • September 10-11, 2019: Pagosa Springs, CO (CIRSA members only) • October 21-22, 2019: Anacortes, WA • November 4-5, 2019: Oregon City, OR – Oregon Parks and Recreation Association • November 14-15 2019: Brighton, CO – Colorado Parks and Recreation Association • December 3-4, 2019: Independence, MO (Midwest Risk members only) • December 11-12, 2019: Aurora, IL Want to host a PMT program in your area? Contact the Program Coordinator at the Eppley Institute pmt@eppley.org Find out more at
www.playgroundmaintenance.org
Contents
Play and Playground Magazine | Volume 19 No. 3 | Fall 2019
8
Features 8
“Healing Communities Through Play™” for a Stronger Tomorrow by Michele Breakfield
12 How Modern Technology Can Boost Multigenerational Play by Yvonne Overmaat
12
16 Unplug your Kids and Get Them Outside by Judd King
18 Play Adds Up:
Head Out to Your Schoolyard to Learn Math by Jan Cohen and Tiffany Briery
24 A Playful Summer Internship by Emily Schreiner
26 The People And Events Which Shaped Childrens Play by Ray Wills
20 DEPARTMENTS 5 5
4 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE FALL 2019
CPSI Course Calendar Happening Today in Play
www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
CPSI Course Calendar September 18-20
Dublin, OH
614-895-2222
18-20
Leesburg, VA
804-730-9447
21-23
Baltimore, MO
800-626-6772
30-2
Sacramento, CA
916-665-2777
Enjoy the Outdoors ...on the Playground
TM
Commercial quality products able to withstand years of use and exposure. Made in the USA since 1959.
October
Trash & Recycling Containers
2-4
Hamburg, NY
2-4
Bloomington-Normal, IL
708-588-2280
16-18
Lexington, SC
scrpa.org
16-18
Clark, NJ
609-356-0480
21-23
College Station, TX
traps.org
22-24
Statesville, NC
919-832-5868
22-24
Phoenix, AZ
azpra.org
23-25
New York, NY
518-584-0321
28-30
Edmonds, WA
888-459-0009
29-31
Topeka, KS
785-234-5400
Picnic Tables
November 4-6
Wisconsin Dells, WI
414-423-1210
5-7
North Kansas City, MS
573-636-3828
6-8
Kearns, UT
801-782-5512
20-22
Altamonte Springs,FL
850-878-3221
December 9-11
Hoover, AL
Park Benches
518-584-0321
800-626-6772
www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
Bike Racks
Planters
Custom Signs
PARK • STREET • CAMP SITE PRODUCTS
RJ Thomas Mfg. Co., Inc. Cherokee, Iowa • 800-762-5002 pilotrock@rjthomas.com • pilotrock.com
Happening Today in play
Training Courses - Annual Events - Conferences - More
NRPA Congress and Exposition September 24-26
8,000 people who are passionate about parks and recreation, conservation, health, landscape architecture, city planning and making communities great places to live will converge on Baltimore for energetic networking activities, inspirational education sessions and an inside look at the latest products for the field at the 2019 NRPA Annual Conference. More Information: https://www.nrpa.org/conference
Baltimore, MD
FALL 2019 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE 5
Magazine Publisher | Webmaster Jake Amen
Editor Sara Bowersox Tia Cherry
Design Jake Amen
Accounting Brad Smith
Contributing Authors Michele Breakfield Tiffany Briery Jan Cohen Judd King Yvonne Overmaat Emily Schreiner Ray Wills
Copyright, 2019 published by Playground Professionals, LLC, 4 issues per year, sub rates, back copies, foreign, reproduction prohibitions, all rights reserved, not responsible for content
Message From the Editor
Sara Bowersox
Beginning of the world
I visited the end of the earth last week. Well, a T-shirt pointed out that Cape Flattery is the beginning of the world. Either way, it was an almost surreal experience to see where the waters of the Pacific Ocean flowed into caves and up against cliffs in a northwestern rain forest! Hiking through lovely natural environments is one of my favorite ways to play. I get to relax and explore at the same time. I appreciate the Makah Tribe preserving this land. I also visited the museum and learned things about the cultural heritage of the first people of the Northwest. This issue of Play and Playground Magazine explores several non-traditional benefits of playgrounds. The Trust for Public Lands and Urban Math Trails have partnered to expand outdoor educational opportunities. The Cunningham Recreation program “Healing Communities Through Play” seeks to bring residents and law enforcement officers together to build playgrounds in cities that have been damaged by broken trust.
A Master’s student performing an internship with Let’s Play America tells us how play benefits the whole community. We learn more about the YALP interactive play spaces and how they bring together people of all generations. Judd King shows us some good ways to get the kids outside and off of their electronic
devices. Our friend Ray Wills gives us another installment in the history of Adventure Play in the UK. This comes out just before the NRPA Annual Conference and Expo. We hope that you get to this marvelous event in Baltimore and visit all of our partners in their booths. We couldn’t bring all of this great information to you if not for our advertiser and contributors. If you see them at the conference, please tell them thank you!
of ads and submitted materials, mail permits.
CORPORATE OFFICE Playground Professionals LLC P.O. Box 595 Ashton, Idaho 83420
www.playgroundprofessionals.com
6 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE FALL 2019
www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
Now recruiting Representative firms!
Join our movement - Come and join a different kind of playground company where our work moves us to create the best park, playground and fitness products in the industry! We have territories available for Representatives with a passion to bring a higher level of play to the communities they serve.
bciburke.com Trademark(s) are the property of BCI Burke Company. Š BCI Burke Company 2018. All Rights Reserved. 800-356-2070
Healing Communities â„¢ Through Play for a Stronger Tomorrow
8 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE FALL 2019
www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
Learn more at the GameTime booth #5 304 at NRPA by Michele Breakfield ONE COMPANY trying to make a difference in the communities where they do business. Scott Cunningham, President of Cunningham Recreation, decided he and his third-generation company wanted to make a difference in communities across the country by starting an initiative called “Healing Communities Through Play™.” The goal of this campaign initiative is to bring together law enforcement officers and other first responders with local community residents and youth to build a playground side by side fostering a more cohesive relationship and rebuilding trust. Together the community will build a gathering place, where children and their families can play, learn and socialize. “We are hoping this small initiative finds its way throughout the United States and starts to help in mending community relations with local law enforcement. This is by no means a fix for the problem that exists today in our country with police officers and first responders, says Scott Cunningham. “But one small step in the right direction.” During the “Healing Communities” playground build, all community sectors work together toward a common goal— complete the build of a play structure and present the neighborhood with a new play space for area residents. Play is a universal language that brings children as well as adults together. Play allows people of all ages to connect on a basic level. Play 4 ALL, a division of Cunningham Recreation, manages this national campaign with the hope of rebuilding community trust and relations between local residents and law enforcement. The program provides opportunities for police, www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
youth, community residents and leaders to interact, communicate, get to know one another and focus on their commonalities rather than their differences. Cunningham Recreation’s pilot “Healing Communities Through Play™” playground project started with the City of Ferguson, Missouri. City leadership including the Mayor and Police Chief, St. Louis area Fraternal Order of Police, Ferguson Parks and Recreation Department, community youth and area residents all came together in a cooperative effort to build a playground and bring the power of play to the Ferguson Community Center on September 29, 2016.
Cunningham Recreation and GameTime play equipment, the largest playground manufacturer, supplied the play equipment, borders, and safety surfacing material. This new playground is more than a place to play and have fun. According to one area resident, the playground is a “Beacon of Hope.” March 29, 2017, county residents, youth and local leaders joined Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Metro Division, and Cunningham Recreation for the second Healing Communities Through Play™ playground build at Druid Hills Park, 2801 Poinsett St. in
FALL 2019 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE 9
Charlotte, North Carolina. More than 100 volunteers worked together; police, youth, and residents side by side, to build the playground. “It’s a small idea, but one that can hopefully change negative perceptions and have a positive impact on our local communities,” says Officer Chelsea Kidder with the CMPD. Officer Kidder has now moved to another state police department and hopes to do another “Healing Communities Through Play™” project there. Two other projects followed in 2017— Levings Park in Rockford, Illinois and Danforth Elementary of River View Gardens School District in St. Louis, Missouri. On June 9, 2017, the Rockford Parks Department, Rockford Police Department, County Sheriff ’s office and Sharefest volunteers built a brand new playground was in Levings Park. Law enforcement came out in droves and stayed throughout the day to ensure that the job was complete. Local children could not wait for the remaining safety
surfacing to be laid before climbing, sliding and swinging on the play elements. Cunningham Recreation’s local installer, Custom Playgrounds, generously donated their labor and equipment to prep the land and to supervise the volunteer playground build. The teaming up of these sectors was paramount in the success of this “Healing Communities” project. Danforth Elementary “Healing Communities Through Play™” project happened on July 21, one of the hottest days of summer. With temps reaching over 104 degrees, over 140 volunteers flooded in to make sure a new playground welcomed the students back to school the following month. Helping do the heavy lifting, River View Gardens Varsity and Jr. Varsity football team joined the officers and community volunteers. “It’s a day that I will never forget,” said an officer that was recently wounded while on duty. “There is so much good in the world.” The most recent “Healing Communities Through Play™” project took place Au-
10 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE FALL 2019
gust 22, where a team of Baltimore based community groups including Parks and People Foundation, Bon Secours, Celebration Church, and many others along with Cunningham Recreation banded together to transform an open space located in the Franklin Square Community from a vacant lot into a beautiful play space. It was refreshing to see so many community groups, businesses and residents come together for a common goal. Kirby Lane Park is now a community gathering place, a place for healing, a place for play. The work accomplished through the “Healing Communities Through Play™” initiative addresses the need to rebuild trust and bring the community together. Engaging sectors that have strained relationships and asking them to work together on a playground project does more than providing long-time play space. The act of coming together and connecting for the good of a community and a common goal, will hopefully encourage greater communication and develop a deeper sense of understanding during future interactions. Cunningham Recreation and Play 4 ALL partner with local municipal departments, corporations, foundations, and other like-minded organizations to complete these “Healing Communities Through Play™” projects. Many companies, large or small like Cunningham Recreation, feel the need to make an impact in the communities they too do business in, hoping they are contributing for a better stronger tomorrow. www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
To learn more about Play 4 ALL and the “Healing Communities Through Play™” initiative or hear how your company can become a “Healing Communities” partner call Victoria Babb, Community Resource Manager at 800-438-2780 ext. 139 or email Victoria@play4allcampaign.com.
Maintaining your parks and playgrounds just got a lot easier.
877.984.0418 www.playgroundguardian.com info@playgroundguardian.com
MAKE A MICHELE BREAKFIELD Michele Breakfield is the Director of Marketing for Cunningham Recreation and Playground Guardian and has over 15 years of experience in the playground industry. Michele has both a sales and marketing background with knowledge and experience in brand management, corporate communications, social media, event planning, and public relations. Her greatest strengths are her creativity, dedication and her eye for detail. Michele has a Bachelor of Science in Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations from Southeast Missouri State University. She resides in Farmington, Missouri and enjoys traveling, horseback riding and spending time with her family.
play4allcampaign.com www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
SPLASH
WITH A PLAYGROUND
PUMP!
www.CadronCreekPlay.com
FALL 2019 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE 11
How Modern Technology Can Boost Multigenerational Play by Yvonne Overmaat MULTIGENERATIONAL PLAY seems to be another ‘buzz’ word. How can playgrounds actually activate all? A multigenerational park usually means a large child-focused structure with some outdoor fitness equipment near it which already is a huge leap from the traditional 0 to 12-year-old parks, but how cool would it be if you could really be active alongside the kids you’re with? If you take your child to the playground, what do you do? Parents usually spend time on their phones and grandparents are not going to climb into a
high rope structure because they might be afraid to break a hip. As for our teens and tweens, they are definitely way too cool for the slide. Fortunately, not every playground needs a slide. The time in which we were only able to use traditional equipment on a playground is a thing of the past. Interactive play combines modern technology with being physically active outdoors. Technology allows for a broad spectrum of new and exciting possibilities. For toddlers and preschoolers, movement detection and audio samples can offer a completely new world of imagi-
12 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE FALL 2019
native play. During the pretend game ‘Moon Monster’ under the Dance Arch Sona children go on an adventure. The dance arch Sona will create a monster fantasy in which kids pretend there’s a Moon Monster. The Sona will play scary sounds and will give the kids instructions like ‘sneak around and flee the floor when the monster attacks’. It will ask the kids to ‘slow down’, ‘walk with caution’, ‘lie on the ground’ or ‘crawl on your knees’. Children fully immerse themselves in this monster fantasy and pretend it’s a different monster each round of play. Or they have a blast when the Arch asks them to ‘dance like an elwww.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
ephant’. Kindergartners find more challenge in games such as Rhyme (‘jump on the number that rhymes with live’) or a modern version of Musical Chairs. And even though ‘dancing like a chicken’ is a little outside your comfort zone, a little dance battle or a game in which you and your child learn binary or roman counting might be something you would enjoy engaging in. Playing soccer with a couple of neighbors or other parents on a smaller multipurpose square athletic court with four interactive goals might attract more than a regular field. Imagine defending your red goal and hearing ‘switch’ after two minutes into the game www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
FALL 2019 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE 13
and realizing the targets have switched forcing you to move to the other side of the field. Not only is it addictive to play, but just as importantly it is also very enjoyable to watch. And what is a good sports arena without a crowd? That entertainment value can also be used to create out-of-the-box solutions that attract teens because creating an appealing meeting place for teenagers and young adults can be quite an ordeal. There simply isn’t that much to choose from. Not everybody wants to be on a skate ramp, play table tennis or be the next ninja warrior. And there can only be so many basketball courts. On the interactive DJ booth, creative teenagers can become a real outdoor DJ. When placing your cell phone on one of the two hotspots, the music gets amplified instantly. It allows you to perform DJ effects with some of the pre-installed beats or your own music, like for example filter, scratch, and delay. You can
mix two songs together, record loops, cut them and there’s a crossfader; it truly gives you the feeling of being a real DJ outside. Some technology can even be used to transform your park to a destination and engage users even when they have left the park. After setting a score on the interactive ball wall Sutu, users can choose to claim their score in the free Sutu App to enter the worldwide competition, set up their own competitions, earn all kinds of badges, invite their friends and share their scores on social media. And that is not all. If you allow it, the app will even send you push messages. So imagine sitting on your couch while watching TV and suddenly receiving a message. ‘Your best friend has just beaten your high score’. Doesn’t it make you want to go back to the park again? Modern technology allows for new games or audio samples to be updated to existing locations to go along with im-
14 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE FALL 2019
portant yearly events or societal themes. Recently we customized one of the Sona games to fit with a school’s music week. Our Memo activity set includes a broad variety of STE(A)M games and quizzes. We educate users on cultural integration, healthy nutrition or make custom content so for example, a science center can integrate questions that correspond to their exhibit subjects. Interactive play has even been adapted to activate the more mature adults. In several senior living locations in Europe, the Dance Arch Sona is used by seniors for brain training with memory games, daily exercise or even to play air conducting games. Interactive play is much more than simple electronic play and being able to generate a sound or light. Modern technology can make a playground experience epic and memorable for both the young and the less young. www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
FALL 2019 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE 15
unplug your
KIDS
and get them outdoors might be worried. And you would have good reason to be. The American Academy of Pediatrics was worried too, so much so that they have stated guidelines about screen time for kids, with no screen time under the age of 2 and limited screen time of 1 hour for preschoolers. For older children, the goal is to ensure that they aren’t limiting other activities like playing with friends or going outside, in favor of screen time. It’s all about balance, as they get older. For many parents, it’s difficult to get their kids off their tech without triggering a meltdown, but by standing your ground on this issue, you can provide real and tangible health benefits for your kids.
What are the effects of too much screen time? by Judd King DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR? You walk into the living room or den on a bright, sunny day only to find several heads bent
down and staring into a little glowing screen? If you think about how much time your kids are spending with their tech, instead of outside getting fresh air and vitamin D from the sunshine, you
16 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE FALL 2019
Physically, everything from strained eyesight, headaches and sleep deprivation to obesity from a combination of being more sedentary as well as bad eating habits that stem from a snacking style of dining, with anxiety, aggression and other mental health issues mixed in. Kids also regress in terms of their inwww.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
in other interests, sports, games and activities, they’ll eschew the screen at least part of the time. You will be able to rest easy, knowing you’ve done your job!
Model the behavior you want to see
terpersonal skills, like playing with others nicely, building social relationships, using judgment, critical thinking and so on. Everyone can agree that none of these are positive results, so the question is: what can you do to stem the tide of screen use?
Set clear rules
What those look like are up to you. Kids at different ages and stages are going to use screens for different reasons. While there is a difference between using a computer for school work and mindlessly watching videos on YouTube, the summer—when school is out—is a great time to establish new habits. Discuss the plan with your family and then write out clear rules and times about screen use. If your kids haven’t been given limits in the past, this will come with a fair amount of whining but it’s worth the pain to see them go outside and kick a ball around instead. Rules can include: • Chores that need to be done BEFORE any screen time is allowed. • Daily limits on the amount of time spent on tech. • Rules around when tech can be used and when it can’t. Example? No tech at mealtimes or in bedrooms after bedtime. Everything gets plugged in downstairs before bed! • Make one day a week screen-free… for everyone, yourself included! You’ll have to enforce these rules by any means necessary, including using parental controls on the video gaming devices, but the goal is not just to set limits and be hard about it. The goal is to teach your kids about responsible device usage. Down the road, when they’re older, they are going to be surrounded by screens. If they have a solid foundation www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
It feels hypocritical to say to a child: you can’t use tech today and then you spend hours on your phone answering emails or whatnot. Sure, you might have legitimate work reasons for being on your tech, but kids will do what we do before they do what we say. If you want your kids to spend less time on tech, even if you still need to be on yours, discuss it with them. And make every effort to have times in the day when you put your phone away and are completely present with them.
Encourage tech-free activities
Setting the Standard for Playground Construction
Playing games outside, going for a hike or taking the kids to the park with a football are all great way to start to move them away from their tech obsessions. Being out in nature is a natural way to reset the brain and get away from the digital stimulation that screens cause. The brain reacts completely differently to outside, physical play, in a good way. A great way to get the ball rolling on this—no pun intended—is to make a certain day, or evening, of the week screen free for everyone. You’ll be surprised how even older children will come out of their rooms and be willing to play a rousing game of neighborhood capture the flag or hide and seek. Ultimately, kids are looking for connection with their parents. They do, despite evidence to the contrary, want to spend time with you, when you are present and with them, not staring at your own device. Games that are workable for all ages, that get everyone moving and having fun, away from their screens, are the perfect opportunity to unite the whole family, from little ones to Grandma, and create memories that will last a lifetime. Finding times and ways to do this with your kids, is the key to teaching them about balance, which they’ll need when they’re older and making decisions for themselves about their use of technology.
Now is your opportunity to take your career and business to the next level! Register for NPCAI's 2019 Las Vegas RISC Course! This certification is your opportunity to show the expertise you have in the recreation installation industry.
November 4 – 5
Courtyard by Marriott Las Vegas South 5845 Dean Martin Drive Las Vegas, NV 89118 The registration deadline is October 4, 2019. You do not have to be contractor to attend. Municipality employees, school maintenance personnel, general contractors, manufacturers, distributors, sales representatives and many others have found this course beneficial in expanding their knowledge within the industry! For a list of topics that the RISC course covers and more information about the program, please visit NPCAI's website: playground-contractors.org If you have questions about the RISC program or upcoming courses, please contact Kelly Clark at education@playground-contractors.org
FALL 2019 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE 17
Play
Adds Up:
Head Out to Your Schoolyard to Learn Math by Jan Cohen and Tiffany Briery
OUTDOOR EDUCATION is beneficial, if not essential to child development. The many positive outcomes of integrating outdoor learning into the traditional indoor classroom experience have been studied, tested and proven. Proponents extol the benefits of outdoor education: its ability to enhance academic performance, personal development and promote social and emotional wellbeing, regardless of gender, ethnicity or socioeconomic background. Recognizing these benefits, UrbanMathTrails, a math education consultancy, is partnering with The Trust for Public Land’s NYC Playgrounds Program, a non-profit committed to building student-designed playgrounds at public schools across the five boroughs, to activate its over 200 playgrounds as innovative outdoor classrooms. In the academic realm, outdoor education employs a wide range of multiple intelligences, including kinesthetic, naturalist and spatial, which is limited in a typical indoor classroom. Learning in
the outdoors enhances student attitudes toward school, creating enthusiasm for education, improving behavior and attendance. Playing an active role in the learning process leads to students experiencing greater motivation and gratification in learning. Through cooperative learning, outdoor education fosters team building and conflict resolution skills. It also cultivates problem-solving skills, creativity and decision-making by challenging student thinking in new ways. It appeals to the needs of nontraditional learners, thus narrowing the achievement gap between different groups of students and improving peer relationships. In the personal realm, outdoor education has been shown to enhance physical, social and mental health, while supporting social, emotional and behavioral development. Spending time outside can relieve stress and it is a fun change of pace from the routine classroom-based, teacher-directed, textbook-centered experience. It provides an opportunity to engage actively
18 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE FALL 2019
through physical movement, which encourages independence and initiative while building student confidence. Playgrounds can be used to enrich the outdoor education curriculum and TPL is devoted to this mission. In a new partnership, under the direction of UrbanMathTrails, The Trust for Public Land is rolling out a core-curriculum aligned program to empower teachers to activate their playgrounds as centers of math learning. Playgrounds have many elements that can be used in developing math lessons and experiences for school children. Basketball courts, running tracks, play equipment, landscaping, gardens, and seating are some of the facilities that may be creatively leveraged into fun, engaging, robust math lessons about numbers and operations, measurement and data, geometry, ratios and proportion, graphing and algebraic thinking. Playgrounds are natural extensions of the student math world. Large and nontraditional spaces shift math education www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
to a new level, enabling students to use their developing spatial sense to solve problems. Effective teaching requires multi-modalities, different ways of presenting concepts and skills to help students internalize new learning and retain knowledge. Playgrounds vary the experience as well as the environment, creating meaningful opportunities to learn or reinforce mathematical concepts and skills. Measurement is a fundamental domain of school mathematics and the playground offers multiple opportunities for interesting activities using both non-standard (hand span, arm span, step length) and standard measurement units (feet and meters). Some ideas follow: • Compare various non-standard units and assess which are best for what application. Paper clips may be appropriate non-standard measurement units for pavement tiles, but not for the length of a basketball court. • Convert units of measurement within and between the metric system www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
FALL 2019 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE 19
and the U.S. measurement system. Using tape measures, denominated in inch and centimeter units, students can convert lengths, widths, and heights to feet, yards and meters, practicing division to solve application problems. • Compare the dimensions of professional basketball versus a school court. This hones student measurement skills while teaching them about scale and ratios. • Compare lengths of lanes in a running track to assess starting positions. Students will learn how to calculate the correct starting position in each lane to ensure that all competitors run the same distance. • Finding the shortest route from one point to
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another. This challenges students to make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. Explore the relationship between perimeter and area. These are not proportional relationships, which students recognize while comparing them. Solve problems about area and volume for planting and landscape maintenance. Activities such as these demonstrate the planning and math underlying garden cultivation. Calculate student playground density. This sensitizes students to capacity restrictions to ensure comfort and safety. Collect data to build a scale model. Students practice their measurement skills, attend to precision, organize information, practice ratio and proportion and learn about the engineering design process. Confirm parallel lines and congruent shapes. When students evaluate real lines and shapes in situ, they internalize meaning so that it becomes part of their mathematical knowledge. Calculate slopes. By learning how to measure a change in elevation, students are exposed to another concept in engineering. Find heights using corresponding shadows. Proportional reasoning is fostered activities such as this, which enrich conceptual understanding of ratio. Practice estimating lengths and distances and comparing them to actual measurements. Estimating skills are essential and often underestimated in teaching math.
Playgrounds provide mathematicallyrich play equipment and flexible use spaces like pavements, turf fields and hardcourt areas for meaningful opportunities to apply geometry concepts and skills. For example: • Analyze, compare, compose and partition shapes. Modern playground design offers myriad opportunities for an interesting exploration of shapes. • Identify and measure different types of angles. Whether acute, obtuse, right or straight, the many structures in playgrounds offer the opportunity to classify and compare a range of angles in situ. 20 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE FALL 2019
www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
• Explore the properties of polygons, polyhedrons, circles, and cylinders; and, evaluate the properties of space from the perspective of both two and three-dimensional shapes and their relative positions. Learning about the differences between 2 and 3-dimensional shapes is facilitated by actual observation of the difference between a flat plane and an object that can be held. • Explore symmetrical relationships. This builds logic, observation, and spatial skills. • Learn about tessellations. Seeing actual pavement tilings enables real understanding about how to tessellate shapes without gaps and overlaps. • Recognize and use congruent and similar shapes. These are important ideas that relate enlargement, scale factor, area growth, indirect measurement, and projective geometry. • Learn and practice key geometric terms. When students are challenged to communicate math orally or in writing, their understanding of concepts and skills improve. www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
FALL 2019 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE 21
Graphing provides meaningful opportunities for children to represent, visually illustrate, and communicate important mathematical relationships. Students can collect data about playground layouts, facilities, and participation and graph the results. In the playground, they can model the coordinate grid and histograms with their bodies. Students can play human number line games to order integers, fractions and/or decimals. They can also estimate approximate positions on the number line between a range of numbers. By literally embodying these concepts, mathematical diagrams become very concrete for students. Many aspects of our world operate according to proportional rules so learning about ratio and proportion in the playground is a useful way for students to understand these concepts, use them to solve problems, and extrapolate to other situations and in other contexts.
For example, students can go on a ratio hunt or make their own. They can learn about the Golden Ratio and Fibonacci Sequence in school garden plantings. They can understand some of the design considerations that informed the playground layout. Activating the playground for math learning requires very few materials. The playground is in close proximity to the classroom, making it easy for teachers to coordinate and execute. Sidewalk chalk, measuring tapes or wheels, string, clipboards, and pencils are sufficient tools. Striping patterns help students organize themselves quickly for instruction and learning. Lessons are distributed in simple written form, students work with a partner or in a team and hand in the worksheet for teacher evaluation of student understanding and performance. They can also be adapted as teacher-led informal activities.
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There are many benefits of activating the school playground for math learning. Students learn math in context, hands-on, real-life math problemsolving. Student interaction with the built and natural environment through kinesthetic math learning builds observation skills and enables students to retain information through experience. The playground facilitates cooperative learning and thereby strengthens and reinforces math communication. It builds an appreciation of the outdoors for lifelong learning and enjoyment, adds variety and fun to the math curriculum and experience. It synthesizes learning across the math curriculum to deepen student learning and provides applied and effective math instruction that serves as a foundation for subsequent classroom instruction. Finally, it improves students’ attitudes toward math to make them like it more. www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
JAN COHEN Jan Cohen is the founder of UrbanMathTrails, an education consulting firm that serves various institutions in the application of math in new contexts. Drawing upon an extensive background in math education (M.Ed, Brooklyn College), finance (M.B.A., Drexel University) and architecture (B.F.A., Cornell University), and a passion for the outdoors and the arts, Jan’s programs inspire children to discover math in the environment around them, including parks and other natural habitats, playgrounds, museums, buildings, and neighborhoods.
Your Dog Park Experts! www.dog-on-it-parks.com
Prior to establishing UrbanMathTrails, Jan was a middle school math teacher for 16 years, following senior positions on Wall Street for 20+ years.
TIFFANY BRIERY Tiffany Briery is the NYC Playgrounds Program Coordinator at The Trust for Public Land. Tiffany works with school communities to foster stewardship of future and existing community-designed playgrounds. Her role includes leading stewardship and gardening programs, helping teachers get their students engaged in their gardens, supporting participatory design, and fostering park activation by empowering communities to program their yards. Before coming to the NYC Playgrounds Program, Tiffany taught at The Brooklyn Urban Garden School and served as an educator at a variety of New York institutions including The Science Barge, The High Line, NYBG, BBG, and The Brooklyn Children’s Museum. Tiffany holds an M.A. in Bioethics from NYU where she explored social and moral matters at the intersection of health and the environment.
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A Playful Summer Internship by Emily Schreiner When I first began to consider the internship I would have to do as part of my graduate school requirements, I never imagined that part of my job description could be sitting on a sidewalk playing tic-tac-toe with sidewalk chalk. Over the summer I was fortunate enough to work with the wonderful organization, Let’s Play America. Let’s Play America is a nonprofit based in Takoma Park, Maryland that aims to provide fun, free play events to community members of all ages and backgrounds. My internship began as a requirement to fulfill my graduate school practicum requirement, but it ended up being much more.
I am currently getting my master’s degree in public health with a concentration in physical activity. I am interested in how physical activity can have a positive effect on general health and well-being and I was mainly drawn to the internship opportunity with Let’s Play America due to the element of physical activity that they provide for the community via their play events. My role with Let’s Play America was mainly to help with event planning and evaluation. Due to my interest in physical activity, we made a special effort to focus on the physically active activities at the play events and to evaluate which activities participants enjoyed the most. I designed and implemented a survey to give to participants where we were able to determine what people liked the most about the events and which activities they liked best. I also asked for feedback so Let’s Play America could improve on future events. In addition, I helped Pat
to write a grant application in order to make future play events possible. I also attended all of the play events that took place over the summer and played with kids and adults alike. One of the greatest parts of interning with Let’s Play America was working with the wonderful Pat Rumbaugh, whose passion for encouraging play in her community and everywhere is inspiring to everyone she meets. It was truly special to be a witness to how involved the community in Takoma Park is in this program. I met many people throughout
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the summer who have been going to play events for years and always make a point to donate their time and support to Let’s Play America. I was also able to see the
www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
incredible amount of good that these events provide for the community members who attend them. At every event I attended adults were enjoying games they hadn’t played since childhood, kids were using their imaginations to invent new games and ways to play, and people of all ages were spending time with other members of their community and enjoying the day. I was able to see firsthand the incredible benefits of play for all people as I witnessed people of all ages laughing and smiling as they played. The 6th annual Adult Play Day was the first event of the summer. This event was only for adults and I double-dutched and hula-hooped for probably the first time in 10 years. It was great to see groups of adults playing games together like they were little kids. Pat also hosted a 4th of July play event and parade watch at her house and, despite a downed tree causing the parade to be rerouted and some threatening rain, everyone in attendance had fun playing tennis and board games and watching the kids play in the kiddie pools. At the end of the summer we hosted two events at an apartment complex in Takoma Park and all of the kids came out to play hopscotch, mini tennis, cornhole, jump rope, chess, and some very spirited games of floor hockey. I had an amazing experience working with Let’s Play America this summer and I will continue to be involved in some way as I continue with my education because it is such a great program run by wonderful people. Pat has a vision to have these kinds of community play events be spread across the country so that other cities and neighborhoods can benefit from play activities and community involvement. After seeing the countless positive effects that this program has had on Takoma Park, I truly hope that this vision will become reality.
Hurray for play! - Pat, The Play Lady
Readers, if you would like to know more about ways to provide playful events for your community, contact Pat, theplaylady@gmail.com and visit www.letsplayamerica.org www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
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Lady Marjorie Allen
Harry Killick
by Ray Wills THE NATIONAL PLAYING FIELDS ASSOCIATION (N.P.F.A) was established via royal charter in 1925 to acquire, protect, and improve playing fields, playgrounds, and play areas. (By the 1980s, it was to create over 700 recreational playing fields and unsupervised playgrounds in the UK). However it was not until the 1950s, following the King George Jubilee Trust report of 1952 ‘Citizens of Tomorrow’ which echoed public concern over road safety and juvenile delinquency, that supervised play provision really took off in any significant way. That and the future involvement of lady Marjorie Allen and employment of Drummond Abernethy as secretary (then director of N.P.F.A) was to have a profound effect on the establishment of supervised play provision nationally. Lady Allen, whilst working for UNICEF, had visited Sorenson's Emdrup children's junk playground in Copenhagen Denmark which had been operating since 1943.On returning to the UK, she was full of enthusiasm and led a cam-
WD Drummond Abernethy
Sorenson
paign via the “Under-Fourteens Council" to encourage similar playgrounds in the UK. She had published a special edition of Picture Post entitled "Why Not Use Our Bombed Sites Like These" as well as letters to the Times newspaper by herself and A.S Neil of Summerhill free school. Marjorie met up with N.P.F.A’s Drummond Abernethy and addressed a well attended public meeting with Lord Luke of the N.P.F.A and town planner Sir George Pepard. Lady Allen and Sir George proposed changing the name junk playgrounds to that of adventure playgrounds which was later approved by N.P.F.A. A national steering committee was formed at N.P.F.As Playfield House in February 1953 chaired by N.P.F.A officers Lieutenant-General Sir Fredrick Browning and later by Lord Luke. Government legislation was introduced to convert bombed sites into adventure playgrounds with grant aid available to community play associations to run them. N.P.F.A raised its funds through public subscriptions, fundraising via "The Variety Club of Great Britain"and "The Gold Diggers" donations from Sir
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Lollard Street Adventure Playground
Billy Butlins holiday camps, Pathe films along with royalties from recording stars such as Frank Sinatra and Elton John. Seventeen of these trial adventure junk playgrounds were established 1948–1960 led by play leaders like Harry Killick and Pat Turner. By the time I arrived at Playfield House in the mid 60s, attending their play leadership course, the N.P.F.As(now known as Fields in Trust) Play leadership department was well established. Its President, H.R.H Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh, and Drummond Abernethy were assisted by a team of retired military officers, Deputy Alan Curtis and secretary Mary Nicholson. They encouraged community play associations and local authorities to provide adventure playgrounds, play centres, play parks and holiday play schemes to cater for the play needs of children from ages two to twenty throughout the UK. Pat Turner established adventure playgrounds and 1’o’clock clubs in London parks, whilst Joe Benjamin,Gene Peck Sparkbrook Birmingham, Ed Burman of Inter Action Trust did the same at Camwww.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
den London, as well as Matt McGuinn, folk singer, at Glasgow and Pat Smythe at Notting Hill, London . In the 1970s many others followed: Stevenage Donne Buck had success at Bandley Hill and Jack Lambert (author of penguin book adventure playgrounds) did at Welwyn Garden City. Whilst in the cities, Sue Townsend (author of Adrian Mole fame), Helen Gush at Newport, Tony Chilton at Blacon, Bob Hughes at Haverhill,Dorothy Whittaker at Chelsea playground for Handicapped children as well as others had similar success. The Adventure Playground Workers Association and The London Adventure Playground Association were formed at Notting Hill adventure playground by Mike Buckley, Jim Jackson, Leo Jago and Pat Smythe. They changed the title of play leader to that of play worker and improved play staff working conditions and salary scales. Inservice training courses for play workers were established by the N.P.F.A at colleges at Stockport and Goldsmiths London An “Institute of Play work” and a full time Diploma course was created by Colin Mayne at Thurrock College. There was a huge growth of school holiday play schemes and permanent adventure playgrounds nationally in the early 70s, managed by community play associations, local authorities, development corporations, and charities such as Dr Barnardos’. Much of this was attributed to the work of Drummond Abernethy with his regular speeches to local authorities and nationally on the social and financial benefits of play leadership. N.P.F.A replaced the office-based military officers with experienced play workwww.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
ers as Regional Play Officers. These included Nick Balmforth,Keith Cranwell,Bob Hughes,Mike Halward,Tony Chilton, Pat Jenkins,Andrew Scott,Rob Wheway,Peter Heseltine and Gyles Brandraith (broadcaster and TV celebrity). They established a national network of regional play councils Later, other bodies were formed to promote child's play which included The International Play Association, Play Board, and “Fair Play for children” a campaign led by the Revd. Trevor Huddleston, Bishop of Stepney, following his letter to the Times when a child friend of his drowned in London's Regents canal. Alongside this campaign Stevenage adventure playgrounds were filmed via N.P.F.A to promote adventure playgrounds entitled “Children Waiting”. Fair Play was led by Donne Buck and others over the years including Sue Kearsley. In the mid 1980s, following concerns over the safety of children using unsupervised playgrounds, a campaign safety committee was formed and met at N.P.F.As Playfield House led by Donne Buck and many others from the field of Child's play, including the Road Safety Association (R.O.S.P.A), The National Association of Recreation Leaders and Safety on Playgrounds Action Group. Along with Paul Rose, MP, and television celebrity Esther Rantzen, N.P.F.A published Dangers in The Playground and N.A.R.L led a campaign via their Play Leader monthly publication. As a result The N.P.F.A safety group’s aim of providing safety surfaces on all unsupervised playgrounds in the UK was successfully achieved.
At the present time the UK has hundreds of permanent adventure playgrounds and holiday play schemes in the UK with thousands throughout Europe, all thanks to the early work of Lady Allen, Drummond Abernethy and countless others who had campaigned for the children's right to play in a safe and adventurous environment.
RAY WILLS
Ray Wills was himself a playworker in the early 1960s. He trained under the direction of Drummond Abernethy at NPFA s Playfield House then went on to establishing new adventure playgrounds at Birmingham, Stevenage, East Dulwich London, Rogerstone South Wales, Skelmersdale, and Bournemouth. He also worked on other adventure playgrounds in London at Camden, Kennington, Notting Hill, Hammersmith, and Battersea. Ray previously wrote handbooks on play topics for the NPFA (now Fields in Trust). Rays new book covers all those years in depth. Much of it is based on his own experiences with the children on these playgrounds and in campaigning for children's play generally.The book is available online and is titled VENTURES IN CHILD’S PLAY
Get Ray's new book at www.lulu.com/shop/raymond-wills/ventures-in-childs-play/hardcover/ product-23569423.html
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