The Green Issue - Fall 2013 Playground Magazine - Vol. 13-No. 3

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Fall 2013 Playground Magazine 3

Contents 8

Playground Magazine | Volume 13 No. 3 | Fall 2013

Features

Integrating Schoolyards for Play, Work, and Learning:

8

Rediscovering Nature

by Dr. Joe L. Frost and Danna Keyburn

Fran Wallach’s Induction into the NRPA’s Robert W. Crawford Hall of Fame

12

by Peggy Payne

Hands-on-Nature Anarchy Zone

16

16

by Rusty Keeler

Playing Naturally:

20

Why Kids Need Nature!

by Ron King

Playing Hide and Seek from the Sun

26

by Sarah van Wezel and Jay Jensen

Environmentally Friendly Playgrounds

28

by John Ogden

28 Departments 7 PGPedia.COM 14 PGPNewsCenter.COM 23 4 Great Green Events 25 CPSI Course Calendar

Cover Photo: Chepko Danil Vitalevich/Shutterstock.com

4 Playground Magazine Fall 2013

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PLAY & PLAYGROUND

Jay Beckwith

• Began designing play environments in 1970.

• Has written several books on designing and building play equipment.

• Is a Certified Playground Safety Inspector.

• Has written publications and developed programs for playground safety.

• Has consulted with playground manufacturers in their design process.

• Writes a blog at playgroundguru.org.

• Completed a comprehensive upgrade of the Gymboree Play and Music apparatus.

• Currently developing location based mobile games with the goal of using smartphones in outdoor play.

Read More at

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Fall 2013 Playground Magazine 5

Curtis Stoddard Publisher 

Nature is a Beautiful Thing Publisher Curtis Stoddard

Editor Rita Watts

Advertising Director

Nature, or Mother Nature, as I fondly refer to her, is a beautiful thing.

I do not intend a pun, but I have more of a “hippie” connotation in mind. Perhaps you see nature as aesthetically intoxicating, or maybe you lean more towards nature being the catalyst to inner peace and tranquility for the soul; regardless, Mother Nature is indeed magnificent, intriguing, and hopeful: a beautiful thing. I am lucky when it comes to nature, I live on the backside of The Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park is just over the hill. This is Mother Nature at her best!

Lauri Burns

Design Jake Amen Printing Falls Printing

Accounting Evelyn Coolidge Webmaster Jake Amen

Contributing Authors Dr. Joe L. Frost Jay Jensen Rusty Keeler Danna Keyburn Ron King John Ogden Peggy Payne Anne-Marie Spencer Sarah van Wezel

Photo: Linda Janssen

While I have a long and prosperous relationship with Mother Nature, I realize that many children (and adults) do not have easy and worthwhile exposure to the earth and its natural habitats. We would be wise to include natural elements, recycled materials, and hands on experiences in our play areas.

A garden will bring joy and amazement to children. Plants will intrigue and please.

Trees will shade and protect. Bugs will be questioned, micro scoped and captured! Log benches will hold families. Ponds will bring ducks and frogs, while grass will invite crawling, rolling and even cloud searching.

See how the beauty of nature lends to the beauty of play? Nature is a good thing; we should all work hard to include it in our plans for our play areas. As you design, manage and work with play areas, include nature as a vital requirment. I have to go now, I hear Mother calling.

Copyright, 2013 published by Playground Professionals, LLC, 4 issues per year, sub rates, back copies, foreign, reproduction prohibitions, all rights reserved, not responsible for content of ads and submitted materials, mail permits, printed by Falls Printing, Idaho Falls, ID.

CORPORATE OFFICES Playground Professionals LLC P.O. Box 807 Ashton, Idaho 83420

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6 Playground Magazine Fall 2013

You are holding your third issue of Playground Magazine since it has changed publishers. We hope you like the changes that have transpired thus far. There will be many more changes to Playground Magazine in 2014. Some of these will include a broader perspective on play and playgrounds; besides a new look, you will get a new experience. You will get nuts and bolts information. You will experience fun, and learn exciting and useful tidbits. We are sure you will be keeping your copies of Playground Magazine for future reference.

Also, our website, Playgroundmag.com is being redesigned. The result of which may be the most complete playground website available. At Playground Magazine we are passionate about play and play toys; it is our commitment to share our passion with you and your community.

We would love to hear your thoughts about play, playgrounds, and Playground Magazine. Drop me a note curtis@playgroundprofessionals.com and tell me what you think about Playground Magazine.

Please let me know how we can better serve you as we move forward.

Thank you for your commitment to play! www.playgroundmag.com

The Play & Playground Encyclopedia - pgpedia.com Over 600 listings of play and playground related companies, organizations, events, books, magazines, safety, people and blogs.

Biophilia Biophilia is a term invented by psychologist Erich Fromm to describe the love of life and living systems. Edward O. Wilson, a Pulitzer Prize winning author and Harvard biologist, expanded on the meaning and emphasis of biophilia believing that the human love of nature and animals is a genetic result of evolutionary processes. The love of nature, suggested to be genetically encoded in humans, was further investigated in The Biophilia Hypothesis, edited by Wilson and Stephen Kellert.

People are drawn to natural settings, such as gardens and forests, and nature play offers many benefits for children and adults alike. More than a century ago, American naturalist John Muir noted, “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, overcivilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.”

Environmental psychologists suggest that biophilic tendencies in people are evident when they experience real benefits from natural settings. Research has shown that hospital environments that include plants and natural settings are therapeutic and aid recovery times, and benefits are also seen in the work place as well as school rooms when natural elements are added. Urban design that brings nature into the plans with trees, parks, greenways, and wilderness areas, promotes

pgpedia.com/b/biophilia

calmer, healthier environments for the residents.

Children express their natural love of nature at an early age. They are drawn to animals, especially baby animals, and naturally develop empathy for them and a sense of wonder. Elementary-aged school children enjoy opportunities to explore in natural environments as they follow streams, hunt for treasures, and imagine play adventures. These natural environments have four qualities that are especially appealing to children: their unending diversity, the fact that adults do not create them, their feeling of timelessness in settings that could have been in fairy tales, and the fact that they are the home of animals.

Natural environments offer openended play for children with natural elements that can be manipulated, such as dirt, sand, water, and plants. Natural elements stimulate discovery and wonder and encourage imagination and pretend play. Children tend to play longer in outdoor settings and are more physically active. They enjoy greater independence in outdoor spaces, are freer to run and shout, and can enjoy messier activities than when playing indoors.

If children are not given opportunities to develop their natural attraction to nature, they could develop biophobia, an aversion to nature. Children with biophobic tendencies might feel discomfort in natural settings and be fearful of dirt, germs, and bugs not found in sterile,

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Image courtesy of chrisroll / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

man-made environments. The concern of environmental psychologists is that these children could grow up to view nature as nothing more than a disposable resource with little regard for the environment.

Reference

1. Ellis-Christensen. “What is Biophilia?” WiseGeek. < http://www.wisegeek.com/what-isbiophilia.htm > 29 Sep. 2011.

2. Louv, Richard. “The Powerful Link Between Conserving Land and Preserving Human Health.” Children & Nature Network. < http:// www.childrenandnature.org/blog/2007/07/01/ the-powerful-link-between-conserving-landand-preserving-health/ > 21 Sep. 2011.

3. Ibid.

4. White, Randy. “Moving from Biophobia to Biophilia: Developmentally Appropriate Environmental Education for Children.” White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group. < http://www.whitehutchinson.com/children/ articles/biophilia.shtml > 10 June 2011.

5. White, Randy and Vicki Stoecklin. “Children’s Outdoor Play & Learning Environments: Returning to Nature.” White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group. < http://www.whitehutchinson.com/children/articles/outdoor. shtml > 7 April 2011.

6. Ibid.

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FALL Fall 2013 2013 Playground Playground Magazine Magazine 7 7

by Dr. Joe L. Frost and Danna Keyburn

“Living in nature enhances aesthetic sensitivity, imagination, and sense of beauty. In natural habitats and gardens children reduce fears and learn about nature’s unbounded biodiversity.

Nature transforms schoolyards, backyards, neighborhoods and countryside into magical places for exploration, contemplation, reflection, and learning wonderlands for growing children.” (Frost, 2009).

8 Playground Magazine Fall 2013

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Historically, free spontaneous play was tempered with physical work and set in the fields, barnyards, streams, countryside, and vacant city lands. Today, children are abandoning outdoor exploration, free play, and learning in nature for sedentary cyber play, junk food, and the destructive effects of high stakes testing and over-protectionism. The dilemma thickens. During the first decade of the present century, more than a quarter of American children and more than half of those in developing countries have grown up in urban slums. Most may never experience more than fleeting contacts with the natural wonders of wild places and farms and accompanying heightened senses and creative products of meaningful work and transformative play. Many will find their traditional grounds for play taken by machines, concrete, and steel or closed by fences, traffic, and privacy claims.

Growing awareness of the consequences of such developments, plus climate change, worldwide destruction of ecosystems, and population expansion are spurring unprecedented development in urban parks, neighborhoods, and schoolyards. This article addresses contemporary trends in transforming schoolyards and school curricula for integrating play and work, natural and built playgrounds, and indoor and outdoor learning. These trends are intended to improve childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fitness, health, development, and emotional security. They address the need to counter such fundamental issues as lack of experiential hands-on learning through play and work, effects of climate change, and preserving the natural environment.

Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s children will be the future arbiters of such developments and issues, so learning time is now.

This is a formidable menu but integrating free, active play and nature study in outdoor environments into the daily lives of school children is a central factor in healthy human development. Gardening and nature study are not merely con-

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temporary issues. They were recognized and implemented more than a century ago with the creation of the nature study movement, the allied School Gardens Movement, and the childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gardening movement created at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens in 1914. In 1973, the National Gardening Association (NGA), which was formed to influence the establishment of a garden in every school, intended to help children and adults understand linkages between plants, gardening, food, and health. An NGA survey found that in 2007 more than $35 billion was spent on promoting and developing gardening. (Frost, 2010). Following such patterns means examining, integrating, and promoting play and work in indoor classrooms and outdoor schoolyards.

Integrating Play and Work in Schoolyards.

Many early play scholars were in agreement that play and work in classrooms and schoolyards are distinct but related and valuable for child development (Frost, 1992). Froebel held that plays of childhood are the germinal leaves of later life,

and the creative actions of children are the basis of education. Dewey argued that play and work engage the whole child, reduce the artificial gap between school and home life, and result in social and intellectual ends. Piaget tied the play/work distinction to his scheme of cognitive development, maintaining that the difference between the two is one of degree.

Vygotsky distinguished play as a leading factor in development, proposing that changes in play represent growing emphasis on reality and more complex forms of thought. Csikszentmihalyi wrote that during play the child is at the peak of his/her freedom and dignity and believes that the quality of life is improved by applying play to human activities such as physical and academic work.

Scores of contemporary scholars and nature organizations echo the central role of play, work, and nature in human development. The Children & Nature Network (http://www.childrenandnature.org) develops programs for securing rationale, research data, and promoting international action for getting children into nature.

A 2011 CNN survey shows children and

Fall 2013 Playground Magazine 9

youth getting outdoors in nature increasing from one million in 2009 to three million in 2011. The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) joined forces in 2012 with a three-year goal to combat “indoor childhood” and lack of “green time” by reconnecting 10 million children with the many benefits of nature – health, school readiness, academic performance, and overall well-being.

Such challenges are taken seriously by growing numbers of American schools.

Creating the “Outdoor Classroom.”

For almost four decades Redeemer Lutheran School in Austin, Texas has been a research site for outdoor play.

Over time, steps were taken to integrate classroom investigation and learning with outdoor play/nature yards and to identify benefits for preschool and elementary school children resulting from daily play and work (both physical and academic) in built and natural outdoor schoolyards.

Integrating the Redeemer schoolyards for play, work, and learning began with the creation of natural and built environments in 1974. The play and nature yards were started in a barren outdoor playground by volunteers (men, women, and children) and University of Texas graduate students to provide and create play materials and equipment from scrap and to plant shade trees, fruit trees, shrubs, and small vegetable gardens. The earliest grounds were gradually transformed into three developmentally based playgrounds and natural areas with manufactured equipment

10 Playground Magazine Fall 2013

periodically removed and replaced for research purposes. During the early 1990s, an essential element for development, regular instruction, and maintenance at integrated schoolyards was added – an adult to guide and support the children’s nature experiences. This science enrichment teacher, a skilled naturalist, provides hands-on science and nature experiences for most of the school’s 500 students, preschool through middle school.

A space adjacent to three playgrounds for two to twelve-year-olds was transformed by adding a greenhouse, tool shed, cages and pens for animals, gardens, composting area, rainwater collection tank, traditional hand water pumps, native plants for attracting wildlife, and a covered arbor or pergola. This resulted

in a planned, enriched outdoor play/ work/learning yard for all age groups. An adjacent oversized indoor classroom contains a kitchen for food preparation and technology for science investigations and media work. In addition to the scheduled, formal lessons, informal on-going work is organized for students for the care of animal and plants. All this is used to support formal investigation and informal play, utilizing both nature yards and adjacent playgrounds.

The “Land Down Under,” a half-acre rainwater detention pond named by a child, is a favorite place for play and learning. This area is planted in bald cypress and pecan trees, native switch grass, and wildflowers. Such place-based environments take learning off the schoolbook page and make it contextual, productive, and sensory. Children roll down the hills, build forts, and test branches of cypress trees for swinging and climbing. The area is also used for children’s research and experiments. For example, students adopt a tree. They study the specific structure of their selected tree - examine bark, flowers, seed characteristics, tree growth, and food production.

The program is supported by numerous nature-based organizations. (Frost, Keyburn, & Sutterby, 2010) Early in the creation of “outdoor classrooms” children participated in the Junior Master Gardener program (http://www.jmgkids. us) developed by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Texas A&M University, and the National Wildlife Federation.

The NWF guided the development of www.playgroundmag.com

a Certified Schoolyard Habitat (http:// www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-forWildlife/Schoolyard-Habitats.aspx). This program helps teachers and children learn how to create and study natural habitats that attract and support wildlife. Other resources included GEMS (http://lhsgems. org) for guiding teachers; Project WILD (http://www.projectwild.org) for conservation education and teacher training; and Project Learning Tree (http://www.plt. org) for curricula, teacher training, and grant opportunities. Texas-based Green Ribbon Schools (http://www.greenribbonschools.org), operational in more than 800 schools in more than 40 states during 2013, offers assistance in creating ecosystems and nature classrooms, develops indoor/outdoor nature curricula, and promotes health and fitness. The program is evolving rapidly to include a wider range of nature projects.

measuring, and predicting weather in the school weather station gives children a sense of the orderly predictability of seasons and appreciation for the vagaries of weather.

A patch of Butterfly Milkweed was planted to attract migrating Monarch butterflies. Monarch Watch, the University of Kansas education, conservation, and research program provides online resources and butterfly tags to help children identify the myriad number of insects that inhabit the host plants for Monarch caterpillars. (http://www.monarchwatch. org) Children follow the Monarch migration by logging milkweed and butterfly sightings for Journey North (http://www. journeynorth.org), a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. The extended Texas drought provides ample field investigation of the effects of climate change.

Evolving Nature Projects.

The Integrated Indoor/Outdoor Classroom: Multidisciplinary and Project Based for Hands-On Experiential Learning.

Helping children learn to use manual tools is complementary to using technology. Planting and tending gardens is accompanied by learning about leaf and plant structures by using I-pad apps “in the field.” There are both common and unique benefits in raising rabbits, raking leaves, and eating food from school gardens in the school cafeteria. The instinctive bond between humans and other living systems is seen and understood through such experiential learning.

Hands-on composting and observing decomposition results in natural learning about the dynamics of change. Observing, www.playgroundmag.com

In active cooperative learning, diversity of approaches is evident. Music and the visual and dramatic arts are natural accompaniments to science and nature investigation using real world experiences and technology. The teacher plans with the children for integrating health, literature, math, music, science, social science, visual arts, tool use, technology, physical fitness, and social media. In addition, the natural world is an ideal context for spiritual and moral instruction and guidance.

Evaluation is more than merely taking a common written test. Teacher observation, cooperative planning, and cooperative evaluation with children all enter into diagnosis of individual and group needs and planning future investigations.

The indoor/outdoor program is oriented to teaching the whole child. Daily gym and recess, active learning, the arts, and nature study complement the balanced indoor curriculum. The obesity level is less than one-third the Texas level.

The campus is a microcosm of natural, academic, and technological systems for enhancing child development, improving health, promoting learning, and studying the challenges faced as world population increases and finite natural resources are depleted.

During the past quarter century the multiple faces of playing, working, and learning in nature were transformed for most American children. Technology, social evolution, changing patterns of parenting, and the culture of schooling kept children indoors and sedentary at home and school. The consequences for health, fitness, and learning were quick to follow.

Now parents and schools are rejecting the failed high stakes testing championed by politicians and beginning to modify school environments and curricula to address realities of the 21st century.

Children’s traditional love affairs with nature may never again approach the freedom of the wilderness open to them for centuries, but schools and society are now learning to bring the wiles of the wilds – the magic of nature – to the neighborhood, backyard, and schoolyard.

References Frost, J. L. (2010). A History of Children’s Play and Playgrounds. New York & London: Routledge.

Frost, J. L. (1992). Play and Playscapes. Albany, NY: Delmar.

Frost, J. L. (2009). General Session Address, U. S. Play Coalition and Clemson University, Summit on Play.

Frost, J. L., Keyburn, D., & Sutterby, J. (2010).

Notes from the Land Down Under: Transforming a Sterile Urban Schoolyard Into a Nature Wonderland. In Hoot, J. L., & Szente, J. (Eds.). The Earth is Our Home: Children Caring for the Environment. Olney, MD: Association for Childhood Education International.

Appreciation to J.D. Fralicker for assistance with photos.

Fall 2013 Playground Magazine 11

Fran Wallach’s Induction into the NRPA’s Robert W. Crawford Hall of Fame

by Peggy Payne It hardly seems possible that Fran has been gone for five years. The work she did during her lifetime is growing and expanding, and she has been chosen for another honor to recognize her service and her accomplishments.

On October 9th, at the 2013 National Recreation and Park Association Congress in Houston, Texas, Dr. Frances Wallach will join the ranks of the distinguished inductees in the NRPA’s Robert W. Crawford Hall of Fame. Some of her fellow inductees are Joseph Lee, Theresa Brungardt, Joseph Prendergast, Robert Moses, Edith Ball, and Robert W. Crawford.

It is especially appropriate for Fran to join the Robert W. Crawford Hall of Fame as she was a friend and colleague of Robert Crawford.

To be selected for this honor, the nominee must have made an extraordinary and lasting contribution to the advancement of the park and recreation movement, and their contribution must have been consistent with the mission of the National Recreation and Park Association, the Academy of Park and Recreation Administration, and its predecessor organizations. The nomination cannot occur until five years after their death.

It can be said without question that Frances Wallach made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of the park and recreation movement in the United States.

12 Playground Magazine Fall 2013

Fran was the chair and a founding member of the ASTM Committee F15.29 for Public Playground Equipment in 1988.

This committee was responsible for establishing playground design specifications that would improve the safety of commercial playgrounds in the United States.

She remained the chair of this committee until 2005. During the time she chaired this committee, Standard F1487, “Standard Consumer Safety Performance Specification for Playground Equipment for Public Use” came into being in 1993 and was reviewed and improved in 1995, 1998, 2001, and 2005. This is the playground industry standard for playground equipment design and is one of the two authority references that are used nationally by Certified Playground Safety Inspectors (CPSIs) when inspecting playgrounds.

At the same time her leadership of the committee in ASTM was happening, she was a committee member of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Safety Standards Committee that was responsible for providing the “Handbook for Public Playground Safety.” This is the nationally recognized guideline promoting playground safety and playground safety practices that is the second of the two authority references for CPSIs. In 1990, Fran, Monte Christiansen, and Ken Kutska convinced the NRPA Executive Director, Dean Tice, to allow a

two day pre-congress Playground Safety Institute before the 1991 NRPA Congress.

The success of this safety institute created the National Playground Safety Institute (NPSI) under the NRPA. Fran was a founding member of the NPSI Executive Board and served continuously on the Board until her death in 2008.

The NRPA is now running the program for Certified Playground Safety Inspectors started by the National Playground Safety Institute. It is estimated that over 60,000 persons have been through the training since the beginning of NPSI. About 3,000 are trained every year, and the current registry of CPSIs is around 6,500. CPSIs must recertify every three years to maintain their certification.

The large numbers of persons who have been exposed to the training and who are now more knowledgeable about playground safety is a testament to Fran’s work and the work of the other co-founders of NPSI. In addition to her extensive work with playground safety, Fran was active in the area of gerontology and therapeutic recreation. She was a Master Therapeutic Recreation Specialist (MTRS) and an accredited Therapeutic Recreation Consultant. She served on the President’s Council for Employment of Persons with Disabilities and the Access Board’s Regulatory Negotiation Committee on Accessibility for Play Facilities. www.playgroundmag.com

She offered her professional expertise generously to many organizations in her many areas of interest including the National Program for Playground Safety, Boundless Playgrounds, International Play Equipment Manufacturers Association, and the National Safety Council.

In addition to her participation on national committees, NRPA committees, and special interest groups related to recreation, playground safety, and accessibility, Fran contributed to the recreation and park society in her home state of New York. She was the president of that organization, a state conference chairman, and chairman of many committees. She was recognized by the New York State Recreation and Park Society by her posthumous induction into the NYSRPS Hall of Fame in 2009.

Her contributions are certainly consistent with the mission of the NRPA which is: “To advance parks, recreation and environmental conservation efforts that enhance the quality of life for all people.”

Fran was the consummate professional in all she did for the parks and recreation movement. She led with grace and mentored and inspired the people she came in contact with in all her various roles. She helped people to connect who could help each other and she was always available to help. In memorial tributes after her death in January of 2008, Fran was referred to as “the mother of playground safety.”

Fran was a trailblazer for the industry and has left a legacy of service to millions of children who can play safely at home, at school, and in the community because of her efforts. She had many friends and colleagues who considered her a mentor and appreciated her selfless giving of time and attention to help them deal with personal and business issues. All of us who knew her have stories of how she improved our lives.

A final tribute to Fran, made by her son Mark at her funeral, was most appropriate for the wonderful person that we knew. He said “…I look back at the family and relatives, the friends and neighbors…, the many colleagues and friends from her professional life. All of us have been touched by my mother, all of us will miss her terribly and I doubt that there is a person living who knew her and will not remember her kindly. I would call that a good life’s work.”

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Fall 2013 Playground Magazine 13

The Play & Playground News Center Today’s Play News and Views pgpnewscenter.com

The Nature of Play How important is it?

by Anne-Marie Spencer

A few years back, I had the opportunity to take a nature walk with a group of preteen boys and was completely unprepared for their reaction. As a girl who grew up in the Pacific Northwest, the woods behind our house was our playground, with crossed log see saws, “mile high” tree houses, imagined native encampments, treasure dig sites, we did it all. Imagine my surprise when these kids complained the entire time about how “Dumb, boring, and stupid” the walk was, and how they “really wish they could have brought their electronic devices to make it more fun.“ The juxtaposition of my childhood feelings toward nature and theirs is frightening. With the US Census Bureau showing 82% of the population living in urbanized areas, (compared to 50.5% worldwide) and the population growing to 316,225,000, with a .75% growth rate over the last 12 months, it is not difficult to imagine the nature spaces that I loved as a child, and that are in our lives today, being squeezed out in the future to make room for growth. We recently witnessed the discord caused in Turkey when the last green space in Istanbul, Taksim Square, was slated to be replaced by a shopping mall.

What a sad loss for nature.

We’ve all heard the axiom, “The best defense is a good offense.” In the case of preserving nature, our best defense is ensuring that today’s children love and value it, and therefore grow up wanting to protect and preserve it. The boys on my nature walk could have cared less if the trees they saw were on the forest or on their screen. After all, if you need to know what an oak leaf looks like, isn’t that what we use Google for? A survey done by BBC wildlife magazine showed how 700 children surveyed were unable to identify natural items as common as an oak leaf or daddy long legs. Less than 12% could identify a frog. This to me is nothing short of mind blowing. I guess I’ve always just assumed that children value nature as a play space as much as I did. I think it’s a 14 Playground Magazine Fall 2013

common assumption of many as we build nature play spaces that become havens for adults, but remain widely unused by the children they are intended to attract, unless a playworker is involved. If you build it, they will NOT necessarily come.

So how do we create nature experiences that children find enjoyable, and in doing so, help reverse the desensitization?

I firmly believe that kids who don’t enjoy being in nature have never had the opportunity to do much outdoors. If simply taking them there isn’t going to work, what else can we do?

Family Game day in the out of doors!

- Kids love family outings and games, and taking binoculars, maps, magnifying glasses, compasses, and collection boxes to the woods is a great way to create a family adventure. Ask the kids to play “I spy” with the binoculars, teach them to navigate the map with the compass.

If there’s an opportunity, go to the site early and hide something the family has to find. Create adventure. Keep a journal.

I can remember my grandfather telling me a “pirate fort” used to be in his backwoods and he’d send me off with a small trowel to dig for treasure. He hid pieces of colored glass, old costume jewelry, small coins, etc. before my visits (which I didn’t know until I was 14) and I would spend hours playing pirate with my sister, digging for the “lost treasure” they had left behind. It’s still one of my fondest memories of childhood. If you own a public nature space, consider employing a naturalist and/or playworker to lead adventures in the space.

Mixing nature into environments they use - If you build a playground, incorporate nature, and if you create a nature area, be sure there are opportunities for play. Sounds simple enough, but it’s still amazing to me how many playgrounds are built under the “cat box conundrum” namely removing all vegetation around the area, erecting a playground, surrounding it with a square box of surfacing, and voila, looks just like a playground set in

the center of a cat box! There is no reason to cut down healthy trees that can provide natural shade, and no reason that natural elements cannot be chosen and added to complement the area in the same way that slides and climbers do. Think of tall grass mazes, trees with cones to provide loose parts, natural elements to attract butterflies and birds. Play and nature together are powerful tools for creating a fondness for the outdoors.

The same hold true when you reverse the model. Nature trails can benefit from playful stops along the way to break the journey into smaller parts for children, to add intriguing stops and activities, and to create an air of mystery as children and families wonder what is coming up next!

There are several resources to assist with maximizing play experiences in nature. For design, I highly recommend NatureGrounds, Designing Play Environments that Integrate Manufactured Play Equipment with the Living Landscape, (http://www.naturegrounds.org) which illustrates in text, imagery, and model environments, ways that we can integrate both elements into a play environment that promotes higher use, along with greater appreciation for the outdoors. The photography is stunning, and the references to the online database that shows zone specific plants for their play value is invaluable.

For infusing pathway networks with play and creating trails that children love, check out Pathways for Play: Infusing play into pathway networks to encourage active lifestyles for children, families, and communities (http://www.pathwaysforplay. org). The section on trail typology that addresses designing paths that stimulate play through a sense of adventure, exploration, and discovery is fascinating, as is the entire book.

Both guidebooks were completed with the research, documentation, and manuscript preparation of the Natural Learning Initiative, College of Design, NC State University. Pathways for Play also features www.playgroundmag.com

the input of a robust advisory committee from a variety of trails disciplines. Both books are complimentary to anyone who requests them.

Speaking of trails, we were also fascinated by the little nature booklets available for families to download and use on trail adventures (http://www.gametime.com/ resources/curriculum-programs/playtrailsactivity-guides/). They were specifically designed to complement the PlayTrails line of products, but feature fun activities for families, classes, and children to engage in both on the trail and in home or classroom settings. They are intended to continue the promotion of environmental literacy introduced by the playful exhibits and signage found on PlayTrails. Children love them, and theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a fun way to engage the entire family.

Whatever you decide to do to help promote nature, there can be no doubt we need to do so. As development and growth continue, the natural resources we have become more and more precious and must be preserved. By ensuring that future generations feel the same way, we can go a long way to keeping our green spaces green!

PLAY & PLAYGROUND

Anne-Marie Spencer Home grown in Seattle, WA, Anne-Marie is the Corporate Vice President of Marketing for PlayCore in Chattanooga TN, and works with the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Center for Professional Development. Anne-Marie has presented over 60 national and regional seminars on a variety of topics, including inclusive play, nature play, playground planning, and grant research. During a 20+ year marketing career, she has written 23 books, and authored over 100 articles. Anne-Marie enjoys anything to do with health and fitness, as well as spreading the word about the power of play.

Read More at

pgpnewscenter.com www.playgroundmag.com

Fall 2013 Playground Magazine 15

Hands-on-Nature

by Rusty Keeler

n â&#x20AC;&#x153;Childereto are fraetever do wh nt, and they wtaogether work play scenes buildidngstructures an nding of astvoiuty and creatishackle ram beautyâ&#x20AC;?

16 Playground Magazine Fall 2013

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OK, here it is: my favorite play project in the whole world: The Handson-Nature ANARCHY ZONE at the Ithaca Children’s Garden in Ithaca, NY. YES! I have always loved the concept of “adventure playgrounds” — designated play areas dreamt and built by children themselves with the loose guidance of trained and educated “playworkers.”

Started in Europe after World War II, this style of wild, free, unstructured, kid-built playscape (once called “junk playgrounds” or “scrap yard playgrounds” because of the wonderful reuse of scrap materials) was adopted all over the world with kids building forts and dens, raising animals, cooking food over fires, planting crops, doing wild artworks, etc. Although since the 1970s the number of actual adventure playgrounds has shrunk, they still remain an important part of childhood culture in many parts of Europe...and are experiencing a worldwide resurgence.

Every time I visit an adventure playground I fall in love. Children are free to do whatever they want, and work together building play scenes and structures of astounding creativity and ramshackle beauty. These children enjoy free ranging experiences that many of us remember from our own childhoods. Did you play www.playgroundmag.com

outside unsupervised as a child? Until it got dark? Did you build your own forts and dens, make up games with your own rules, and explore the world around you? For lots of reasons kids today do not have those same opportunities. But they should. And wonderfully, we adults are finally realizing that we may have gone overboard in the quest to keep our children safe and busy with activities, and what children really need is trust and the opportunities for free, unstructured play.

Enter: the Anarchy Zone.

At the last World Forum Nature Action Collaborative for Children held at Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska, I participated with a local Ithaca, NY team committed to creating opportunities for outdoor play and connecting children with nature. The team included me, a play and development professional from Cornell University, and a Field Supervisor for the US Fish and Wildlife Service (yes, part of their mission is to reconnect children and families to nature!). At about the same time I was asked to be on the site committee of our wonderful Ithaca Children’s Garden. At every site committee meeting I would push a little bit of adventure playground propaganda—a video, a brochure, a slideshow—saying “we could really do Fall 2013 Playground Magazine 17

some wild loose part, messy play stuff here too.” And sure enough, the fabulous director agreed. So we wrote some grants, picked out a 1/4 acre of open meadow in the garden, and we were off to the races.

Instead of designing a space with specific features and details all furnished and finished, we decided to go in the opposite direction. With the motto of “if they come, they will build it,” we ordered loads of loose parts and natural materials and had them strategically dumped in piles in the space for the children to use however they wanted. Loose parts is the name of the game here, as well as getting assistance from our local community resources. We contacted the city forester and she delivered a huge 12’ mountain of woodchips plus some large stumps and log chunks.

We got 30 straw bales from a local farm center, plus loose tires, cardboard boxes from appliance stores, used rope from a university climbing wall, and much much more. We have a big storage shed on site chocked full of play goodies. Besides offering a rich, open-ended environment

we also understand the importance of staffing it with trained playworkers. With the help of professional playworkers from the UK (yes, you can get a bachelor’s, master’s, or PhD in play and playwork in Europe!), we are developing an intensive playworker training program to train Cornell University service learning students to be our local playworkers on site with a goal of sharing these materials and experiences with other cities and communities looking to do the same thing.

So what happens in the Anarchy Zone? You wouldn’t believe it (or maybe you would!). Kids climbing trees.

Constructing straw bale and cardboard villages. Jumping into mud. Building tire sculptures. Making mud pies. Tying up playworkers and holding them hostage.

All sorts of good stuff! Our official opening was on International Mud Day where we ordered 4 huge dump truck loads of screened topsoil and invited the fire department to come and spray it all down.

The result was ooey gooey wonderful messy mud mayhem.

“ooey gooey wonderful messy mu mayhem” d

18 Playground Magazine Fall 2013

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The Anarchy Zone is free and open to the public every day, but we have the loose parts/tool shed open two days a week with playworkers on site to help facilitate the fun. We hope to extend this in the future and continue to invite playworkers from around the world to visit Ithaca and share their ideas and expertise.

We also have future dreams about creating a larger adventure playground and urban farm. But for now, we will enjoy letting the children play. So fun. So rewarding. So surprising. Could you create something like this in your community? Or how about designating a corner of your current outdoor space to be a loose parts “anarchy zone” where anything goes? The kids will love it....

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Call 1-208-652-3683 or visit playgroundmag.com

About the Author

Rusty Keeler is an artist and play designer living among the hills and woods outside Ithaca, NY. Rusty worked as a playground equipment designer for BigToys in Olympia, WA and Speelhout in The Netherlands before starting his own business in 1996, Planet Earth Playscapes, designing natural landscapes for play. He is also the author of Natural Playscapes: Creating Outdoor Play Environments for the Soul.

(Exchange Press: 2008) When not knee deep in mud building playscapes, he can be found knee deep in mud playing. Visit his website at www.earthplay.net.

PLAY & PLAYGROUND

Dr. John A. Sutterby

• Associate professor at The University of Texas San Antonio.

• Has been researching and writing about play and playgrounds for more than a decade.

• Co-author of The Developmental Benefits of Playgrounds (ACEI, 2004).

• Served as president of The Association for the Study of Play Twice.

Read More at

pgpnewscenter.com www.playgroundmag.com

Fall 2013 Playground Magazine 19

Playing Naturally: Why Kids Need Nature!

by Ron King When I was a kid, I’d be out the door first thing in the morning and back home when the sun set. I can’t even remember eating.

Not far from our home there was a foothill to the small mountain behind our house with an old growth pine forest covering the hillside. The dense pine canopy limited the undergrowth, so it was nice and open beneath the branches.

There was bedrock on the hill, and water would seep out between its layers in the early part of winter, slowly flow down the hill, and freeze over. And then it would snow, so we had a perfect combination of white fluff on the sides (to cushion potential crashes) and a center run that was almost sheer ice, and fast.

Our Radio Flyer sleds had steel runners and a crossbar handle that bent the runners left or right to make you feel like you had control.

The run was only about 500 feet, but to us it seemed like a mile, and we would do it over and over and over again, all day long, up and down the steep hill, up and down. No supervision, no rules, just lots of exercise, and free, natural play we happened to discover one day.

Summertime was glorious, and freed us to travel further on our bikes to other parts of town, discovering backyards, stream corridors, swamps, wildflowers, and tall trees.

We don’t live far from my hometown, so I frequently visit the old neighborhood just to check it out. It’s more developed

20 Playground Magazine Fall 2013

and the lower part of the small mountain behind our old home is now crisscrossed with roads and yards and fences and everything else that curbs wild exploration. But higher on the mountain there are still expanses of woods and forests and streams and rock outcroppings that will always be there and always beckoning, but apparently not to today’s children.

Young families continue to move in with lots of children, but the neighborhood is dead. No groups of kids gathering together to plan the day. No laughter, no street games, no pickup baseball, no sledding, nothing. Not even on weekends.

Roaming the neighborhood used to offer an excellent opportunity to experience all kinds of natural, discoveryoriented play, but most kids don’t do this anymore. Not only are their parents more protective (so their kids aren’t allowed outside on their own), but kids themselves are busy with organized sports and weekend games, after school activities, increased homework, and being plugged into TVs, computers, electronic games, or social websites for hours a day.

Further, their outdoor play is limited to metal, plastic, or wooden equipment in playgrounds surrounded by chain-link fences, so free, natural play is just not possible for most children.

What’s troubling about this is many children don’t like this play situation one bit and would rather have what I had.

Further, numerous studies prove that the lack of natural play opportunities is bad for their health.

In a recent survey of 543 children commissioned by the Children’s Play Council, the British Market Research Bureau found that almost 90% of children “would rather play in natural spaces such as gardens, parks, and local fields building dens and getting muddy, to playing computer games,” and that nearly three in four children would like to play outside more often.

Photo: jordache/Shutterstock.com

Taylor says that exposure to the natural world improves the ability of children to concentrate (2002), Crain says it increases their powers of observation and creativity (2001), Pyle says it improves their awareness, reasoning, and observational skills (2002), Wells & Evans say it increases their ability to deal with stress and adversity (2003), and Grahn, Fjortoft, and Sageie say that children who play regularly in natural environments show more advanced motor fitness, including coordination, balance, and agility, and are sick less often (1997, 2000).

Other research shows that exposure to the natural world helps children to more easily assimilate geographical, ecological, analytical, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills, and to better integrate math, science, language arts, and the social sciences.

So, does play in a natural environment offer amazing benefits to the overall wellbeing of children? Yes, we all know that, yet here’s where it begins to get interesting.

Playgrounds are built by adults, and typically they don’t ask children for advice. So back in 2002 we thought it might be a novel idea to survey children and get them to tell us about their favorite outside play activities - just to see what they’d say. Then, we reasoned, we could design playgrounds that let kids play the way they prefer.

Over the years we’ve asked over 6,000 children about their favorite outside play www.playgroundmag.com

activities, and sure enough, 95% prefer playing in natural environments. They want all the things we preferred when we were kids: playing in the leaves, climbing trees, looking for bugs, climbing on rocks, and making forts. They also want places for quiet reflection, listening to the wind, and watching things grow and change.

They like building and inventing things, exploring and discovering, playing in the dirt, playing in the rain, and socializing.

Years ago we began asking the parents of these children what their favorite outside play activities were when they were kids, and their lists were identical to those of their children. They climbed trees, made forts and mud pies, dammed up water, dug in sand, jumped in leaves, rolled down hills, picked dandelions, held insects, straddled logs, played with maple seed helicopters, made sand castles, played with sticks, splashed in puddles, ran through tall grass, touched butterflies, and made snowballs.

So we ask them: if you liked these things when you were kids, and your own children like the very same things today, why aren’t you working hard to give it to them? Natural play environments are what children require, it’s what they want, it’s what you wanted when you were a child, so how much more convincing do you need?

We made a short list of places where children should be able to experience natural play activities: 1.

School settings are an obvious possibility, except that recess is being banned in many school districts across the country because of perceived academic needs, so they don’t provide a reliable opportunity for kids to experience natural play. But even in schools where short recesses are scheduled, most of the playgrounds are equipmentbased and don’t provide any kind of natural play experiences.

2.

Public parks are another obvious possibility. These range from small, intown parks, to large municipal parks, to state, regional, or national parks, and all of them usually have areas set aside for playgrounds. But for some inexplicable reason, these are also manufactured and provide no natural play experiences within them.

It certainly is baffling when we find ourselves in a park with woods, streams, ponds, boulders, and fields of wildflowers, looking at a collection www.playgroundmag.com

of brightly colored, plastic and metal (and sometimes wooden) equipment surrounded by a 4 foot high chain link fence with a “Playground” sign on it.

These enclosed playground squares found in most of our parks are perfect examples of how we’ve worked so hard to keep our children fenced in and nature fenced out - in contrast to natural playgrounds that “used to stretch from Saskatchewan to Colorado, and from Idaho to Missouri,” as the chief of a Native American tribe in South Dakota told us when we were designing a Natural Playground on his reservation.

3.

Roaming the neighborhood in search of natural play experiences is not as easy as it used to be. Further, according to the US Census Bureau in 2010, almost 81% of the US population lives in urban areas where parents are even more protective, so unless parents or some organized group take children to a place where they can experience natural play, they won’t.

Children aren’t getting what they need where they should be able to find it, so who can help them find ways to play in nature and get healthier?

You can. You’re reading this magazine because you have an interest in how children play, and if you’re convinced that they need natural play environments, then work hard to bring them to your school grounds and communities. They used to be the only place in which children played, but today natural playgrounds are not generally considered a bona fide play option, so they’re not an easy sell.

Most of the resistance will come from committee members (who may have already invested hours researching equipment options), administrators who are not aware of the natural play research, or parents who question their children’s safety. Parents lean toward manufactured playgrounds, because equipment has been laboratory tested to be safe (even though in 2006, the American Orthopedics Association said that the approximately half-million reported injuries on equipment-based playgrounds each year cost the US almost $13 billion every year), and because parents don’t have “proof ” that trees, gardens, hills, water, rocks, sand, and grass are safe for their children.

So you’re the one who can have a big influence in your local community if you bring the research to government and

school leaders. Show them the statistics.

Show them why children need to touch, smell, feel, and experience the natural world. Convince them that natural play is critical for the well-being of their children.

And then sit back and watch nature do her work.

About the Author Ron King, Architect, President of the nation’s oldest and largest Natural Playgrounds design and construction company, has set the standard for the design of safe, beautiful, sustainable, and lower cost Natural Playgrounds. For the past 15 years, Ron has been fighting for the rights of all children to spend more time in natural play environments as a way of controlling obesity, improving overall well-being, and encouraging more interactive and integrated learning.

He and his son, Ethan, design and build Natural Playgrounds throughout the US. Ron has a BA Cornell University, Masters of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania.

References:

Crain (2001), Crain, W. (2001). How nature helps children develop. Montessori Life, Summer 2001 Fjortoft, I. & Sageie, J. (2000). The natural environment as a playground for children: Landscape description and analysis of a natural landscape. Landscape and Urban Planning, 48(1/2), 83-97 Miller, Dana L., Kathy Tichota, and Joyce White (2009). Young Children Learn Through Authentic Play in a Nature Explore Classroom.

Dimensions Educational Research Foundation. http://www.dimensionsfoundation.org/research/ authenticplay.pdf Taylor (2002), Taylor, A.F., Kuo, F.E., & Sullivan, W.C. (2002). Views of nature and selfdiscipline: Evidence from inner city children, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 22, 49-63.

Wells & Evans (2003) Wells, N.M. & Evans, G.W. (2003). Nearby nature: A buffer of life stress among rural children. Environment and Behavior, 35(3), 311-330

Fall 2013 Playground Magazine 21

22 Playground Magazine Fall 2013

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4 GREAT Green Events

From Tires to Play

From Eucalyptus Tree to Climbers

At SofSURFACES we are committed to operating our business in a manner that uses resources wisely and protects the quality of our environment as well as the health and safety of our families and communities. www.sofsurfaces.com

PDPlay joined forces with Community HousingWorks for a project featuring a custom playground fabricated from a previously removed eucalyptus tree. Our challenge was to turn this giant stump into a series of climbers with a safe egress for children of all ages. www.pdplay.com

From Gardens to Playhouse

From Milk Jugs to Playgrounds

Playworldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s holistic design encourages children to reconnect with nature through traditional and nontraditional play, blurring the lines between natural and structured play environments. www.playworldsystems.com

Poly PlaysystemsÂŽ from Pacific Outdoor Products. Using recycled plastic is great for the environment, high-density poly decks and support posts are manufactured from 100% postconsumer recycled milk jugs and other high grade polyethylene containers. www.pacificoutdoor.com

www.playgroundmag.com

Fall 2013 Playground Magazine 23

Encyclopedia of Play Science IPEMA and National Institute for Play Launch First-of-its-Kind Resource for Scholarly Research about Benefits and Effects of Free Play Recently, The National Institute for Play, with support from the International Play Equipment Manufacturers Association (IPEMA) published the first round of academic research surrounding the benefits of free play on the newlycreated Encyclopedia of Play Science. The Encyclopedia establishes the field of play science and is free and open to the public, providing valuable resources for those interested in the science behind the free play movement. Free play is the state in which children combine creative, imaginative and social play in an unstructured environment as in nature or at a local playground.

“We’re extremely gratified to see this important project coming to fruition,” said Randy Watermiller, IPEMA President. “Those of us in the playground industry know how critical play is to child development – we hope this resource will help us further reinforce to the general public how truly important it is to prioritize play.”

The Encyclopedia is live on Scholarpedia, a wiki-based online encyclopedia housing peer-reviewed academic articles. It is the first-known database of scientific, academic research that demonstrates the scientifically proven benefits of play.

“The purpose of the Encyclopedia is to, through the prodigious scholarship of multidisciplinary play experts, define the boundaries of Play Science. This compendium of new information provides researchers, policy makers and the public the ability to effectively implement the credible benefits that are inherent in our intricate play natures,” said Dr. Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play, the organization behind the Encyclopedia.

Research Reinforces Proven Benefits of Play Per Scholarpedia’s policy, all articles listed on the Encyclopedia have been peer 24 Playground Magazine Fall 2013

reviewed by at least two editors prior to publication. Currently, 11 articles have been published, with six more in development, ranging in subject matter from: • Rough and Tumble Play – Playfighting has been tracked throughout time and throughout a variety of different species, and it must be cooperative as well as competitive. Most play and play-fighting occurs as a juvenile, and, specifically, rats that did not play as a juveniles are less able to cope when confronted with novel, unexpected or disturbing situations. Some species continue to play as adults to calm social discord, reduce stress and test relationships within a social group or with strangers.

• ADHD and Play - Animal and human studies are showing that free-play is increasingly important for all children. Activities that involve running, jumping, play fighting and wrestling are especially beneficial to developing the areas of the brain that are deficient in children with ADHD. Physical activity can provide a nonmedicinal method to reduce disruptive behavior and facilitate brain development in children diagnosed with ADHD. • Evolution of American Playgrounds – Playgrounds originated in Germany with educator Frederick Froebel who expressed the importance of play in child development and established the first kindergarten. In the 1880s, sand gardens were placed throughout Massachusetts creating the first supervised playgrounds in America.

At the beginning of the 20th century playgrounds were built in cities around the country, looking similar to playgrounds implemented decades later. Now, in the modern era, playgrounds have expanded to include a variety of spaces and materials often creating a magical and imaginative space for a broad range of people.

• Hunter-Gatherers and Play – Huntergatherers are egalitarian and autonomous people who live in bands of 20 to 50 people with similarities to modern child play groups. Productive work needed to sustain life is seen as playful because it’s social, challenging, manageable and flexible.

Hunter-gatherer societies are enjoyable communities to live in within a relatively playful and easy-going society.

• Adult Play and Sexual Selection – Play from an evolutionary perspective is enigmatic, but largely explained through natural selection. Play may hone certain characteristics that contribute to survival and reproductive success, and those characteristics are then inherited by future generations.

In sexual selection, male animals seek playful females as a signal of youth and health while females seek playful males as a sign of nonaggression.

• Technology and Play – Toys, games, and electronic media are merging into a seamless blend of entertainment, information, education and play. Electronic toys and games give children the opportunity to become comfortable with technology and learn to use technology. Electronic toys and games provide children opportunities to be the decisionmaker, learn through trial and error, experiment with different ways of learning and thinking, and learn the rules of online etiquette.

• Consequences of Play Deprivation – Playtime outside has decreased by 71% in one generation in both the US and the UK. The decrease can be attributed to more homework and class time as achievement standards are increased.

• Definitions of Play – Play, at least in humans, is not necessarily all-or-none, but can exist in matters of degree. Below defines the characteristics of play: www.playgroundmag.com

 Play is self-chosen and self-directed.  Play is intrinsically motivated— means are more valued than ends.  Play is guided by mental rules, but the rules leave room for creativity.  Play is imaginative.  Play is conducted in an alert, active, but relatively non-stressed frame of mind.

The NIFP, led by Dr. Brown, has worked with a team of Stanford University faculty and staff to develop the online tool. The Encyclopedia of Play Science cites dozens of individual, highly praised scientific findings in a diverse range of academic and scientific disciplines, including: evolutionary biology, neuroscience, developmental and cognitive psychology, anthropology, and play-related clinically and observationally based projects. This database provides a clearinghouse for findings that, when viewed together, create a cohesive picture about the proven benefits of play.

“It is our long term goal to expand society’s perception and activation of the myriad of benefits play provides for all ages,” said Tom Norquist, co-leader of the project and former IPEMA President. http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/ Encyclopedia_of_Play_Science

Calendar

CPSI Course Calendar October 21-23

Little Rock, AR

510-416-6700

22-24

Camillus, NY

518-584-0321

22-24

TBD - Chicago Area, IL

708-588-2280

November 4-6

Green Bay, WI

414-423-1210

5-7

North Kansas City, MO

573-636-3828

6-8

Salt Lake City, UT

801-782-5512

6-8

Clearwater, FL

850-878-3221

13-15

Bellevue, WA

360-459-9396

December 2-4

Plymouth Meeting, PA

814-234-4272

10-12

San Clemente, CA

916-665-2777

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Ken Kutska

• Executive Director of the International Playground Safety Institute.

• 31 year tenure as the Director of Parks and Planning, Wheaton Park District.

• Past president of the NRPA. • Chairs ASTM F15.29 Subcommittee for the standard addressing consumer safety performance specifications for playground equipment for public use.

• Member of IPEMA’s Voice of Play Advisory Board.

• Founding member of the US Play Coalition.

• Co-founder of the National Playground Safety Institute.

• Instructor for Clemson University’s Playground Maintenance Technician course.

• Has written numerous articles and authored the book Playground Safety Is No Accident.

Read More at

pgpnewscenter.com www.playgroundmag.com

Fall 2013 Playground Magazine 25

Playing Hide and Seek from the Sun

by Sarah van Wezel and Jay Jensen Playground designers and operators are constantly faced with the challenge of creating safe and attractive play areas.

When it is sunny outside, no one wants to stay indoors, especially children. On hot summer days young and old seek shade.

Shade provides cool relief from the rays, but incorporating shade in play areas also provides great value to play areas yearround.

Screen the Sun, Keep the Fun, Seek the Shade The importance of adding a shade element to play areas is emphasized as playground designers realize the impact of UV damage to play equipment and the importance of sun protection to prolong equipment life.

Summer temperatures soar into the 3 digits in many places and metal and plastic play equipment can soak up the rays. Unprotected playground equipment and rubberized surfaces can get too hot to touch, which can lead to children and adults being severely burned. Providing covered play areas can have young and old enjoy the fun for much longer periods of the day and maximize the play equipment investment.

Equally troubling is that one of the most pervasive threats to the health of children is also often overlooked - one that affects them every time they step outside into the sun. Children who are unprotected from the harmful rays of the

26 Playground Magazine Fall 2013

sun could face skin cancer.

A very common form of skin cancer usually seen in people over 50 years old is now being found in a younger group of people including teens and those in their twenties, according to the American Dermatology Association (ADA). “We need to educate our youth and, more importantly, keep the fun and shade the sun!” states William Barth, President and C.E.O. of the Skin Cancer Awareness Foundation. One such program is the award winning Sun Smart Kids Cool School Program, which was awarded the 2009 Golden Triangle Award from the American Academy of Dermatology. The program can be requested at the www.skincaf.org website.

Adding shade elements to a play area is one way to create a cool, creative and sun safe play environment.

Shade Solutions in all Shapes and Sizes Cool Natural Havens for Kids In 2009, PlayCore, Inc. and the National Learning Initiative, College of Design, North Carolina State University released NatureGrounds: Creating & Retrofitting Play Environments Best Practices Guidelines. This guidebook outlines the distinctive benefits of designing play environments that integrate manufactured equipment with the living landscape. Specifically, it details how

a movement to naturalize a play space contributes to the development and wellbeing of children and families.

Trees provide natural shade on or near the playground, keeping it cooler and encouraging children to play longer, particularly during summer months. The NatureGrounds guidebook offers valuable advice for those who want to incorporate trees in a playground naturalization project.

To receive a complimentary copy, visit www.playcore.com or send a request to info@playcore.com. (Source: Nature Grounds: Creating and Retrofitting Play Environments BestPractices Guidelines).

The Natural Learning Initiative, College of Design, North Carolina Green Desk offers advice on “Affordable Shade Options” including vegetation, structures and temporary shade for outdoor areas to provide cool relief for children. For more information visit http://naturalearning. org/content/affordable-shade-options

(Source: The Green Desk, Natural Learning Initiative, College of Design, NC State University)

Adding natural shade is a good (naturally) idea, but incorporating commercial shade can create exciting innovative possibilities.

Imagination, Innovation and Creative Flair with Commercial Shade Commercial shade structures exist in a variety of material choices including fabric, canvas, wood, metal and more.

Making the decision could depend on appearance, type of use, cost, how laborintensive it is to install, cost of maintenance and replacement.

Playground designers are increasingly realizing the great potential that fabric in the landscape holds. Natural light reflected on fabric creates a soft glow and pleasant ambiance. Fabrics, such as High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) mesh, can “breathe” which allows air to circulate and thus lower temperatures underneath the structures by as much as 30%. The visibility underneath the fabric material, the imaginative design possibilities, not to mention the affordability of being 35 percent to 45 percent less than their solidwww.playgroundmag.com

roofed counterparts – are increasingly giving fabric a cutting edge. Generally fabrics cost less per square foot than virtually any other building material. They are less labor intensive to install and can be more easily maintained and replaced than any other competing element in the landscape.

Fabric shade structures provide the perfect solution for both weather protection and aesthetic appeal. It can be designed in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Tensioned fabric can be twisted, overlapped and angled into a virtually limitless array of forms and color combinations.

A number of overlapping sails can create an attractive accent and shaded shelter around playgrounds and parks.

Steel is a widely used material, popular for its strength, durability, design versatility and, lure of easier maintenance thanks to special processing like powder coating or corrosion-resistant paints. However, because of recent changes in the price of steel, other materials that were once considered too pricey are now more affordable by comparison. Laminated wood, for example, still one of the most expensive choices, can be the most long-lasting—40 to 50 years—and requires very little maintenance. Its beauty and strength make it a popular choice.

Styles are expected to become more distinctive for facilities as operators try to create an image they want to project. It’s about setting the facility apart.

Customizing designs of outdoor shade structures is one way to create an identity or theme around something that patrons can connect to and be proud of.

Whether it is natural shade, a freestanding permanent shade structure over the play areas or integrated shade as part of the play equipment design, shade is more than an amenity. It is a necessity.

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About the AuthorS

Jay Jensen is Director of Promotions & Marketing for USA SHADE & Fabric Structures, Inc. (which includes the Sun Ports, Shade Structures FabriTec and VPS brands.) USA SHADE is the largest designer and manufacturer of shade and architectural fabric structures in the United States with over 250,000 successful structures built nationwide. For more information, contact Jay at (800) 966-5005 or jjensen@usa-shade.com.

The company’s website is at http://www. usa-shade.com/. Sarah van Wezel can be reached at sarahvanwezel@yahoo. com www.playgroundmag.com

Fall 2013 Playground Magazine 27

Environmentally Friendly Playgrounds

by John Ogden

Ever since playgrounds were first conceptualized, they’ve been evolving in terms of design and substance. What once began as a hub for imbuing good behavior, playgrounds have evolved into a space of limitless possibilities, where kids can foster their creativity and learn through fun and play. But playgrounds offer kids more than just a recreational outlet-they promote physical activity and foment cognitive skills, inspire adventure and encourage exploration, and build the confidence and social skills needed to make for well-adjusted adults.

As advancements in technology and sustainability have revolutionized nearly every industry, the manufacturing of commercial and residential playgrounds have aptly followed suit. In fact, the materials used to construct playgrounds have changed considerably over the years.

Today’s market includes systems built from a wide range of materials, such as recycled steel and aluminum, following advancements in structural and reinforcement construction. Over the past two decades, the overall steel recycling rate has steadily increased, lowering the industry’s carbon footprint while maintaining the metal’s integral physical properties.1 Another traditional building material that has garnered support from environmental groups is ethically harvested wood. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)certified wood, as well as the more readily available Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)-certified wood, fulfill manufacturers’ need for forest products without compromising their ecosystems. Although both certifications ensure responsible forest management, they compete within the market with heedlessly harvested product, often making them a more expensive alternative for playground manufacturing.

28 Playground Magazine Summer 2013

In addition to these new adaptations of conventional building materials, post-consumer high-density polyethylene (HDPE) recycled plastic lumber is perhaps the most dexterous choice for production.

HDPE is among the most commonly used plastics in the United States, and its immense capabilities are transforming the manufacturing of commercial and residential playgrounds. In fact, it is so durable even the U.S. military is utilizing recycled HDPE to build bridges strong enough for tanks to travel on.2

Becoming a more environmentally sound industry is paramount, but it is equally as important that recycled building components present a safe, enduring substitute for the materials that they’re replacing. HDPE recycled plastic lumber does just that; providing a durable, lowmaintenance, weather-resistant material that resists rot, repels heat, and preserves color stability.

In addition to providing a greener alternative for traditional playgrounds, HDPE allows play spaces to be built in virtually any environment without the threat of deterioration, including wetlands, coastal regions, and areas of egregious temperatures. This advantage begets the concept of natural playgrounds, which encourage kids to engage with and in natural elements. Natural playgrounds help instill the importance of play during the formative years of childhood, and according to a recent study from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, spaces that incorporate natural elements are more beneficial to children and will inspire more play.3 While recycled materials boast innumerable properties that make them

ideal for playground manufacturing, their greatest attribute lies in the reduction of resource consumption and pollution. HDPE recycled plastic lumber effectively utilizes millions of recycled milk jugs, plastic bags, and water bottles that would otherwise end up in landfills.

Additionally, it emits no harmful emissions during production, unlike some of its traditional manufacturing counterparts.4 But structures aren’t the only part of the playground that are going green.

Site furnishings, shading, shelters, and even surfacing products are emulating a more environmentally-friendly fabrication. Tough, unyielding coverage options are becoming obsolete, with 100% postconsumer content available in the form of poured-in-place rubber, synthetic turf, wood fiber surfacing, and rubber tiles, all befitting a safer and more sustainable alternative. These low-maintenance products are impervious to extreme temperatures, can withstand frequent foot traffic, and don’t require mowing, watering, or other costly upkeep.

As the playground manufacturing industry continues to benefit from ecofriendly advancements in construction and engineering, one could easily infer that the vast majority of playgrounds today have been constructed from sustainable materials like HDPE. However, according to reports from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, almost one-half of public playground equipment is constructed primarily of metal; of that allotment, nearly 80% is more than 10 years old and is not distinguished as recycled content.5 Only a small www.playgroundmag.com

percentage is listed as plastic, and there are no definitive numbers regarding what type of plastic the playgrounds have been constructed from.

In the same US Consumer Product Safety Commission report, a substantial percentage of public equipment was listed to be in fair condition, and described as “rusted, broken, scarred, or abused.”5 Yet playgrounds manufactured from HDPE do not suffer any of these impairments.

They’re uniquely fabricated to prevent vandalism and graffiti. They resist rust and will never delaminate, chip, or absorb water like traditional materials. And unlike the playgrounds of yesteryear (which unfortunately remain prevalent throughout parks, day care facilities, apartment complexes, and more), they have the ability to contain additives such as flame retardants and UV stabilizers to keep them looking new for a lifetime.

It is our job as purveyors of play to provide the best commercial and residential playgrounds for kids to enjoy.

Constructing safe spaces that engage children’s minds and bodies is the best way to ensure that they’re getting the full intellectual, emotional, social, and physical benefits of play. Playgrounds built from recycled components will sustain and provide a safe play environment for generations to come. By crafting playgrounds from eco-friendly materials, we’re teaching our children the true value of our environment and allowing them the opportunity to experience it firsthand.

References:

1 Recycle-Steel.org (2010, February 20). Steel Recycling Rates at a Glance.

2 Schwartz, Ariel (2009, November 13). Would You Feel Safe Driving Across a Recycled Bridge?

Fast Company. Retrieved from http://www. fastcompany.com/1451763/would-you-feel-safedriving-across-recycled-plastic-bridge 3 University of Tennessee at Knoxville (2012, October 11). Natural playgrounds more beneficial to children, inspire more play, study finds.

4 United States Environmental Protection Agency (2011, December). Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States.

5 US Consumer Product Safety Commission (2012, July 23). Special Study: Injuries and Deaths Associated with Children’s Playground Equipment.

About the Author

John Ogden is the President of PDPlay, a manufacturer of recycled plastic playground equipment, site furnishings, natural playgrounds and playground safety surfacing. Over the course of his 20+ year career, John has overseen numerous successful initiatives for a range of businesses from ventures at their earliest stage of development to Fortune 500 companies. John’s career includes work in the public sector as a legislative aide in the United States Senate and cofounding a boutique winery in Sonoma.

PLAY & PLAYGROUND

Butch DeFillippo • Owner of PlaySafe, LLC, a Recreational Consulting Company.

• 32+ years of experience in the parks and recreation field.

• Holds a BA and MA degree in Parks and Recreation Administration.

• Certified Playground Safety Inspector (CPSI).

• Serves on National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) Certified Playground Safety Inspector Exam Review Committee.

• NRPA Certified Park and Recreation Professional.

• Stranco Public Pool Operator Certification.

• TRIAX 2000 Surface Impact Tester.

• Serves as a legal expert witness.

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Fall 2013 Playground Magazine 29

PLAY & PLAYGROUND

Mara Kaplan

• The driving force behind Let Kids Play, a firm ensuring that all children have play opportunities.

• A parent of a child with disabilities • Editor of accessibleplayground.net • Co-author of the Inclusive Play Design Guide.

• Founder of an indoor playspace for children with and without disabilities and its executive director for over 13 years.

• Elementary education degree Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. • MBA, with a concentration in nonprofit management, from Boston University.

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