The Importance of Kid-Powered Play
The Role and Value of Portable Play Equipment in the Child Care Center
Evidence shows that well designed interventions, such as providing portable play equipment and training staff on how to conduct activities in the play environment are critical to increasing children’s physical activity levels. The existence of portable play equipment in place of fixed play equipment is a significant predictor of participation in physical activity and motor skill development. After portable play equipment is added to a center’s play areas, research shows decreased sedentary activity levels and increased light, moderate and vigorous activity levels. Larger play spaces and teacher-arranged activities can also enhance the impact of portable play equipment and further increase levels of physical activity. Other benefits of portable play include significantly lower acquisition and maintenance costs.
Taking it to the Street (Video)
We invented our #PopUpPlayscapes to test playful provisions in new and even contentious contexts, transforming under-used or
Creativity and Movable Playground Equipment
The CREATE study unveiled the creative possibilities that could emerge from providing movable equipment in comparison to a school with fixed school playground facilities. Until recently, the types of activities students develop within school playgrounds and how these align with creativity components had yet to be explored. The CREATE study involved almost 800 school playground observational scans across the school contexts.
‘Risky’ Playgrounds Are Making a Comeback
Trying to build a playground with the goal of removing uncertainty altogether is not only futile it’s also counterproductive, and removes the potential for teaching kids skills they’ll need to navigate the real world.h
Loose Parts: Who is doing the thinking. . . .the children or the toy?
Here’s the thing. Loose parts are not defined or fixed. They can become anything! Loose parts require children to create the function, purpose, and role of the loose parts. It asks children to use their imagination. It gives permission to run free with their ideas. In the example above – the child had the freedom to abandon the idea of farm and expand into something new.
Subverting the Intended Use of Objects
While there are many arguments for the incredible value of unstructured play out there, one of the highlights tends to be that it provides the opportunity for kids not only to find creative solutions to problems, but also identify and define the problems they would like to solve themselves.
A New Push for Play-Based Learning
Although there isn’t a specific definition for purposeful play, researchers said one way it differs from free play is in the types of materials teachers choose for their classrooms, such as providing students with fabric for creative dress-up rather than pre-made costumes that come with prescribed meanings. Another difference is that the teacher’s role includes more observation and feedback.
Why the Danes encourage their kids to swing axes, play with fire, and ride bikes in traffic
Danes come from a starting point that children need to play, so schools and the government find ways to create structures that encourage this, from building playgrounds and public spaces that encourage risky play, to providing after-school care that focuses on freedom, not skills to get into university or a high-paying job. Indeed, some CEOs now argue that more free play is exactly what kids will need to survive and thrive in the age of AI, when machines do the computations and humans will be needed to be, well, human