I enjoy going 'on Duty' in the Kindy and Pre-Primary playground.
It's a vast change of pace from the structure and the order that is Upper Primary. There are a multitude of different things to do, games to play, things to interact with based purely on a child's imagination.
Concept artwork for the playground.
Finished a little over a year ago, our Kindy precinct is a fantastic modern design. Unlike the Preschool in the article below, it's unabashedly colourful and abstract - flowing lines meeting geometric shapes, pastel colours intersecting wood and metal. It's excellent. But the principle of "big body play" and dynamic spaces is part of it's design too. The main play structure is built into a hillside, with mazes, ramps, tunnels, stairs and slides all providing access and egress to the rest of the playground.
Dai-Ichi Preschool — located in Kumamoto, at the southern end of Japan, with its puddle creating outdoor area.
What linked this article and my recent experience together was the game a group of kindy students had devised during my recent visit at lunch time. Having taken watering cans from the equipment baskets, they had gone to the toilets, filled up their cans and were waters a hill of exposed earth, watching is pool and the break, flowing down the slope. The were experimenting with their natural landscape - free to design their playspace, get muddy, wet and dirty uniforms. I have to admit, my first reaction was to stop their game, to preserve their uniforms, the exposed hill and the school's water bill.
I wondered how often kids get the opportunity to get muddy, dirty and/or wet these days. I have been on excursions where a student has put his hand in the ocean for the first time. I have seen kids scared of puddles. I have had entire classes vote for indoor free time on their iPads over outdoor free time. I am no longer surprised by kids lack of confidence with the unknown in the outdoors.
I love our Kindy playground. It's a place I regularly take my significantly older student cohort to for free time because I value it so highly. It's where kids get to be "old school" kids. It's where they get to be imaginative, dirty and creative. It's where puddles are made.