Nature Play. Simple and fun ideas for all. This practical guide on nature play offers fun, simple and cost effective examples of play ideas from easily sourced materials.
It will help Forestry Commission staff and other landowners or managers wanting to improve informal play provision for children. Its presentational style, through photographs, also illustrates clearly to practitioners and partner organisations what is meant by nature play. Foreword by CABE Space (pdf 93k) Introduction (pdf 107k) Appendix (pdf 209k) Idea-1: Tree Climbing (pdf 205k)We all remember those special trees with large lower limbs that we climbed, swung and bounced on. Www.freeplaynetwork.org.uk/pubs/PfP2.pdf. Www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/fce-rope-swings-dens-fires.pdf/$FILE/fce-rope-swings-dens-fires.pdf. Www.freeplaynetwork.org.uk/pubs/design-for-play.pdf. Skolens Utemiljø. Things We Like:What Happens When Children Build Their Own Three-Story Playgrounds? A travesty?
Wheelchair and crutch bound children everywhere, and lawsuits galore? An unappealing jumble of bent nails and ill cut wood? A blight on the neighborhood? Certainly not. Balderdash. The Kolle 37 bauspielplatz in the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood of Berlin is a wonderland. Children age six through sixteen built this tower and about ten others in the immediate vicinity at the Kolle 37 bauspielplatz in Berlin. Some questions that might be racing through your head at the moment: Is it sturdy? The school where kids can build dens. Last week I visited a school where the students can build dens freely, any time they want, during breaks between lessons.
In case you were wondering, Berwick Fields Primary School in City of Casey, Victoria, Australia is not a Steiner School, or a progressive private institution. It is a state school (and a large one, with over 1,000 students on roll). The den-building area is relatively small – perhaps ten metres by fifteen – and is on the edge of a sandy wetland (where the children can also dig ditches and make rivulets). Any child from year 2 (around 6/7 years old) upwards can take part. Play For Life. ASP Kolle 37 - Abenteuerspielplatz - Startseite. Playscapes.
The Longfellow Lecture. Friday, March 13, 2009 Nature-Deficit Disorder: The Movement to Connect Our Children, Ourselves, and Future Generations to the Natural World by Richard Louv Richard Louv is an author and journalist focused on nature, family and community. His most recent book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, has stimulated an international conversation about the future relationship between children and nature. He serves as chairman of the Children & Nature Network, an organization helping to build the international movement to connect children with nature. He also serves as honorary co-chair of The National Forum on Children and Nature.
Rich has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post and other publications.
Moving on from the zero risk childhood. The ‘cotton wool kid’ – cosseted, watched over, insulated from all possible harm – has become a potent symbol of our fear-filled, risk-averse times.
Across the rich nations, children are statistically safer today than at any time in history [pdf link]. But the insidious question ‘what if…?’ Crowds out common sense, and clouds our good judgement. Parents have a tough time navigating this territory. No Fear. IPA_2008_Eager_Nixon_Yearley_Impact_attenuation_The_case_for_natural_materials. Welcome to the Home of British Adventure Play: An internet resource for those interested in and passionate about adventure play.
Our achievements in Scotland. Playgrounds that rip up the safety rules. This post has a simple aim: to get you to rethink playground safety.
Through a handful of images of playgrounds from around the world, I hope to encourage you to abandon any preconceived notions you may have about what a safe playground looks like. I focus on unsupervised, public play spaces. The kind of spaces that are routinely built and rebuilt, in their hundreds of thousands, every year, for children around the world. This focus is deliberate. Yes, some staffed adventure playgrounds truly challenge our notions about risk in play. To be absolutely clear: what follows is not a collection of great play spaces – indeed some are, in design terms, disappointing. Before the exhibition proper starts, I want to show some images of a single playground – from Newington Green in Islington, London – that together sum up many people’s ideas about designing for safety.
The approach is succinctly described by the acronym ‘KFC’: Kit, Fence, Carpet. Look at the steps leading to the raised platform. Learning through Landscapes. Kindling: Green makes school. So the cliche goes, there are lots of things Germany does well; public transport, sausages, compound nouns... actually all these things are true, but I've been discovering that in Berlin and Hamburg there are some other things that are done well; challenging, exciting and sustainable play provision for children and young people.
I recently spent a week in Hamburg and Berlin with a study tour for play professionals co-ordinated by ip-dip.com and www.meynellgames.org. Earthplay.