Making Better Swings

Following on from Saturdays post, we have some more inventive ways of using the scaffolding netting on the blog today. This time the Play Local team visited the playground on Pelican estate and the children and playworkers used netting to create their own hammock style swings from the existing swing structures. There seems to be something more exciting and unpredictable about these DIY swings which meant the children wanted to play with them instead of the swings they see in the playground every day.

Wrapping & Dragging

As the Play Local project has progressed we've really begun to see the impact that the types of materials we select for our offsite play sessions has on the type of play that happens. Often I'd argue that less can be more. Or a lot of one thing is better than lots of different things. Today we took a few bits and pieces but the most played with item was a roll of netting. It's the kind you find on building sites wrapped around scaffolding, but today we were wrapping each other up and using it to drag each other around the playground - for hours!

Spotlight on Elmington Estate

These photographs were taken for us by Zoe Tynan-Campbell, a freelance designer who has worked with us for a number of years at the South London Gallery. We asked Zoe to capture the different estates we work on, both when we are there and when we are not. Here is the first series from Elmington estate:

Playworker Stories: Play Dough

This blog post, written by one of our playworkers at the Shop of Possibilities, forms part of 'Playworker Stories', (You can see the first one here) a series of blog posts written by the Playworkers about a session, or particular play moments that they have found interesting.
 
The second in this series is written by Sarah O who is eighteen years old and has worked on the Play Local project since we began in summer 2012.

 

Today the children were making a variety of things and objects with play dough. As soon as the play dough was out and available, all of the children got involved without hesitation. They had plenty of fun making and decorating sculptures. 

 

 

After a while, they all decided that would open a Shop of Possibilities 'restaurant'. They were making different foods; all of which included chips, sandwiches, doughnuts and hot-dogs.

It was really interesting how the children used the play dough as their canvas. They were really engaged with what they were making. The atmosphere was very friendly, calm and smooth.

I was really happy and excited with the activity that was going on. I was given a great opportunity to visit my childhood, just by playing with play dough. I learnt how to bring my inner child out and use my childhood experience to relate to the activity with the children.

Working Out

Another random object from the gallery's tidy up found its way to the Shop of Possibilities this week and a few of the children took a real liking to it...

As usual they also found more interesting ways to use it too...

Then it got another fan when we moved it indoors...

It's great that they are finding working out fun!

Cupboards

The Shop of Possibilities benefits when the South London Gallery has a sort out, this time we got given two plastic cupboards which were once used by the cafe for storage. After a good jet wash they were ready to bring over to the Shop of Possibilities for the children to use.

Tamzin didn't hesitate in trying them out for size.

Then Khalid thought he'd have a go...

Tamzin contemplates what to do next.

The children decide to move them outside.

Then tried to work out what happens when you shake them when someones inside.

Patrick has a go at turning them around when Basit is still hiding inside.

He chooses his moment to jump out and surprise us carefully...

Then decides to have a rest!

Patrick and Tamzin seal the cupboard with two brothers inside...

Then make sure they can't get out easily.

Curious new objects seem to have the ability to capture the interest of all of the children but in very different ways. This session was fairly quiet which meant that all the children had a chance to use the cupboards in the way they wanted to at some point, it also meant that at times all the children were playing together which can feel like a rare moment.

The Return of the Tree Swing

Last spring we made tree swings, it started to become a bit of an obsession for the children, but over time as the weather got worse and our supplies of rope began to dwindle the fascination naturally started to fade. But this week we got some more rope and the tree swing was back in action, with the children forming a queuing system and nicely taking turns.

It's nice to see some types of play come back around again. Especially when you can see how children have changed over that time and how a once super cautious child (who wouldn't even go on the swing last year) now feels confident enough to have a go and swing that little bit higher than they feel comfortable with, spin faster than they thought they could and then come off the swing with their fists in the air shouting "That was awesome!"

Building a Boat

Three big boxes arrived at the Shop of Possibilities today, they were almost child sized as Lemar is demonstrating nicely in the photograph below.

Some of the older children decided to put them together to build what could have been a train, a spaceship or a boat.

Paige lines it with some insulation and tests it out to make sure it's comfy enough.

Some of the others join her, and Lemar takes control of the steering.

They disappear for half hour or so and return with fried chicken and ice pops which they eat in their new vehicle.

Go Kart!

We show lots of Ben's inventions on the blog - he almost deserves his own dedicated series of posts! Here's another one of his creations: a go kart made from a few bits of wood, a cushion, some tape and a few 'wheels'. Once made and tested out Ben set up a ticket station and gave out tickets to the other children for go kart rides. Then at the end of the session he gave the go kart a quick wash, because you can't have a messy go kart now can you?