C.i. Physical Provision

[emmajess]

I've done away with 'playtime' this year (I mean joing Y1 and Y2 for playground time, except at lunch play) for all the reasons people have discussed on here before. I wonder what fantastic ideas people might have for very active things for children to do independently outside. My TA is concerned that the children should be having playtime as a chance to 'let off steam', 'have a runaround' etc rather than being focussed and 'quieter' all the time. I don't really expect them to be really quiet, just not shouting and screaming. For example the children love running around outside (and I mean running! )zooming the toy aeroplanes evrywhere but I don't know if they should be doing something more focussed?? So I thought if I could find some obviously purposeful energetic activities that they can self-select that would be great.

Another factor in this is that Mrs O will be visiting soonish... I want purpose and focus and enough physical activity. At the moment we haven't got it quite right. I can plan physical, large scale writing and maths etc, but physical physical I find more tricky - probably because I'm not the sportiest person in the world! I really don't want to go back to breaking up children's play for playtime.

Any ideas greatly appreciated!! Thank you!

x

[Guest]

hire a trained playworker to organise staff and resources and plan for play. our infant school are thinking of doing this for lunch time play .

sue

[Rea]

Hi emma, could you provide balls, skittles, bean bags? Games - whats the time Mr Wolf? Hop scotch, tig, acky 1 2 3. You might have to teach them the rules first, games arent played like they used to be!

Tubes and guttering with water, small balls, cars, how far do they go? Gardening, how deep to put the bulbs, sorting leaves, pebbles into size and shape.

Have you got any climbing or balancing equipment you could use in an obstacle course? Medals to share out, I think Toys R us sell a pack of 10 for a few pounds.

 

How lovely that you're thinking of new ideas.

[apple]

we are lucky enough to have a seating circle made from logs. We call this our 'Talking and Thinking Circle'. Well really it's Oscar's talking and thinking circle. He's our outdoor bear (dressed in wellies and rain mac) who takes the children up to his circle to talk through the jobs or activities that need doing outside. Sometimes it's Oscar that decides (e.g. oscar wants you to find x, y, z in the garden/playground could be letters/shapes/numbers/ treasure etc) and sometimes it's the children that decide what they want to do. We have a range of crates, tyres, planks, old oars etc for them to build with plus netting and material to make dens. Children have also built obstacle courses for Oscar and had races and have designed mazes and walkways from the planks and crates.

These are just some of the ideas we do.

Having a focus area like the talking and thinking circle enables the children to plan their learning. At the end of the sesssion we always come back to the circle and have a reflection time where we tell each other our 'best bits' of the session.

Hope this helps

[JacquieL]

Climbing frame, bikes and other wheeled toys, small apparatus like bats, balls, skipping ropes, quoits, hoops, all in baskets to choose from, obstacle course, very large building blocks, stepping stones, floor shapes and small mats, see-saw, sand pit with large spades, wheelbarrows and brushes, tape -player and music. Goal posts, ball, and clipboard with paper and pens to record goals.

If they are enjoying rushing around being planes why not set up an airport and runway, provide some large boxes, hats, tickets etc. etc. and build on this interest.

[emmajess]

thank you for your replies! might post some photos of what happens over the next few weeks....