I thought this article had some neat ideas for adding educational components to a playground.
Church spends Sunday giving Citrus a total makeover
BYLINE: By SARAH KINGSBURY-Staff WriterChico Enterprise-Record
CHICO -- Children at Citrus School will be surprised to find a colorful new playground on campus today, installed over the weekend with the help of hundreds of churchgoers. An estimated 350 volunteers at Bidwell Presbyterian Church helped paint a holistic playground on an asphalt lot behind the main school building. "For every fine motor skill, there's a larger motor skill that goes with it," said Jan Reale, who drummed up the idea of a holistic playground in her master's thesis at Chico State University in 1980. The first one was put in at Paradise Elementary School, where she is a second-grade teacher, and about 60 have since been installed around the state. Reale said she became involved with the project because her son and daughter-in-law are members at the church. Before the asphalt lot was painted there was only blacktop with a few hopscotch squares to play on. Now students can study multiplication, reading and the life cycle of a salmon to name only a few while playing colorfully painted games. Each part of the playground is based on teaching children a cognitive or motor skill using visual discrimination, embedded in bright shapes, maps and diagrams. The reading railroad, for example, winds around the middle of the playground, each track displaying a different sight word. There are also informative paintings everywhere, including a giant diagram of the heart, the food pyramid, the food chain, the solar system, a map of the United States and a map of the world. "The thing is it's unlimited," Reale said. "It can keep on growing as long as you have room." ...
CHICO -- Children at Citrus School will be surprised to find a colorful new playground on campus today, installed over the weekend with the help of hundreds of churchgoers.
An estimated 350 volunteers at Bidwell Presbyterian Church helped paint a holistic playground on an asphalt lot behind the main school building.
"For every fine motor skill, there's a larger motor skill that goes with it," said Jan Reale, who drummed up the idea of a holistic playground in her master's thesis at Chico State University in 1980. The first one was put in at Paradise Elementary School, where she is a second-grade teacher, and about 60 have since been installed around the state.
Reale said she became involved with the project because her son and daughter-in-law are members at the church.
Before the asphalt lot was painted there was only blacktop with a few hopscotch squares to play on. Now students can study multiplication, reading and the life cycle of a salmon to name only a few while playing colorfully painted games.
Each part of the playground is based on teaching children a cognitive or motor skill using visual discrimination, embedded in bright shapes, maps and diagrams.
The reading railroad, for example, winds around the middle of the playground, each track displaying a different sight word. There are also informative paintings everywhere, including a giant diagram of the heart, the food pyramid, the food chain, the solar system, a map of the United States and a map of the world.
"The thing is it's unlimited," Reale said. "It can keep on growing as long as you have room."
...
Read the full article