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Playgrounds for the Imagination

Playgrounds for the Imagination

How exciting would it be to design an innovative playground? Children will learn about building and planning a fun and safe play area and then create a model of their own.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

Steps

  • Step 1

    Post pictures of the student play space. Ask the class what they enjoy most abut the playground. What could make it even better? List student responses on a classroom white board.

  • Step 2

    Share Let's Build a Playground by Michel J. Rosen as a read aloud with the class. Discuss how the children of the book worked together and, through collaboration, made creative solutions for their school/community. Explain to students that in this project they will be using paper in new and unusual ways.

  • Step 3

    Organize students into teams of two. Provide each team with 15 pieces of paper along with scissors and glue. Encourage them to imagine the most amazing play space ever created. Explain that they will be designing a play space represented in paper. What two surprises will their playgrounds have? What 5 distinct features will each have? Will the playgrounds each have a theme?

Standards

LA: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade level topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

LA: Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.

Adaptations

Substitute or add modeling clay or dough to create other three- dimensional forms in this project. This will allow students to have an additional sculpting experience.

PBS Kids Design Squad has wonderful resources including links that describe how to build a cardboard playground. Allow students to work collaboratively to create a playground using found materials including cardboard, tape and other similar objects. Building to scale is a challenging design problem that requires teamwork and communication skills beyond problem solving skills in design and math.