Exploring playgrounds
Throughout this critical inquiry unit we continued to explore thinking strategies as we discussed playgrounds and prepared for our final projects of planning, building and defending our own playgrounds
Reinforcing Historical Thinking
I started out our playground inquiry unit by introducing the students to two different pictures of playgrounds from the past. The first was a more elaborate park that had several similarities to our parks today. However, the second park was more simple and was actually a playground at a residential school in Saskatchewan. As we examined this playground students were able to put themselves in the place of the students who were forced to attend residential schools as we discussed why this happened. Throughout this experience students shared that they would have felt sad, scared and lonely if this happened to them. They were also shocked that this happened because First Nations people were different. They couldn't understand why they weren't just nice and played with each other. It was so great to see the student's perspectives on this situation and it transitioned nicely into the remainder of the unit.
How have playgrounds changed?
In the zoom in activity of the playground from the past students noticed that the playground from the past seemed more dangerous than the playgrounds we play on now. This lead into a great discussion about how playgrounds have changed. I asked students to think about our school playground while discussing this topic. All but one student agreed that playgrounds have changed in some way. That student argued that we have many of the same play structures as they did in the past therefore they haven't changed. I was so glad that this student brought this side to the discussion because it helped the class come to their reasoned conclusion. The reasoned conclusion that the students came up with was that playgrounds have changed a lot because they have become safer but they still have some similar structures as those in the past.
Playground Pros and Cons
For this activity I showed students pictures of four different playgrounds found around our city. I then talked to them about what Pros and Cons are and asked them to share what Pros and Cons they have for these playgrounds. This forced the students to give reason as to why they liked a certain park instead of just saying that it was fun. Why was it fun?... What structures in the playground made it fun? These are a couple of the questions that guided this activity. Throughout this activity the students were also able to compare and contrast the different playgrounds as they recognized that each playground was different.
Let's take a trip!
This was a really fun way to introduce students to the idea that playgrounds may look different in different areas of the world. For this activity we pretended to go on a field trip all around the world as we all participated in this playground scavenger hunt. We started at our school playground in Canada and then I had students choose where they wanted to travel next. As we arrived at each location I had students tell what they noticed about the playground. After allowing time for the students to share we would move onto the next location. This pattern continued until we had reached each location. It was interesting to see what thinking skills students integrated on their own. Some of the students contributed what they thought and even wondered about the playground and as we got further into the activity many of the students began comparing and contrasting the different playgrounds.
Our Dream Playgrounds
After exploring different playgrounds from all around the world I had students start to think about what they would do if they could design their own playground. I started this lesson by showing students the video found below which shows a little girl reading a book called "My Dream Playground" by Kate M. Becker. This book is about a girl who draws her dream playground and then it ends up getting built in her neighbourhood. After reading the book I asked students to tell me what their dream playgrounds would look like.