I have been so impressed
this week by a group of grade 6 children from St Clements primary in Bulleen that I went to speak with about GoPlay!… The students listened attentively and asked many thoughtful and in-depth questions about the work we are doing and their heart felt concern and understanding was touching.
Marcus' elaborate and well proportioned design.
We worked with Belinda Nechwatal and her grade 6 students on designing a playground based on their imaginations and the things I had shown them. They had the choice to design a single element or a whole space and after this it was up to them.
The usual suspects that featured highly were slides and swings, bridges, dens and lookouts in every shape and size but there were a bunch of things that you never see in playgrounds, that the children mentioned repeatedly and that I think are worth noting. There were many mentions of water (swimming and splashing pools, hoses and buckets), trampolines were everywhere (often for transporting you from one place to the next ) , conveyor belts , tree houses , toboggans, chill out spaces with soft chairs and bungy cords with a harness.
Alexandras actioned packed design.
The other elements that featured highly and across the board were technology: Giant MP3 players (that were powered by someone junmping on a trampoline ) , plasma tv's and interactive computer game rooms. (There is already a movement from many playground manufacturers to incoporate some of these ideas into their elements.
I would like to personally thank all the students for doing such great work and offering their ideas.
Thankyou to Belinda, Rob, Christopher, Gianni, Natalie, Niamh, Stephanie, Piera, breanna, Kaitlyn, Daniel, Marcus, Tim, Matthew, Julian, Max, James, Stephen, Nicole, Julia, Alexandra, Kayla, Annabelle, Johnny and the child who drew the picture with the electric seals and the pool full of sharks who didn't sign his name.
As an addendum to this story, Through their recent school Fete, St clements not only raised and donated $1200 to GoPlay, But has just helped to make the christmas cards in our last blog which hopes to bring in another $1000. This is absolutely fantastic and will help in the design and construction of playgrounds on the Thai-Burma border with the organisation World Education Consortium.
Thankyou St clements so much for your support.
Daniel's "chill zone" with pillows, hammocks and an Ipod
Matthew and Julians Giant car tire spinner
Pieras complex spaces.
Christopher's "big bouncy ball in netted cone" and "bouncing string with harness"
Gianni's plasma pod rooms.
Rob's music player powered by trampoline jumping!
Kaitlin's lizard treehouse and flying fox lookout.
I am sorry I could not publish all the childrens great work.
