Wednesday 16 January 2013

Thinking about our local playground

As a group we have links with the the Friends of Jubilee Green, we've been along to many of their summer fun days running parachute games and badge making. Recently they have been working hard to fund raise to build a shelter in the playground and have asked for letters of support.

Tonight we thought about all the things we like to do in playgrounds, what our favourite things are about playgrounds and some of those things we don't like to see at the playground. We also thought about the ways we would be able to use a shelter if it is built.

Using these ideas and comments the Pioneers wrote a letter which we would like to send to the Friends of Jubilee Green


Dear Friends of Jubilee Green

At our group night we discussed what we liked and didn't like about playgrounds.

Some of the comments were about how epic playgrounds are:
  • “I like those things where you spin people in a disc” - Esme
  • “I love playing with my friends” - Samantha

Some were about things we didn't like as much, such as:
  • “People who don't clean up after their dogs” - Katie
  • “Seeing boys I don't like” - Abby
  • “People hogging the equipment when they are just having a chat” - Anne

Others were about how radical it would be to have a shelter at our playground.
  • “You can shelter in it if it rains” - Emma
  • “Resting when it is hot and sunny” - Daniel
  • “My parent's can sit around in it while I play” - Cerys
  • “We can sit in it when we're eating our sweets” - Abby
  • “We can sit in in and have a picnic” - Alex

We'd really like it if you could help us to get a shelter

Bradley Stoke Woodcraft

Our Plans this year

Since it was the first week of the new year we spent some time thinking about the things we'd like to do this year in Woodcraft. Everyone had a chance to suggest ideas and we collected a list. Then we each had three stickers to vote for our favourite ideas.

We had quite a range of options. Camping (in tents) was very popular along with swimming and playing Duck Duck Goose.

Other ideas which were voted for by some of the children were:
singing, camp-fire cooking, making bead creatures (Katie had brought a beautiful one to show us) and cooking

Sadly the walk and scavenger hunt didn't get any votes at all.

Some of the ideas have already got activities in the planning stages, we've already got some plans towards this years spring camp. Others will take a bit more thinking about,  several people had ideas for cooking projects we could do.

It will be interesting to look back at the list at the end of the year and see how many of the ideas we managed to do.