The PlayGround Blog features some cool playground games today to challenge your kids' imaginations!

"The good news for parents is that public playgrounds are free, and they offer hours of outdoor fun especially when you get creative. Suggested below are two types of playground games. Not only are these fun, they also push your kids to think out of the box!" the author says.

Find out what the two games are!

Americans overwhelmingly believe that schools have a major role to play in advancing the health of our nation’s kids, and they are specifically concerned about the lack of recess and physical activity in schools, according to new polling results released today by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation’s leading public-health foundation and Sports4Kids, a national nonprofit that brings safe and healthy playtime to low-income elementary schools.

This survey represents the most up-to-date overview of public attitudes on recess in schools and helps to explain the growing momentum of public support to make play and physical activity an essential part of the school day. It also reveals that Americans intuitively understand the critical relationship between our health and where and how we live, work, learn and play, and that the physical and social environment in our schools have an outsized impact on the health of our kids.

Some key findings from the survey include:

• Nearly four out of five parents believe that children aren’t getting enough physical playtime on a daily basis.
• Seven out of 10 Americans disagree with schools’ policies of eliminating or reducing recess time for budgetary, safety or academic reasons.
• An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that recess serves many important functions for both students and teachers. For example, 91 percent believe that having a break with physical activity helps children stay focused and learn in the classroom.

Read the polling results.

Jessica Shepherd
guardian.co.uk
Dec. 10, 2008

England's playgrounds are to be given a £235m makeover from next spring, ministers revealed today.

Every local authority will receive at least £1m to revamp and add to their play areas.

In 10 of the most deprived parts of the country, councils will be given £2.5m each for state-of-the-art adventure playgrounds.

The government wants all the playgrounds to be safe, child-friendly and used by a wide age range of children - partly to deter young people from anti-social behaviour.

Read the full article.

By DAVID CRARY
Associated Press
Nov. 18, 2008

NEW YORK (AP) - In one classroom, a group of preschool teachers squatted on the floor, pretending to be cave-dwelling hunter-gatherers. Next door, another group ended a raucous musical game by placing their tambourines and drums atop their heads.

Silly business, to be sure, but part of an agenda of utmost seriousness: To spread the word that America's children need more time for freewheeling play at home and in their schools.

"We're all sad, and we're a little worried. ... We're sad about something missing in childhood," psychologist and author Michael Thompson told 900 early childhood educators from 22 states packed into an auditorium last week.

"We have to fight back," he declared. "We're going to fight for play." [More]

Looking for creative, fun toys that promote unstructured play this holiday season? Mara Kaplan, one of the co-founders of the Center for Creative Play (and longtime friend of KaBOOM!), has set up an Amazon Store connected to her website, www.letkidsplay.com. The store is filled with open-ended, creative, and fun toys.

"A majority of the toys are made of natural materials," she says. "There is very little plastic, plugs or batteries. Many of the toys are appropriate for children with disabilities. There are hundreds of suggestions of toys you may have never seen before."

She's highlighting one toy from the store each day on her website, http://letkidsplay.blogspot.com. Check it out if you're looking for recommendations for the holiday shopping season!

By Donna Jones
Santa Cruz (Calif.) Sentinel
Nov. 15, 2008

At Mintie White Elementary School, the playground was decades old. The steel slide was rusting. Metal rings broke on a climbing structure. Children were getting hurt, Principal Olga de Santa Anna said.

New playgrounds are big-ticket items, however, and typically are funded by parent groups. But de Santa Anna said her parents don't have the resources of those in wealthier communities so there was no money to replace the decrepit playground.

That's changed, though. By Christmas, the 80-year-old school on Palm Avenue will have three new playgrounds -- one for kindergartners, another for first- and second-graders and a third for the school's older students -- thanks to a class action lawsuit aimed at ensuring all California public school children have equal access to decent facilities, sufficient textbooks and quality teachers. [More]

Learn how to advocate for play in your community through the Playmaker Network.

From the Peaceful Playgrounds blog...

For the past 30 years most California schools have closed their playgrounds and fields to the public fearing that the schools would be vandalized. In SF however, the pilot of 11 schools playgrounds open for public use for the past year is proving to do just the opposite. Participating schools so far say the extra traffic actually keeps campuses safer, according to Chris Armentrout, director of development and government relations for the district.

San Francisco is a Playful City USA community. Opening school playgrounds to the public is a great way to increase the number of available play spaces in a community without having to build or develop additional play areas.

Has your community tried this? What kind of response have you seen? Post your thoughts in the comments.

By BEN DOBBIN

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A magic wand, a fishing rod or a royal scepter?

The lowly stick, a universal plaything powered by a child's imagination, landed in the National Toy Hall of Fame on Thursday along with the Baby Doll and the skateboard.

The three were chosen to join the Strong National Museum of Play's lineup of 38 classics ranging from the bicycle, the kite and Mr. Potato Head to Crayola crayons, marbles and the Atari 2600 video game system.

Curators said the stick was a special addition in the spirit of a 2005 inductee, the cardboard box. They praised its all-purpose, no-cost, recreational qualities, noting its ability to serve either as raw material or an appendage transformed in myriad ways by a child's creativity.

Read the rest of the article here.

To find some great new ways to use a stick, take a look at Not A Stick by Antoinette Portis.

(Note: Samantha, AKA Sammy12, is a frequent poster in the KaBOOM! Forums)

By Andy Mattison
Syracuse (N.Y.) 10 News
Oct. 26, 2008

PHOENIX, N.Y. -- Meet 17 year old Samantha Furco, a senior at John C. Birdlebough High School in Phoenix. She's undertaking a project that few kids her age would even care about, let alone carry out.

It all started one day at her brother's football game. She noticed a little boy in a wheelchair, watching other kids play on the playground.

"He couldn't play on the playground with the rest of the kids, seeing his little brother play and not him it's kind of heart wrenching,” said Samantha Furco. [More]

Make A Difference Day is the most encompassing national day of helping others -- a celebration of neighbors helping neighbors. Everyone can participate. Created by USA WEEKEND Magazine, Make A Difference Day is an annual event that takes place on the fourth Saturday of every October. The next event is Oct. 25, 2008.

If you can’t volunteer for the KaBOOM! playground builds in Tampa, Vancleave (Miss.) or Cedar Rapids (Iowa) on Oct. 25, help make a difference by adding playspaces to the KaBOOM! Playspace Finder!

Your contributions will not only help people find great places to play, they'll also help communities assess where there need to be more -- or better -- playspaces. So help us find every playspace, good and bad. Grab your camera and head to the playground on Oct. 25!

How are you going to celebrate Make a Difference Day? Post your thoughts in the comments.

By KRISTI FUNDERBURK
Vineland (N.J.) Daily Journal
Oct. 3, 2008

VINELAND -- The swings, slides and monkey bars at Cumberland Christian School were given a time out Wednesday after school officials learned the playground did not meet federal guidelines for safety.

Elementary school Principal Linda Visconti informed parents Wednesday there was not enough mulch under the playground equipment at the Sherman Avenue school.

The news came after a second-grade student fell from playground equipment Tuesday and suffered a mild wrist fracture, she said.

She sent a letter home to parents Wednesday.

"Until we can assure the safety of the students, they will not be able to play on the equipment," Visconti said in the letter. "The timetable for reopening the playground depends on the funds and materials." [More]

It's important to set up maintenance funds to regularly replace your safety surfacing. Learn more about safety surfacing in the "Safety" section of the KaBOOM! Toolkit.

By Karen Blackledge
The Daily Item
Sept. 2, 2008

DANVILLE — With a list of 14 safety items needing to be addressed and the risk of insurance coverage being lost, the Kidsville playground complex was closed Tuesday.
 
Orange and red “no trespassing” signs have been posted along the dark brown wooden fence of the castle-style wooden structure at the Washies Playground in Danville’s 2nd Ward.

The main entrance was barricaded by an orange plastic fence with a more permanent and locked barricade to be installed.

The items that need to be corrected before the insurance company will sign off lack volunteers to do them. [More]

Have you found a great way to recruit volunteers for maintenance tasks? Post your thoughts in the Forums.

By John Kelly
Washington Post
Sept. 15, 2008

To the kids who played baseball on the Macomb Street playground back in the 1960s, the drop at the edge of far left field might as well have been the Grand Canyon. If the horsehide skittered past your glove and rolled down that ball-swallowing trench, it was a sure homerun for the other team.

But on Saturday afternoon, at a 40th (roughly) reunion of playground regulars, former child after former child came to the same conclusion. "It doesn't look so big now," said 52-year-old Wai Hom, who'd traveled all the way from Nashua, N.H., to reconnect with old friends.

For Wai and the dozens of other Macomb veterans, the Northwest D.C. playground was a skinned-knee utopia. It seems almost unimaginable today, when we won't let children out of our sight and every extracurricular activity is programmed down to the millisecond, but once upon a time, kids were kids. [More]

Make sure your kids have good playground memories - consider building or refurbishing a local playspace today.

By MATT CLARK
Naples (Fla.) Daily News
Sept. 15, 2008

Michele Haszard was having fun with her children at a local playground when she noticed how dirty some of the equipment was. After searching around Bonita Springs and finding more of the same, she started a playground cleaning company called Heaven On Earth. "Instead of reactive, I decided to be proactive," Haszard said.

Children aren’t the only things hanging from the monkey bars on Southwest Florida’s playgrounds.

Just ask Charles Gerba, also known as “Dr. Germ,” a professor at the University of Arizona who has studied germs for decades.

“Basically, we see it as a good germ transfer point,” says Gerba. “If you were a germ, where would you want to be? You’d want to be where little kids are playing all the time.” [More]

Learn how to organize a playspace cleanup!

Park at old Memorial Stadium grounds had been haven for hundreds of children
By Justin Fenton
Baltimore Sun
Sept. 10, 2008

Fire destroyed the sprawling playground that thousands of volunteers built three years ago at the site of the old Memorial Stadium on 33rd Street, a blaze that community leaders called "devastating" as they vowed to rebuild.

...

The 14,000-square-foot playground was built in 2005 next to the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Family Center at Stadium Place, providing a safe gathering spot for hundreds of children in the heart of the community. With senior homes built nearby, the playground was key part of the area's redevelopment and a place where residents young and old converged.

Money for the $350,000 project was raised through fish fries and spaghetti dinners and by local schoolchildren, and an army of volunteers from across the region chipped in to build the structure. [More]

Discuss this article in the Forums.

Why portable playground toys will really keep kids moving
By Laura Sullivan, Parenting Magazine

Elaborate jungle gyms and twisty slides sure are fun, but they may not give your child the most well-rounded "workout." A recent study of daycare-center playgrounds found that when kids had access to items like balls, hula hoops, and jump ropes, they were more active than when they had only stationary structures to play on. [More]

More on the study

Looking for a great place to stop on your next family vacation or field trip? Check out the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, N.Y.!

Strong National Museum of Play is the only museum in the world dedicated solely to the study of play as it illuminates American culture. The museum offers engaging exhibit experiences, educational programs, guest amenities, annual memberships, standards-based school lessons, teacher development opportunities, an innovative preschool, a circulating library, a research library and archives, scholarly publications, and more. Recognized as one of the nation’s top museums for families and children, Strong National Museum of Play is home to the National Toy Hall of Fame and the world’s largest collection of toys, dolls, games and other items that celebrate play.

Learn more about the museum.

If the video does not appear above, view it here.

By John Doherty
Syracuse (N.Y.) Post Standard
Aug. 23, 2008

Ed. note: Samantha is a fixture in the KaBOOM! community, where she's known as Sammy12.

People are finally starting to take Samantha Furco seriously.

For nearly two years Furco, a Phoenix high school senior, has been trying to get support for a playground designed for disabled children.

A volunteer with the Phoenix Special Olympics program, Furco got the idea for the playground for disabled children after seeing a child sitting in a wheelchair watching other children playing in a playground.

"I would talk to people about it and they'd say, 'Yeah, yeah, it's a good idea,' " Furco said.

Days after a story detailing Furco's plans appeared in The Post-Standard the offers began. [More]

View Sammy12's profile and read her posts in the Forums.

By Brent Mazerolle
Moncton (New Brunswick) Times & Transcript Staff
Aug. 23, 2008

A just society doesn't pave a playground and put up a parking lot. Period.

The kids of Ackman Court knew it, and now the grown-ups know it too.

New Brunswick's Social Development Minister Mary Schryer said yesterday her department is now prepared to replace a playground slated for demolition at one of her department's NB Housing communities in east Moncton.

The park had been the site of a four-day long protest completely organized by neighbourhood children after contractors arrived Tuesday to tear it out.

Facing opposition from a group of pint-sized children with 10-gallon hearts, the workers agreed to give them a week to appeal the decision to remove the play area, known as Winnie Reiker Playground.

Adult residents of the community were told the outdated, potentially unsafe playground was being removed so work could be carried out on the sewer system, but that it would not be replaced and the space would be turned into a parking lot. [More]

See earlier article

Bathurst (Canada) Northern Light
Aug. 22, 2008

MONCTON - The children of Ackman Court could teach adults a thing or two about perseverance and social consciousness.

For the past several days at least two dozen of them have circled their playground in the Lewisville area waving placards and chanting "Save our park!"

"This was their idea," says parent Rachelle Williams. "I had 10 kids come asking for money to buy bristolboard and markers and this and that. I couldn't say no."

On Tuesday, contractors came to tear out the park, known as the Winnie Reiker Playground, but the kids put up such a fuss the workers agreed to give them a week to appeal the decision to remove the play area. [More]

Become a Playmaker and take action for play today!

Bruno Taylor, who just completed a masters degree in industrial design, has been hijacking public spaces to make them more playful, adding swings to London bus stops and creating a bouncing bench. He says:

“71% of adults used to play on the streets when they were young. 21% of children do so now. Are we designing children and play out of the public realm?

"This project is a study into different ways of bringing play back into public space. It focuses on ways of incorporating incidental play in the public realm by not so much as having separate play equipment that dictates the users but by using existing furniture and architectural elements that indicate playful behaviour for all.

"It asks us to question the current framework for public space and whether it is sufficient while also giving permission for young people to play in public.

"Play as you go...” Bruno Taylor."

Watch a video of his work.

Discuss play in your community in the Forums!

By PHILIP K. HOWARD
Wall Street Journal
Aug. 13, 2008

Excerpt:

The harmful effects of our national safety obsession ripple outward into society. One in six children in America is obese, and many of them will face a lifetime of chronic illness. According to the Center for Disease Control, this problem would basically cure itself if children engaged in the informal outdoor activities that used to be normal. But how do we lure children off the sofa? One key attraction is risk.

Risk is fun, at least the moderate risks that were common in prior generations. An informal survey of children by the University of Toronto's Institute of Child Studies found that "merry-go-rounds . . . anecdotally the most hated piece of playground equipment in hospital emergency rooms -- topped the list of most desired bits of playground equipment." Those of us of a certain age can remember sprinting to get the contraption really moving. That was fun. And a lot of exercise.

America unfortunately is going in the opposite direction. There is nothing left in playgrounds that would attract the interest of a child over the age of four. Exercise in schools is carefully programmed, when it exists at all. Some schools have banned tag. Broward County, Fla., banned running at recess. (How else can we guard against a child falling down?) Little Leagues forbid sliding into base. Some towns ban sledding. High diving boards are history, and it's only a matter of time before all diving boards disappear. [More]

Discuss this article in the Forums.

New playground 'excites' kids, parents
More equipment is planned later

By Rick Rojas
Louisville Courier-Journal
Aug. 13, 2008

Byck Elementary School has playground equipment for the first time in its history, and it's already drawing children's interest in school.

Darlene King said her daughter Kelaiah, a kindergartner, told her she could not wait to come to school for the PTA's dedication of the playground on Aug. 5.

"It's a safe and fun place for our children," King said. "It says a lot about this community and the importance that they place on their children."

The equipment, which cost $15,000 and was installed over the summer, includes two tire swings, a standing seesaw, a climber and a four-swing set.

PTA president Myrdin Thompson it's only the first phase of a project to build what will be a $65,000 playground at the school, 2328 Cedar St. The next phases will include some more expensive equipment and a small play set for preschoolers, she said. [More]

Check out Myrdin's Playmaker of the Month interview.

Peaceful Playgrounds, Inc. has announced their new "Learn to Play" U.S. Map Stencil Giveaway Program. Enter today to win the geographically and proportionally accurate educational stencil which is Peaceful Playground's best selling playground stencil.

A winner will be selected each quarter and no purchase is necessary to win. Enroll your school today by signing up for the U.S. Playground Map Stencil Giveaway on the Peaceful Playgrounds Website.

LEWISBURG, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Playworld Systems, Inc., a leading international manufacturer of playgrounds and playground equipment, has announced that it will become the first major playground manufacturer to abandon the use of polyvinyl chloride plastic (PVC) in its products. PVC, commonly knows as “vinyl” has been a significant component in playground equipment for decades. However, recent private and public studies have indicated it is environmentally unsound and a potential health risk.

“We have a responsibility to the environment and the children who use our playgrounds to do everything in our power to use the most environmentally friendly substances” said Matt Miller, president of Playworld Systems. “We are proud to be the first major playground manufacturer to do something about the actual problem of PVC and not just ‘offset’ its effects by other means.” [More]

High school senior and KaBOOM! Forum power user Sammy12 (AKA Samantha Furco) was just featured in her local newspaper discussing her work to try and build an accessible playground in Phoenix, N.Y.

Exerpt:

Furco has contacted manufacturers of playground units specifically designed for children in wheelchairs and other disabled children. A suitable unit will cost about $50,000, she said.

To raise the money, Furco is planing a series of events, including raffles, donation drives and community fundraising dinners.

"The fundraising is not a problem. I can take care of that," she said. "But I need land, some place to put it. That's my biggest obstacle. Without that place to build, we can't do it."

So far, she said, her proposal has received polite responses but no promises of support. She also has tried several times, without success, to enlist the help of local officials.

"I've called and called, but they haven't returned my calls," Furco said. "I think it's because I'm 17 and they're not taking me seriously. That is one of the biggest obstacles my mother told me I would face. But she said, 'Stick to it and don't let it get you down.' " [More]

Since the article was published, someone has offered her the land! Learn more, offer your advice, and congratulate Sammy12 in the Forums.

Your local playground is not just for child's play; it is a workout waiting to happen, and a fun one at that. If you happen to have kids and they drag you to the park. Don't sit idly by, try some of these moves. If you don't have a kid, just go and have fun and remember to share the monkey bars with the wee ones. [More]

Discuss how you work out on the playground in the Forums.

By Keith Ferguson
Sharon (Mass.) Advocate
Aug 07, 2008
 
SHARON - Thanks to the efforts of about 100 volunteers last weekend, children will be playing on the new Heights Community Playground as early as tomorrow, according to Project Manager Karen Wald.

About 60 community members worked seven hours on Friday and 40 or so labored all day Saturday to install the new playground equipment, which includes giant slides, a rock wall and a PlayWeb, said Wald. All that’s left, she added, is to lay down mulch and install a walking track and a shade structure.

“I can’t wait until it’s over,” Wald said, laughing.

The playground has been two years in the making. [More]

Learn how to build a pla