NEWSLETTER
Kids World Gilston Acknowledges the Kombumerri people, the Traditional Owners of the land and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, their elders past and present.
Have you seen our new Adventure Playground located behind the car park, previously known as the Butterfly Garden?
The Adventure Playground is an escape from the norm and contains what adults deem as ‘junk’. It’s an absolute wonderland for children. Tree houses are made of old fence panels, tyres, and milk crates. Car doors and pallets provide the perfect hiding spaces, and the donated half motorbike gets its lead role in imaginative play. The plastic slides are loose and can be moved anywhere the children desire, leaving plenty of room for risk, mistakes, engagement, and collaborative authentic learning amongst peers.
The idea behind this project was to allow children access to things that they wouldn’t usually have access to and bring back the “Childhood” John describes, “I remember playing like this when I was a child”, Miss Maria says, the “We need to see more of this”, Gilston SS STEM teacher notes, the “Pre technology”, Shari says, and the “Freedom to be a kid”, Miss Fiona explains.
But what about the mess?
It’s not mess! It’s PLAY RESIDUE
Play residue is different: Play residue is unplanned, it doesn’t have an end at all! It’s just something that happens because it happens. It’s not necessarily messy or dirty: It just is what it is! Play residue is never finished; it’s always happening… forever!
As adults, we tend to think of “clean” as a process that we need to get through so we can move on to the next stage of life. But what if we could shift our ideas about what “clean” means and let children come back to play again and again?
This simple shift in perspective greatly impacts how children develop their identities, critical thinking, problem-solving ability, negotiating skills and imaginative play, which are some of the most crucial components of Active Learning.
