Architecture from Around the World in the Playground
There are many ways we can try and get our kids to learn about other countries and their cultures. Play is always a good way for children to learn, because they are having fun and picking up information at the same time, it is not like the drudgery of a class room. Although learning in classrooms can be fun as well.
If we look around the world, there are many great buildings, monuments and pieces of architecture that once seen, are generally remembered with the country they are in. So why not use this to our advantage when trying to teach our kids something about the world around them.
In the playground we can use all sorts of amazing buildings, that will help the children remember which countries they come from. You could have the pyramid from outside the Louvre in Paris, France as a climbing frame, I know the Eifel Tower is a stronger representation of France, but I don’t think there is much you could do with that in a playground. Unless you turn it on its side and use it as a seesaw. No, the London Bridge is the one I had down for the seesaw.
Then there are buildings like the Pentagon, this could be made into a roundabout. How about the leaning tower of Pisa, with a slide coming of the top or the Sahara Desert as the sand pit. The Brooklyn or Golden Gate bridge as a rope walk, the Victoria falls in Africa or Niagara falls in North America as a play pool, the great pyramids in Egypt could be used as a shelter. The possibilities are endless and you don’t have to stop with the architecture either.
Using places around the world that don’t have many buildings can work. What about the Amazon jungle for swings and ropes, with its great diversity of animals as well the children could learn allsorts of weird and wonderful things.
The important thing to remember though, is that kids should have fun in the playground. If they pick up some extra knowledge on the way, then all the better, but fun is king.
