Our Playground Improvement Ideas

1.This is the shed we would not want to leave this unused 

3.and the people on that are waiting to go in to the quiet space can go on the bench

We were thinking of putting a bike track here. We were also thinking about taking out the trees and seating area and vegetable beds. Annabelle and Bridie thought of having a maze with pastel poles.

The problem that we chose was the bike track.

We think we should put it near the ball wall it's the best place for a bike to ride cause it can also go round to the cricket pitches.

This is our first idea of the bike track we came up with.

How can we change the shed into a quiet area?

We need to edit the shed, because we need to take some tools and wood and other things out of the shed and take it some where else.

Next problem.... Where are we going to put all of the tools and the other type of things?

Blake and Jackson

We think that we could put a garage door roof so you can get rid of the the shelter when you don’t need it,but you can fold it out when you do need it.

Our solution is that we could build about ten huts around the edge of the oval. That means we could have enough huts for everyone in the big school to hang out with their friends while being safe and dry.

We are going to solve this by putting a building some huts around the side of the oval.

This is a birds eye view of what the huts would look like

Where would You Like To Have A Sheltered Area?

Nick and Bree think that we should have the sheltered area inside the shed is, we think this is a great place to have our sheltered area because it’s not far away from any teachers and they can still see what’s happening inside. We think that it’s a big area to talk with your friends or have quiet game.

 1. The problem is that the sandpit is not big enough for every one to play in because we can only fit a small amount we were hoping to make the sand pit bigger and wider.

2.Every one who wants to play in the sandpit wishes that they could keep their creations all ok until the next day to build on them

If we do get the bigger and wider sandpit we would need to get little blocks to stop the sand from coming out of the sand pit.

Nobody should have to sit in side on rainy days!

We would use planks of wood because they are water proof. They are also good for the environment.

If it was raining people could sit under the shelter and play game. Each class would a scheduled week of the term.

We would make a time table to show which classes could use the court when it’s raining. If every class was on the one court at the same time it would be crazy. If a class was away on an excursion a different class would swap days so that the class that is away doesn’t miss out and at the same time the court is being used.

This is the plan to show what we are doing.

The problem is..........

The sandpit is not very inviting and it's too small.

We were thinking we can put a bigger sandpit next to the shed on the concrete. We can have features like a water play area, rocks and sand toys.

 Some students at Montagu Bay like to be outside on wet and rainy days. The problem is that there is not enough shelter for all students to be outside.

This one of the sheltered areas It doesn’t have enough room for 70+ students.

The problem is that the lines in our playground have been faded for a long time. We plan to make a new area to play all different types of games and sports. We will do this making the lines challenging. 

We want to make a fold out tent off the shed.

We need a quiet place to go at lunch times.

Constraints -money -age grade 3 up -amount of people inside the LEGO house

This is where we are going to put it in half of the blue shed so Mr Marsh and Mr Hutton can has half of the shed too.

As you can see other people have had the same idea and made it happen.Now that we know that we can do it it is possible.

There could be a roster for grade 6s and 5s to keep an eye on everyone. If something went wrong they could go get the duty teacher.

Age restrictions. Safety issues. It can be too expensive. 

Holes in the ground indicate where you can build.

Storage where the poles and platforms go.

Some people would like a creative play area where they can build and create with big poles and platforms that fit together.

We think that the creative play area should be behind the shed because it is not being used for anything.

3. We would make the whole place child proof so kids can not climb or jump off the second layer.

4. Their would be walls to stop kids from hurting themselves.

We could build more tables with umbrellas over them, they could also have a plastic cover over them to stop them from getting wrecked by bad weather or the sun.

This would be good for the people who like to write or draw, they could use the tables as a place to do this. 

Cost Size/shape Age Safety Supervision

We think these tables would look good over near the pine bark area since there is nothing there at the moment.

We will extend the original shelter,so that we can play outside and keep being active rather than staying indoors when it's raining.

The problem is that our school community finds that our playground doesn’t meet our needs. So we are trying to design a bike track which is available for all students to use.

1.Money restrictions 2.Age restrictions 3.Time restrictions 4.Playground safety 5.Space and size

Give way sign so that people can't get hit by a bike

Where people can put their bikes

Emily,Chloe and Brock

As you can see there is no place in the playground that is quiet.

The problem is that we do not have a quiet place for people to play cards, to chat with their friends or just have some alone time to think. We do have a place called the maker space but that is an inside area and we would like a space that is shaded in our playground. The maker space doesn’t really fit our needs as it is a space for people to create.

But we need to think about our constraints first....

1. Money- money is a very big constraint because we may need to pay a lot more then intended when we only have the money in our budget to spend.

2. Being safe- being safe is a constraint because we usually have only 1 duty teacher at our break times. It is already hard enough for 1 teacher to take care of the whole playground but it will be a lot harder when walls are up and they can’t see what is happening inside.

If you don’t know what constraints mean it basically means the things that are holding us back slightly and some problems we need to solve.

If we had a  bike track there would be more to do and most people would be very occupied, that would make recess and lunch more enjoyable for everyone.

We think we should get rid of the paint on four of the four-square courts. In their place we would buy some long lasting chalk. Each week a different class gets to draw a different game or two after the other games get washed off. Benefits of this include: variety in games, student choice, creativity and interest. The remaining markings (two four-square courts, the chess set and the basketball markings) should be remarked so they are more visible and inviting.

The problem is that there is no movable play equipment to use your inner creativity.

These are the big  foam blocks all shapes and sizes.

To use our inner creativity we could get movable  blocks to build, make, create and play. We could build cubbies, make borders and play games.

This is the container we think is the right size

Our problem is that our playgrounds marking system is out of date and needs an update. 

Darcy and Gemma

Solution

Our idea for a solution to our problem, is for a cubby to be placed where the old exercise equipment had been. It will be the perfect thing for getting out of bad conditions.

It will be very safe and enjoyable. With a games corner, tables and chairs, lockers for your lunch box etc.

We thought this area was a good idea because no one uses it and it's a big enough space for the building blocks.

What are the constraints? -The cost of each block -Where would we store the blocks. -How well people will show the 3Rs when using the blocks and sharing them with other people.

We thought that that this is a good storage solution 

We do not have enough area outside on the ashphalt or oval for rainy or windy day play.

The problem about the sandpit is that it is not big enough for lots of people to play in it does not looking very inviting and there is not much space and sand people are chucking sand out of the sandpit.

The problem was we wanted to add a bike track to our school to ride on at recess and lunch which was ball free and safe for people to ride on, we will add soft fall to it to make it extra safe.

Let's try to improve the sandpit and put a new one in the bike track like in the design and turn the old sandpit into a bike shed.

If we had a bike shed it would be really good because more people would bring bikes and scooters to school making the bike rack full then people would bring bikes inside.

Problem

The problem is that there is no proper sheltered areas to go to when it rains, is cold, windy or when outside is too noisy.

https://www.amtcomposites.co.za/news/what-are-effects-cold-weather-urethane

http://www.squamishchief.com/news/local-news/wind-warning-in-effect-for-howe-sound-1.23178028

https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-illustration-cartoon-image-rain-icon-cloud-rain-symbol-modern-forecast-s-storm-sign-weather-internet-concept-artistic-freehand-picture-image95615020

Other people don't have anywhere to go during lunchtime or just want something new to experience.

Laura and Georgette

We could have a bike track around the edge of the oval as something to do during recess and lunch.

Around near the garden beds and where the exercise equipment used to be as that area isn't used that much.

The science and quiet and art area could bee on the other side of the oval .

Problem

What is the problem? The problem is that we need more stuff to do in the playground. We need more stuff because not all people like to play on the play equipment or with balls. So we where thinking to have a quiet art and science area in the playground .

We are going to have an age group to say that only grade 3 to 6 are allowed. In it you could do science and art so if you don’t what to play games there is something else to do.

2. When we do that we can put the quiet space where the sandpit is now.

3. Then we have a sandpit and a quiet space.

Here is what our idea would look like. Hopefully you like it.

Our solution to this problem is to make a large rectangle in the middle of the oval so we could play lots of different sports and games. The rectangle will be made of soft fall. Soft fall is a squishy rubber mat that can absorb impact. This will help because if one of the students fall over it will not cause any injuries. On this rectangle it will include a netball court a soccer field and a basketball court.

Solution.... 1. we will have 2 tables, one play area and one build area.

Solution.... 2. Time out bench is too close to the shed so we will try to change it in to something else and put another time out bench some where else.

This is our solution from a web search. In this court you can play soccer, basketball, netball, football and many more things.  The problem is that we may have to spend a bit more for a bit more fun.

This is a line marking that we could have in the ashphalt area near the office witch would give the sports leaders a good activity.

Our idea is to have a sheltered area on the oval for P.E, lunch time and class room games when it is raining.

Our constraint we are focusing on is money 

It will be safe because it has grass under it not concrete so you can't get hurt as easily. It will also be safe because teachers will supervise.

We estimate around 170 students can use this area to play/sit/eat.

The problem is that we need a space for students to stay outside on rainy days.

We have two Courts, but not a single one of them is a basketball court. We know many people like to play basketball during breaks, so how could we build a full court for them to play on, as well as have a hoop for them to use?

The problem is...... We don't have a quiet area to talk with our friends or play without lots of noise.

We could make the deck area near the shed a quiet cubby and put tables, chairs and activities inside. We were thinking the sandpit could be put inside! 

The solution is....

The constraints: 1. Supervision 2. Money 3. Who is allowed in there? 4. Would it affect pipes and other things under ground? 5. Would it be safe?

The problem is we have no outside, sheltered, creative, quiet place to play at recess and lunch at school.

What would be inside our creative quiet place?

The solution That we came up with was to put the bike track where the students play soccer games because it is out of the way and no balls will go on the bike track.

 The start line could start where the exercise equipment used to be. Then the school could build a wall between the grass area and the concrete on both the courts and could take away the bits of the fence that lead on to the grass area and could continue along the edge of the playground and continue upon the concrete table sitting area and finish at the old exercise equipment .

The problem is that we don’t have a place to be outside when it is raining cold and windy. This has been a issue for a while now. We think that it’s time to solve this problem.

This is where we think we should put the huts

Money Age restrictions Supervision Health regulations

The problem is how can we include a safe bike track to use at lunch.

Some people think that our playground doesn't look inviting. So we are coming up with ideas about how we can improve our playground. Reagan and Charlotte have came up with an idea to build a bike track around the area where the cricket field is because not many people play there.

We are going to put a bike track next to the cricket nets. 

Our solution is to create a safe bike track for all ages. It will include hills, obstacles, crossing and crossing lights, bike racks and more! We will add a new leadership role called "bike track monitor" and whoever has one of the few badges will keep the garden fresh and keep everyone safe from hurting themselves.

The courts keep getting wet when it rains which makes it difficult to play in the courts.

The line markings on our concrete are very faded, old and should be repainted.

Many of the line markings are fading but they are used a lot and we think it's about time to repaint them.

People don't use the hopscotch so we thought we could replace it with some cool things like these:

Another idea we had was that we could create an inviting space to draw your own markings with chalk. We thought that we could do it here.

We could also do a working bee where people come and help paint new lines.

Lots of students enjoy riding their bike to and from school, and they might find it fun if they could ride during recess and lunchtime. How can we make a safe, cheap and physically possible bike track?

We think that the bike track should be behind the shed. Take a look...

The solution is we are going to make a bike track around the cricket area.

We are thinking of adding a water fountain so when riders get thirsty they can have a drink if they forgot to bring their drink bottles.

First we designed our bike track then thought of making a maze to go with the bike track. Our maze is going to be pastel colours we chose those kind of colours because it would look nice together with our school colours. Bridie thought of the maze but first she saw a picture in a playground on the internet so Bridie talked to Annabelle and she liked the idea.

We would have different stations for different classes. We would also have a roster so each class could book there day to enjoy the creation shed.

I'm sure people would have loads of fun if we had a creation shed.

Sommer &amp; Abby have been thinking how no one ever uses the space where the garden beds are so maybe we can make a little quiet area there.

This is the oval fence for the bike track so that balls don't go on to the bike track.

There's space to play almost any small portable games and drawings.

This box is were the room is going to be!

Grace and Ella

Our problem was that our line markings are old and uneven. We decided that the perfect places for the new line markings were outside the shed, near the hopscotch area and in the space of two of the 4 square courts.

Constraints . Money . Supervision . Space . Time . People might not want us to get rid of the areas we want to build in.

The solution is to put a tilted roof/cover over the grandstands so people can be outside on rainy days. 

Listen here to find out about one of our constraints.

The tilted roof/cover prevents balls/footballs getting stuck up on roofs/cover, so Mr. Hutton doesn't need to use his free time getting them down.

We could have scheduled periods for each class to have a turn on the bike track. We have been thinking that we could have an age restriction from grade 3 to grade 6 since grade 2’s down probably don’t know how to ride a bike and could end up injuring themselves. We could store a couple of spare bikes/scooters in case someone doesn’t have a bike or they can’t bring their bikes for personal reasons. If you forgot your bike you will have to miss out since its your responsibility.

Please remember we are learners and help us celebrate our successes. Sometimes we will be sharing our finished work and at other times we will share "works in progress" with the little mistakes they might contain.

Written and illustrated by students at Montagu Bay Primary in Term 2, 2018. Each double page spread was created to showcase an idea to improve or redevelop a section of the school playground.

We could add Windows so the duty 👨‍🏫 can see what where doing

The Problem

Our idea was to make a bigger sand pit in place of the smaller sand pit because I think more people will play in the bigger sand pit then the smaller sand pit.

The problem is the sand pit we have now can’t fit a lot of people in it and it doesn’t look very inviting.

Joshua &amp; Hayden

The problem is people want to make a quiet space so they can read and play board games in peace and quiet.

But... we don’t have the room but we came up with a solution.

Where will it be?               It will be In half of the shed next to the sheltered benches.

What’s the problem? The playground needs a quiet space for people to read or play quiet games 

The solution

The problem is the sand pit is not very popular

We can make it bigger so more people can fit in it. We can also make a fountain of sand to make it look more inviting.

The problem

Another idea is to move the sand pit somewhere else so we can fit more equipment where the sand pit we have now was.

So we are going to keep the garden beds and put a quiet space next to it and have a shade area over the garden beds so if we want to do some gardening.

Instead of sitting on the dirt we will put some fake grass down.

Beanbags Fold out chairs Fold out tables

Some of the things we would need to think about might be: - how much money have we got?

- will we have to have an age restriction?

The problem is the line markings on the asphalt haven’t been updated for quite a while and we want them updated and I’m sure lots of other people do too.

Constraints * Cost * Arguing over who draws the game * Washing off the chalk *People love to sit on the asphalt and eat their lunch but their pants will get dirty

Another reason why we think we should have the quiet place near the classrooms is because if it is raining outside people can just quickly run out to the space without getting too wet.

We would also want to make the furniture in the space completely moveable!

We will put the outside shelter on the deck next to the water fountain because we think that it is a good place to put it because it is close to the school building and is close to the toilets

We decided that a simple cube would be best for the layout design because it will fit on the space that we have chosen

We think that a room with retractable walls and a rolling roof is a good solution for this problem. we can have a monitor so we don't over go over our limit, there can also be a sign up sheet and only fourteen people and chairs, we can hold a book club there too.

We can have personal book lockers and book shelves so if you don't want to put your book in a book locker you can pick one off the shelf.

We think here is the right place to put it

Solution

We were thinking we could have a art,quiet and science room. It’s going to be at the other side of the oval. And we were thinking for the outside bit is going to have all these tables that if the science gets a bit messy or the art gets a bit messy you can go outside and finish it off and if you just want to sit and chat to your friends. We are going to have fake grass. There is going to be a place out side of it on a different side it would nice and cosy with bean bags and pillows. We could put these in side at night time. There will be a shutter on that side too so it would still be a bit safer from balls.

The sandpit is too small and it doesn’t look inviting and not a lot of people play there.

The problem is that our school does not have a sheltered area where students can go when it is raining or bad weather. 

What should be inside the sheltered area?

Bree and Nick think that inside the sheltered area we should have heaters to keep us warm. We should have a seated area where we can eat our food or sit down and have a game. We think it’s a good idea to have a microwave etc so we can heat up our food. It would be a great idea if we had windows around the sheltered area because then any teacher can see what’s happening inside at anytime.

We propose to extend the roof on the ashphalt to cover most of it to shelter us from harsh weather. Also we will have foldable plastic protective sheets on all the sides so if ball games are being played the ball will be easier to get and rain that is being pushed by the wind won't get in.

If the plastic breaks it will be costly to our environment.

Even though it won't cost as much as other builds there is still a pretty hefty cost.

How can we be outside on a wet day without getting wet?

This is a problem because when it is raining at lunch or recess students sometimes get a little bit excited and out of control because they want to be outside so they aren’t stuck inside all day.

These 3 class rooms are going to have the little rooms

Leo has come up with an idea where we could have a bigger sandpit and a quiet space in the ceiling of the sandpit where you could get up by a ladder. There would be solar panels to charge a tv.

The problem is that we don't have a creative/quiet space yet

This is the schools playground. We don't have any quite or creative spaces. We only have this, a loud outside playground.

The problem is that we don't have a biking area.

This is the oval and this would be a good place to have a biking track be going here but it will go all round the oval.

I think that we should have a biking 🚴‍♀️ area and that could be fun. But the problem is that we don’t all ready have one. If we could have a small fence around the oval that would be good for a number of things because when people are playing football games against other schools the football won’t go very far. When people are playing soccer our playing other ball games they will not have to run the oval just to get the ball when the fence is up, also so many people like biking 🚵‍♀️ they can do what they love. And I think that it should be made of dirt.

Our Playground Improvement Ideas

Created using the Design Process in Term 2, 2018

We are designing a bike track for our school so we can ride our bikes in school time. Here is the place we think would be a good place.

Our plan was to design a bike track that is suitable for most ages and abilities.

Our solution is we could turn the cricket area into a big sandpit it could be bigger we would have more space than the old sandpit area and to make it look more inviting the sand would be rainbow.

Christine and Jamie had the idea to have a water tube on the side of the sandpit so people can use the water to get wet sand.

http://www.lifespankids.com.au/Playfort-Sandpit

Christine and Jamie will make a side place for the tubs and fill the tubs with water.