The library was invited to bring a little Wild Rumpus to a new community event called West Fest last month.
One City Early Learning was kind enough to loan us some of their materials (since we haven't been able to purchase our own yet -- not yet commercially available!) and, despite some light rain in the morning, we set up a few tents and the equipment and invited families to play! Here are some of the things that happened (after the jump):
Rolling by kiddos small and big:
(this is our summer intern and her sister who was volunteering that day -- great helpers taking a few moments here to make sure they understood how the equipment worked! In the background you can see the library's van that I hauled all of this equipment to the park with. Much smaller than my summer van, but it seemed to hold enough for a single event like this one.)
Lots of ladder play!
This guy built basically a "floor" on top of one of the rollers, then climbed a ladder to get on top and said, "This seems sturdy enough!" And indeed it was QUITE stable. Excellent personal risk management!
His younger sibling tried walking up one of the thin planks, but it fell right after I snapped this shot--luckily, it wasn't very far off the ground, so no harm done.
I'm not sure what this structure is, but I like it!
And here are some little exploring the ladders and planks with watchful but trusting fathers nearby.
These three boys practiced rolling innertubes down this plank and into this roller tube over and over and over and they laughed and laughed and adjusted their contraption each time until they finally got a tube to fall down INTO the roller. And there was much rejoicing!
She wanted to dip this innertube into the puddle.
These kiddos were very carefully transferring ALL of the chalk into one bucket for me. Thanks!
I added one new element to this event to test it out. I designed it myself and while I would likely make some design tweaks if I made another one, this one worked great for today's purposes! It's a modular water wall (or modular WHATEVER wall, really!) made from 3 pegboard panels, 2 piano hinges and some wooden molding trim. The elements I brought along to invite kids to use with it were
Pop Toobs,
Boon Pipes bath toys, collapsible silicone funnels and a big handful of chenille stems. I also provided two watering cans and some plastic dish tubs to catch the water. Here's what kids did:
ToodleyTOO!
Some parents just couldn't let their kids try it alone (it looked like too much fun!)
This little guy played with the materials for over an hour while his parents stood at a distance and watched. So impressed with him and them!
This little one decided to go get some water at the splash pad with her pop toob:
I was excited that my own family was able to attend this event as well. My daughter really enjoyed the water play equipment. Here she is with Professor Rebekah Willett (who came out to volunteer and help, yay!) who is assisting her by holding one of the Boon Pipes while she pours water through it.
Then Rebekah showed her how to pour the water back into the watering can (they have REALLY tiny filling holes, awkwardly placed. I'll be adding some more watering cans with different designs for the next time we use this equipment.)
Then, she figured out how she could fill the watering can by herself. From the puddle.
Yep mom, this muddy water pours great!
It was a great way to let more people know about AnjiPlay and the Wild Rumpus and it was a fun activity for families to engage in together, but since there were other things to do at West Fest, most families only played for a short time, so having less play equipment there was fine. Hopefully we'll have better weather for the next outdoor "fest" event!
Please note: "Anji Play,” refers to a specific philosophy and comprehensive approach to early education developed by Ms. Cheng Xueqin in Anji County, China. I use the term "Anji Play" to describe my programming and throughout this blog with the explicit permission of Ms. Cheng because our programming has been developed as part of a close collaborative relationship with her and her team of Anji Play educators. If you are interested in learning more about how you can bring Anji Play to your community, please visit www.anjiplay.com
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