Wild Rumpus, week 1, year 2: Mmmmm..... Rumpus-y!

What a great kick off to this summer's Wild Rumpus series on the west side!  This year, the Wild Rumpus is taking place twice a week (two different locations) for twice the fun.  When the amazing Holly posts about the east side Rumpus, I'll be sure to link to it here!

Although we have ordered some of the official AnjiPlay materials (yay!) they haven't arrived yet, so once again, we're kicking off the Wild Rumpus season with some non-standard Anji Play materials.

I love the deep engagement with chalk here:

 This crew spent hours building a fort using fabric, ropes and clamps on the existing playground equipment.

 The sheets and fabric also made beautiful dress-up options:

 (lots more after the jump!)

 

We added a few more inflatable inner tubes this year.  This pair had attended the east side Rumpus two days earlier and had spent a lot of time there dragging the innertubes around with a rope tied to it and that was the first thing they did when they showed up at the West side Rumpus too!

 This was a new innovation though!  Using ropes and bungee cords, they created a cube shape out of the innertubes!

 Another new innovation -- using the innertubes to stabilize the red cones so that she could sit inside the cone without it tipping over and dumping her out.

 

Here is her play story for today.  When I asked her which of these activities was her favorite, she chose the "big cone & floaty" option and then explained what she'd done and why it was her favorite.(photo above, drawing below).

 

The slackline continued to be a popular option!

 We brought in two very large wooden spools.  Its not clear in the photo below, but this little one had a rope tied around the spool and was pulling on the other end (tied to a small innertube) and if you want to see how this idea ended.... watch the video below.  (Props to the parents for their willingness to walk that fine line between fear and wonderment along with their child!)

 

We also added in some new elements.  One thing that we added was some whiteboards.  I introduced them with the idea that the kids might want to use them for some "play planning" but the kids had a different (and wonderfully literacy rich) idea -- signage!

 I love that towards the end of the evening, this "KEEP OUT" sign became a "COME PLAY" sign as the older kids decided that actually they were building a fort for the younger kids and they wanted to invite them in.

 This sign encouraging kids to check out a library book was completely the kids' own initiative. 

 

We also added a rope ladder in one of the trees. 

 It was perfect for climbing.

 The ladder and the tree showed up in many play stories today!

 

Thanks to the Parks Division, we also had sand (in the sand volleyball court) to play in this year!  This little guy in the baseball cap told the other kiddo that he was a chef.

Here's a play story (complete with volleyball net) about the sand play:

We even had a family bring in some of their own sand toys to play with.

Here are a few more play stories from this week:

We had 135 people playing with us in the park this week, thanks to some perfect weather conditions.  It was great to see so many people bringing in a picnic blanket and dinner and the food carts parked nearby too.  Can't wait to see what happens in week 2!

Here's the East Side Rumpus Report from Week 1! 

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