The Perfect Playground

Up, down, forwards, backwards, round and round – Playgrounds allow children to slide, climb, swing and spin. It’s the perfect environment for exploring different physical forces such as ‘push and pull’. In this activity, you can explore everything you love most about the playground.

Activity 1: Let’s Investigate

What you’ll need

about 30 mins for a trip to the playground
hats, sunscreen or umbrellas
a camera or mobile phone

What you’ll do

Step 1

It’s time to go out on a field trip! Head out to your local park, beach or any other area with a playground.

Step 2

Have a look at the different features of your playground. Take photos of your most and least favourite parts (you could show a ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ in the photos to capture how you feel).

You can ask:

why do you like these ones – is it because of movement, fun, feeling or adventure?
why do you think they look/feel/sound like that?

Step 3

Stop to investigate how the equipment works. How do you start its movement – do you need a push or a pull?

Step 4

From here, your kids can design and create a model of their perfect playground for their family, friends or favourite toys. Their goal will be to translate the factors they identified in the playground (movement, fun, feeling, adventure) into their design. See if they can include connecting and moving parts.

You can investigate how to build swings, a slide or a see-saw. If your toys are going to use the playground, how big should you make the equipment?

Step 5

Discuss what kinds of playground equipment you’d include to make a perfect playground. Maybe you want to create something completely new!

Tip: if you can’t make it out to a playground, you can start at Step 4. Just have a chat about playgrounds you have gone to, and move straight to deigning your own.

Key concepts explored

Friction is the force that reduces movement between two objects that are touching. You will slow down when going down on a slide because of the friction between your clothes and the slide. The smoother the surface, the less friction it has.

It’s easy for children to slide down a slope because of the force of gravity. The same force of gravity makes it harder for children to climb up ladders, because they’re moving against the force.

To play on a swing, children first need a little push to start the motion of swinging both forwards and upwards. When the swing in motion reaches the top of its arc, it slows down for a pause, before gravity pulls the swing back down into the starting position.

Inertia is the resistance of an object to any change in its state of movement. For example, on a swing, if there was no gravity, you would continue to only go upwards and forwards due to inertia.

And last, we know we always have energy. When you are at the top of the slide, you have lots of potential energy because you aren’t moving yet. When you start to move, your potential energy turns into kinetic energy.

Want to take this activity further?

Look for materials to help bring their design to life by creating a model of their playground.

What you’ll need

paper, cardboard, egg or milk cartons
clean plastics like berry trays, bottles
building blocks, pop sticks
ribbon or string
tape
textas, stickers and/or paint (for decorating)

Kids can build and test each item, exploring whether they need to push or pull parts to make it work.

Together, test each model by putting a toy on the equipment. See how the movement or function changes. Do you need to push or pull with more force when the toy is on the equipment?

Select another toy to use and predict what you think might be different. Why do you think this?

Stay safe! Adults should help with cutting and gluing, and make sure any used plastics have been washed and cleaned before handling them.

Do they have a toy with no hands or one that can’t hold onto things? See how the playground could be adapted so that these toys can play on it without falling off.

You can ask:

could you make the equipment bigger, smaller, faster, slower?
what materials could you use to do this? Experiment with different materials to see if it makes a difference.

Then test with another toy – can they use the playground as well? Continue to tweak your design so that it can be used by everyone!

The challenge: build on the original design by thinking about how to incorporate your local natural landscape into the play area.

Perhaps there’s room for a water slide? How would it be different to a normal slide? Do you think you would travel down it faster or slower than a steel slide? Have a go at making it together!

Or, maybe you have a dog that you take to the park. What kind of play equipment might your dog like to have included? Design your pet’s perfect playground!

As you design, build and test each piece of equipment, use drawings, photos or slow motion video to capture the steps. Then create a diary or edit together a short documentary video about the making of your model.

To build technical skills, create a digital sketch of the model playground using a program like SketchUp or Tinkercad.

Has the digital sketch changed the way you might design or layout items in your playground? Why?

We’d love to see what you create! Share your video by tagging #ScitechAtHome on social media.

Try another at home challenge from our postcard series:

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At Home

Activity 1: Let’s Investigate

What you’ll need

What you’ll do

Key concepts explored

Want to take this activity further?

What you’ll need

Try another at home challenge from our postcard series:

Site mobile footer. Includes: Find us info, Social links, Logo, About scitech, Government of Western Australia logo and footer links.

About Scitech