Safety Awareness Assignment

Metro Children’s Services Playground Criteria

Criteria Area (from Metro Criteria)

Infant or Toddler Playground (at your centre – record what you observe)

Preschool Playground

1. Supervision of Children

No opportunity to observe. However, during free play in the basement staff members positioned themselves strategically to ensure they could view all of the children and conducted frequent head counts.

No opportunity to observe.

2. Playground Surfaces

The majority of the surface is tarmac. There is a dirt surface surrounding the tree. A sand box is available.

Most of the surface is tarmac, with small amounts of concrete. There is also a large sandbox.

3. Sun and Shade Areas

There is one large tree to provide shade and a small area with an overhang under the deck through which the children enter the area.

The main play structure has a roof and there is another covered area underneath. A separate hideaway house also has a roof on it. There are three large trees with wooden picnic tables built around their trunks.

4. Posted Outdoor Program Plan

There is an outdoor program plan posted. Some of the activities/equipment on the plan were available during free play in the basement.

As my placement was with the toddlers, I was unable to acquire this information.

5. Small Toys and Equipment

Outside, I saw a basketball net, an easel, and a sit-on rocking toy. I was told that there is also a small slide in the storage area that is brought out for the children to play with.

No opportunity to observe.

6. Large Toys and Equipment

We always carefully ensure that there is a ride-on or push toy available for each individual child. There are two scooters, one ride on car, two plastic lawnmowers with pop-up balls, two plastic shopping carts, two metal shopping carts and one pink scooter. I was told by Gipsy that the children would most likely be getting some new ride on toys soon as an order had gone in; she also told me that the toddlers would be getting an outdoor play structure either this Spring/Summer or next year.

There are 15 or so brightly coloured tricycles stored underneath the centre’s porch, behind a locked fence.

7. Outdoor Storage There is a concrete storage shed with a metal door. It’s connected to/behind the storage shed for the preschool playground.

There is a concrete storage shed with a metal door equipped with a slide-lock, which was unlocked the day I took my photographs. There’s another mechanism underneath the slide-lock that might be a key-operated lock.

Catherine Jobe, March 2013.Page 1

Play Space Summary Report

Toddler Playground



Preschool Playground









1.

Safety considerations must be closely related to the development of the children in order

to ensure their safety. Toddlers “have not yet developed an awareness of potential harm”

(Healthy Foundations in Early Childhood Settings) and will not think twice before running in

front of a swing that is in motion. They are “active explorers and are thus prone to bumps,

bruises, and scrapes from losing their balance and attempting new tasks” (Healthy Foundations).

They are described in Healthy Foundations as “little whirlwinds because their quest for learning

about their world leaves little time for caution”. Since we are aware of these characteristics that

toddlers have in common, it’s important that we use this knowledge to create a play space that

allows children to explore and take risks, while simultaneously protecting them from harm. The

ground should be soft to absorb the impact when they fall and there should always be close

supervision.

Preschoolers are “adept at running, climbing and pedaling a tricycle by the time they are

four. They are becoming more competent and confident on playground equipment and are

looking for new and advances challenges (e.g., climbing even higher up the climber, jumping off

the swing while it is still moving)” (Healthy Foundations). They have more confidence in their

abilities and are beginning to take risks. However, as they are in the “preoperational stage of

cognitive development” they are unable to determine the speed of a car, the height of a fire pole

or other dangers that an older child would recognize (Healthy Foundations). They may also have

been exposed to cartoons on television which feature invincible superheroes, leading them to

believe that they, too, can leap from high places and/or fly (Healthy Foundations). Preschoolers

both want and need to have increasing levels of independence, but with this increased

independence comes risk (Healthy Foundations). Educators must therefore set up an environment



where preschoolers can take control of their activities, while remaining as safe as possible.

Equipment should be age appropriate, climbers should have proper spacing and be constructed

from safe materials, the height of the equipment should reflect the age of the children and the

surface should be soft to prevent injuries as much as possible.

2.

The toddler playground will be vastly improved when the centre receives a small, age

appropriate play structure. The children will enjoy having a climber and slide and it will help

improve their gross motor skills. A safety concern I have about the toddler’s play area are the

concrete, ascending “stepping stones” at the back, left corner of the area. The younger toddlers

may not have enough balance to navigate them safely, so they are a potential safety risk. There is

some debris on the ground (including sticks, rocks, and a large, clear plastic bag) that will need

to be cleared before the children can safely use the area. The area is also on the small side.

The preschool playground is a nice, large, enclosed space with lots of room for the

children to run, climb, ride and play. The tarmac surface surrounds the play structures and there

is a dirt area surrounding the sand box. My only real concern regarding this play space is that

there is some concrete surfacing. I think this area must be intended as the tricycle/large ride-on

toy area and it is appropriate for that use; I hope that the children are discouraged from running

on this surface as it would be very painful to fall on.

3.

One of the spontaneous interactions I had with the children was to engage them in a game

of “Ring around the Rosie”. Three of the toddlers joined me and they were very excited to hold

hands and walk in a circle and especially liked the part where they all “fell” to the ground. The

benefits of this activity to the children were that they were able to play cooperatively with their



friends (developing social skills), follow simple instructions (“falling down” when the song

called for it) and learn the words to the song by imitating me. They enjoyed the experience and

we repeated it several times during my placement. The children became more and more familiar

with the song.

Another experience I engaged in frequently with the toddlers was dramatic play in the

kitchen centre. The children loved to bring me “tea” and I would play along, happily. I would use

this time as an opportunity to engage in conversation and ask the children to identify a variety of

items for me, such as food items, dishes, cups, baskets, etc… and we would also talk about the

colour of the items and even the taste, e.g. the apple tastes sweet, but the lemon is sour (they had

the cutest “sour” faces!). They enjoyed going “grocery shopping” and I would ask them

questions such as, “How many things did you buy at the grocery store?” to encourage them to

count. This activity benefited the toddler’s language skills, math skills, imaginative play skills,

and social skills, including parallel play. “While engaging in socio-dramatic play, children gain

literacy, self-regulatory, cognitive, social, emotional, and creative skills. These benefits are

enhanced when children participate in mature dramatic play as they create an imaginary

situation, use language to create the pretend scenario, form explicit roles and implicit rules, and

enact play for an extended time frame” (Bodrova et al., 1999, p.1; Bodrava & Leong, 2007,

Creating Environments for Learning).

Finally, the activity that I engaged in most frequently (many times throughout each and

every day I spent at the centre) was reading with the children. The children loved to be read to

and many of them brought me a variety of books throughout the day. Occasionally, this provided

me with one on one time with an individual child, but often they assembled in a small group and

I would read to all of them. They especially enjoyed repetitive stories and stories that had words



and/or sentences that they had memorized. We would take our time going through the books and

we talked about the pictures we saw. The toddlers were able to identify animals and the sounds

they made, colours, familiar household items, and items found in nature. I often visited the

library to select new books to share with the children and I brought in some books from home

and others I had purchased. Reading with the children was a very pleasant experience that I am

sure they enjoyed, since they continued to approach me every day with their requests! The

experience of being read to develops a child’s language & cognitive development, is beneficial

to their attention span and listening skills, fosters a positive attitude towards reading, allows a

child to acquire new knowledge and fuels their imaginations. “Early literacy skills are critical in

laying the foundation for current and later success in oral and written language. In addition,

literacy skills often play a crucial role in learning content in other areas” (Creating Environments

for Learning). Reading with children is important to their development and I am glad that I had

such an enthusiastic group of toddlers to share my love of reading with; I only hope that they

continue to seek out books as a form of entertainment and develop a lifelong love of reading.

Catherine Jobe, March 2013. Page 10

Documents

Safety Awareness Assignment