The Bike Park Signs
The children had decided to make changes to the Bike Park in the Early Years playground to maintain a safe and organised space. We went back to the documentation we had collected, to think about on next steps.
- Jacob “We want the bike park to look beautiful.”
- Shemo “What would a beautiful bike park look like?”
The children began to share their ideas. They believed the Bike Park would look beautiful if:
- the bikes were parked next to each other in an organised way, each trike in its own bubble space with distinctive lines to demarcate each space
- there were guardrails at the back to protect the fence
- there were signs to show where the children were allowed to park the bikes and signs that communicated no parking zones
- plants that were scattered across the space were cleared away
- shovels and other toys that did not belong in the space were stored in designated spaces around the playground.
We went back to look at some of the Bike Park signs created by previous K2 students. The children noticed that the signs were no longer useful as they were wet and drawings on the signs were unclear and invisible.
The children decided that they would like to create new signs and discussed important considerations when creating new signs. They talked about the choice of materials. This seemed important as the weather outdoors had affected the previous signs.
A group of children volunteered to take on the challenge of creating new signs for the space.
- We wonder how the project may evolve as the children make important decisions about the materials and their properties to create messages.
- We wonder how they will use signs, symbols, illustrations or words to communicate important information.
- We wonder how the children will present these new ideas and messages to the Early Years community.
Approaches to Learning:
- Use discussion and play to generate new ideas and investigations.
- Understand the ways in which images and language interact to convey ideas.
- Make inferences and draw conclusions.
- Negotiate ideas and knowledge with peers and teachers.
