Thank you for your interest in Rustics Jungle Gyms |
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Welcome to our next newsletter. In this edition we discuss how the Stirling Fathers' Club funded a new jungle gym and we present the developmental benefits of Jungle gyms with respect to the use of imagination in play. Happy reading! |
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Additional creative fund-raising ideas |
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Following on from our January newsletter: How to find funding for your new jungle gym, we feature a new installation at Stirling primary that has been funded by the Fathers Club. The Stirling Fathers’ Club arranges monthly evening events at which fathers listen to informative presentations, socialise and develop a feeling of comradery. In addition to the social aspect, the Club’s objective is to assist the schools tangibly and visibly. To make this a possibility, they arrange fund raising events. This year, this included a Cansa Shavathon, an annual golf day, steak evenings, a Father’s Club Expo at which fathers displayed their companies and services, and a raffle. According to club Vice Chairman, Raymond Gower, “The funds raised are used to improve the school facilities and this year we elected to install a new Rustics jungle gym for the Grade R’s.” |
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Create an environment for the Imagination to run wild |
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In our last newsletter, we encouraged you to think of ‘out of the box’ uses for your jungle gym equipment. In this issue we focus on the benefits for a child’s imagination of having a jungle gym. |
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Imaginative play fosters mental growth by creating opportunities for trying out new ideas, ways of thinking and problem solving. In pretend-play, children face a variety of problems which they will solve using important skills that they’ll use throughout their lives. Many of today’s games for children have rules and a defined beginning and end. There are increasingly fewer opportunities to develop a child’s imagination than in previous generations. A well-designed Jungle Gym can provide just such an opportunity. The child must decide where to start and how to play. The individual poles, swings, ropes and tyres which make up a jungle gym can become whole new worlds. With a bit of imagination, they become anything from castles to spaceships and everything in between. Once the location of the adventure has been decided, it’s back to the imagination to create players in the story and a plot. |
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The Rustics Tarantula is specifically designed to provide multiple options for movement from one side to the other without ever touching the ground. This lack of an obvious start and end point gives children an opportunity for creative play, problem solving and negotiation with playmates in addition to the more obvious upper and lower body strength, gross motor and balance benefits. |
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The Tarantula incorporates many different horizontal, vertical, angled and moving elements to provide multiple stimulants for the imagination
• four giant arches
• a tyre tunnel in the centre
• twisty monkey bars of ascending and descending loops
• a set of more traditional straight monkey bars
• a three-meter-long slide
• two fireman’s poles
• three hanging ropes and
• a giant spider’s web
An investment in well-designed outdoor play equipment is an investment in both the physical and mental wellbeing of the children who use it. |
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If you would like further information on the Tarantula play system or any of our other outdoor play systems give us a call on 043 748 5880 or drop us an email |
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