Risky Play is a big topic within child care- often the term “risk” causes fear and anxiety when parents hear the term, so another way to phrase this is by re-labelling this as “Adventurous Play”, which is exactly what we in school-age 3 got to engage in!
Educator Vanessa had the idea to use the ratchet straps on the soccer posts to add a new and exciting level of adventure to the play we do each day. The children were eager and excited for what was happening, and wanted to help in whatever ways they could. As Vanessa tried to get the straps attached, Liam observed what she was doing and said, “okay, okay, I got this, can I set the other strap up?” He was invited to try and appeared to grasp the concept fairly well, but at one point the strap did get twisted and we had to unravel and re-do it.
Unfortunately, we discovered the poles appeared too skinny for the straps and we had difficulties getting them attached tight enough to be safe- we decided to redirect the activity and secure the strap over the top like a climbing rope. “This is awesome,” Liam said. “You need a lot of upper body strength.” He showed the others how to climb. Sophia Rose, meanwhile, was trying to figure out how to make a swing. “I think if we attach the hook with the other hook it’ll work,” she explained- but we were having troubles getting it attached. Finally, we were able to secure the two hooks together, and Liam removed his rope as well so that we had two loops to swing on.
This was good until we rope started slipping. “That’s scary,” Sophia said with a laugh in her voice. “But so fun!” “Wait, I know what we can do,” Vanessa said as she removed one of the straps, finding the way to secure the straps around the post. “I got it! Let’s get both of them up.” Once we got both straps up, the children separated themselves into groups of 4 and began to climb up together. The lower strap was perfect for balancing and climbing on, but some, like Liam, Sophia, Eve, and Brielle were brave enough to climb up onto the higher straps, using the top soccer pole to lift and support them.
This is so fun!” Alexandra expressed. “Look at me,” Korah said excitedly. “I did it!” Carmen exclaimed when she finally made her way to the top. Pride and excitement were expressed by the children as they achieved their goal, fostering a positive sense of self. They engaged in self, safe, risk assessment, knowing their limits but not being afraid to ask for support from Vanessa if needed. We used a variety of gross motor skills such as core stability, upper body strength, and balancing. And most of all- we had fun! We hope to try to implement more adventurous risk taking into the outdoor environment and see how else we can use the ratchet straps to expand on this play.
