February Half Term 2019
Our Play Rangers delivered play sessions in thirteen different parks and green spaces across Gloucestershire last week. Nearly 600 children, young people and their families joined us at play for sunny February days.
Highlights include the addition of a mobile mud kitchen to our messy play increasing creativity and happy smiles to those who like sensory play and getting messy.
Across the county cooking and eating together had been a big part of our play days with children and young people being just as keen to help with the preparation of food as the eating of it.
Inspiring youth social action took place in Gloucester when young people, frustrated with having to wait for play to start on their site while our Rangers cleared it of dog mess and fly-tipped rubbish, made poo bag dispensers out of empty plastic bottles to remind dog walkers of their responsibilities and provide ways of clearing up the mess if they had forgotten bags.
With unseasonably warm and sunny weather we saw a lot more families than we normally would in a February half term; play this week had a feeling more like our summer sessions which have a strong community feel to them with families sharing picnics and enjoying their local open spaces. It’s great to see families and friends spending time together outside.
We have been able to introduce more people to our unique brand of outdoor play this half term. New play attendees came to say hello, curious to see what we were doing, having noticed bubbles floating across the park, or the mobile mud kitchen, hearing lots of laughter and seeing the blue van arrive on their community space. It is not uncommon to hear “we only came to see what was going on as we walked past; we’ve been here for hours playing!”
