Hobbies And Interests
"Zone" Games
Zone games have defined boundaries and are often painted onto the playground surface. Handball courts, hopscotch diagrams, maps and defined walking, running or riding-toy paths are examples of zone games. Defining playground zones helps prevent disputes on where a particular type of play takes place. It also gives children suggestions for how to make more effective use of their play time. "Safety Town" zones include defined riding paths around fixed or temporary structures. They often include child-sized traffic lights, stop signs and railroad barriers, marked pedestrian crosswalks and traffic lanes. Handball and dodgeball courts make it easier to determine when a player or ball is out of bounds. Post easy-to-read rules and ensure that sufficient necessary equipment is available for the number of children likely to play each game.
Fixed-Goal Games
Basketball courts and kickball diamonds are examples of fixed-goal games. These games involve fast movement and frequent changes of direction. Older and more agile children use these areas, so fixed-goal games should have buffer zones around them to prevent out-of-bounds play from resulting in injuries to younger children, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Cooperative Play
Cooperative play areas include sandboxes, play houses, water tables and imagination stations. Cooperative play areas and equipment should have a partial barrier on whichever side faces a more heavily-used, high motion area of the playground, if space does not permit a clearly-defined buffer zone between the two areas.
Hand and Rope Games
Hand games were once a common sight in open areas of many playgrounds. They are considered an endangered cultural heritage by the Asia/Pacific Cultural Center for UNESCO, because elimination of recess at many schools, along with competition from computer and electronic games, leaves little time for free play. Groups of two to 10 players, consisting mostly of girls, form rings and chant while pressing or clapping hands together in various patterns.
Rope games such as "snake in the grass" "jump in" and "double Dutch" are played by increasingly more agile children. While still primarily played by girls, boys will participate and are usually welcomed. "Snake in the grass" resembles limbo and does not require a player to risk getting hit by a turning rope, so younger, less-experienced jump-rope players are more likely to be included.
Double Dutch, also known as Chinese jump-rope, is both a spectator and a participant game, with complex patterns and steadily increasing height of the rope.