I’ll never forget the day when I was packing lots of monkey puppet printables and crayons on our way to Kennilworth park and my husband said “Jess, no kids are going to be coloring while they are at the park.”   And as I recall I said something along the lines of “We’ll see.”

Mmm Hmm… I think you know where this is headed…

Every last printable was colored and taken home, of course.  I set it up on a picnic table under a covered awning and the kids re-visited the craft bit by bit.

Now, don’t get me wrong… I FULLY believe that parks are a place to take advantage of the gross motor skills (balance, coordination, running, jumping, climbing skills, etc.) that naturally take place in that setting.  And there are SO many great parks in Baton Rouge to wear out your kiddos ;).  But, if you are like me, you might pack snacks and other carry-ons that can make your playdates vary and LAST!

Today, I am sharing a printable that could be a great way for kids to observe, record, and note the differences of their local parks.

This printable has different uses for different stage kiddos:

For Toddlers:

Introduce the vocabulary…. “Look!  Swings.  Where are the swings?  Yay! We found the swings.  Do you want to swing?”

For Pre-schoolers:

Observe the details…. “Does this playground have swings?  What color are the swings?  Lets color the swings green so we can remember that this park has green swings!”

For Pre-Kinders:

Record the details….  Put an “x” on the line under the equipment that is not at the playground, try to write the beginning sound or all the sounds you hear on the line under the equipment that is at the playground.

For Kinders:

Write about the details…. “Can you write what you like about the {slide, swing, etc.} at this playground?”  “I like to push my friends on the swings so I am going to write that under swings.”

For Kinder Grads:

Compare and Contrast the different playgrounds by making their own scavenger hunt specific to their own local parks/playgrounds.

My final bit of advice for using these:  bring clipboards… kids feel so official when they are “recording information” on a clipboard.  🙂

I hope you like this little freebie that you can tote along to the park OR have it out on a table at home after going to a park for some unwind time.

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