The Mud Racetrack - A Loose Parts Playground Story

The universal appeal of mud was demonstrated within the first few hours of setting up our loose parts playground and opening up the garden space; children got stuck in straightaway, making trenches, digging holes, bashing in posts and, once our mud kitchen was established, making all manner of muddy culinary delights. And the enthusiasm certainly hasn’t waned. Every lunch and break time the ‘loose parts garden’, as it is now termed, buzzes with activity as children across the grade levels happily play together. One of the observable wonders is how their play evolves over time and projects take new shapes and directions.

One such project is 'The Mud Racetrack' which has developed from a digging a simple hole to carving out ‘irrigation’ trenches to creating a complex raised racetrack for remote control cars. There are so many aspects to this project which are fantastic - the teamwork of the large group involved, the ingenuity and authentic problem-solving and the perseverance. But is the raw enthusiasm and joy which makes me so incredibly happy, as this was exactly the kind of project I’d hoped to see come about when initiating the loose parts playground.

Most of our students live in the city, many in apartment blocks, so they really relish the outdoor play opportunities our school offers. To see them so sensorily engaged is such a pleasure. With bare hands they have been scooping the mud, mixing water to the perfect consistency and then patting and smoothing it down for the track surface - just what kids should be doing!

It has also been great fun observing the divergent thinking taking place as they alter designs, make enhancements and solve logistical problems. To line the track edge and help keep the mud in the place the children decided to use stones, of which there is a huge supply in the water feature a little way from the racetrack itself. Ingenious labour-saving ideas have come about for efficiently transporting the stones, including using car tyres which have great storage capacity and, yes, they roll! The tyres came in useful too for flattening the track.

The beauty of a project like this is the scope and freedom the it allows. Very little adult intervention has been necessary and the children have been able to work on it over a substantial length of time. This kind of time is rarely found in school projects as learners are whisked from topic to topic. The children have been able to test out ideas, make revisions, go off on tangents and thoroughly enjoy the process along the way.