At my preschool, we have a pretty simple play area in the back of the house. We have a small hill made from dirt, a house built out of willow, a sandbox house, a ring of rocks and tree stumps. When my mom lost the birch tree in the front of her house, I was happy to relieve her of some of the stumps. They are played with every day...and thanks to the wonderful and imaginative minds of children are used in more ways than I ever thought possible.
They are used as tables, for building a nest or a city scape on...
They are made into cars and ridden like a horse...
They are turned into a stage for a puppet show...
used as drums...
and are nice to just sit on for a rest.
They can be jumped on, used to make a balance beam or can be easily made into a teeter-totter.
After they have been sitting on the grass for a while, it's fun to turn them over and see what kind of creatures live underneath.
When they begin to break down a little, they are fun to dig in...
...and by filling the little holes with flowers, it can even become a vase.
Today the children used them to make a train...
and then a boat...
...they were traveling to Africa.
