Play Environments - 3rd and 4th Grade Playground

I observed third and fourth graders on the playground at St. Mary Immaculate Parish School on March 17 for a half hour. It was a day when they were supposed to play only on the blacktop, because the grass was wet and muddy, so they were not supposed to go into the open grassy field next to the playground equipment. There are two structures at this playground, one larger and made of plastic, while the other is smaller and wooden. Boys and girls played together on the structures, but they were not engaging in imaginative play but doing activities (climbing, monkey bars, etc). They climbed up the slide and also climbed on top of the equipment and then just sat there and talked to their friends. Many boys were engaged in playing football on the blacktop and several small groups of girls were engaging in creative play, like house, horses and some kind of exploration activity. It was only on the equipment that boys and girls interacted. Girls were on the swings, alone or sharing it with a friend. No boys at all used the swings during this recess time. There was one much younger girl on the equipment, the daughter of one of the recess monitors, who for awhile was playing alone under the wooden structure on the tire swing, but then several older girls went underneath to play with her.