Play Environments - Pre-K on Playground

I observed a pre-k class (the same one from my classroom observations) outside on the school playground at St. Mary Immaculate Parish School for a half hour on March 17. The teacher told the students that they were not to go under the playset because it was still muddy under there, so they weren't allowed to go on the tire swing that hung under there. There are two separate structures for their school playgrounds - one is larger and made of plastic and the other is smaller and wooden, made more for the younger students. More of them were playing on the smaller structure. There were many arguments about the swings, which were the most wanted commodity. Children waited impatiently for their turn. The younger students were more likely to use the equipment properly, doing down the slide rather than climbing up it. They spent more time on the wooden structure and also used some equipment that the older students didn't use at all - many of them were ringing the bell, which I didn't even realize was there when I was watching the older students in this environment. Some of the girls chose not to use the equipment at all, but were instead drawing chalk on the sidewalk, creating stories for themselves and drawing their favorite characters, like Wall-E. The boys were chasing each other around and balancing on the curbs.