We made a large Natural Playground at our Glamping Site which includes Musical Instruments, Den-Building, Climbing Frames, Bug Hunt / Investigation Areas, Hopscotch and Tic-Tac-Toe (Noughts and Crosses) to name a few.
We love using recycled, reclaimed and foraged materials to make new things and it can be as simple as laying logs flat to make a Hopscotch Course. I plan to paint some numbers on these.
How to make natural Musical Instruments really simply; this one required a hand saw, shovel, drill, a few screws and hessian rope.
- Cut the wooden pieces for the frame to size.
- Choose the top piece and drill holes along it to hang the ‘Musical bars’ from. Make sure the hole is big enough for the rope you are using to go through.
- Screw the frame together and dig holes and place frame in the ground.
- Using a hand saw, chop your ‘Musical Bars’ to size, sloping down to the ‘High Notes’
- Drill a hole in the top of each ‘Musical Bar’
- Thread rope through the ‘Musical Bar and attach to the top of the frame.
- Add rope to the corners of the frame for effect.
- Bash ‘Musical Notes’ with another stick and enjoy lots of loud ‘donking’ noises **FYI it does NOT actually sound like a xylophone..just loud satisfying donks lol.. but it looks good and the kids enjoy bashing them!
Making a Tic-Tac-Toe (Naughts and Crosses) Board is also fairly straightforward. All you need is a large log, a chainsaw a shovel, some stones, paintbrushes and paint.
- Select a log and chainsaw the top to make it flat if needed.
- Dig a hole big enough and deep enough for the log to sit securely.
- Using the Chainsaw slice the design of the tic-tac-toe board in to the top of the log.
- Find some stones, paint to desired colour and do half as naughts (O) and half and crosses (X). We painted them and then applied a clear varnish to seal them.
- We screwed a little basket to the side of the log to hold the stones but not to worry if you dont have one, just leave the stones scattered on the board.
