Play Week is coming to a neighbourhood near you.
Active Southland istaking Sport NZ’s lead and providing a Southland-wide approach to promote Play Week — and what better way than using chalk as the medium.
National Play Week runs from November 7-13 and is an opportunity for you and your whanau to rethink the importance of play using chalk as a tool to promote play in your own back yard.
What better way to connect with neighbours in your community than through a shared experience of simply drawing on the footpath in front of your house?
Chalk It Up is a weeklong initiative where the public are invited and encouraged to create chalk art in their neighbourhoods, draw chalk stencils for things such as hopscotch or trails, and have fun in a safe and connected way.
The idea is to connect with your surroundings, with your tamariki and with your neighbours to create vibrant, fun and interactive neighbourhoods that support and encourage intergenerational play.
Play, as we know it, is under threat and we want to help reverse the trend.
Think back to when you were a child and the freedom that came with just being able to play. Isn’t that a great vision for our tamariki today?
Play isn’t just for children.
People of all ages benefit from engaging with play.
Keep an eye out here in Eastern Southland to see if your local Healthy Active Learning school has added colourful additions to the concrete in and around your local area.
This may, in fact, inspire your creative side to add a pop of colour, a movement pathway , agame such as hopscotch or even an inspirational message to make someone’s days a little brighter.
Personally, I know when I ran a half-marathon a few years ago, I remember messages written on the ground as I ran past. They made my life a little bit brighter and it certainly lifted my spirits, helping me cross the finish line.
So if you take the time to decorate a small section of concrete in your community, it may just make a lasting impression for someone passing by.
