🔎 Project information
- Project name: What is Parkour?
- Service: Moerlina School, Mount Claremont
- Award: Western Australia Winner of the Excellence in Early STEM Education Awards 2024
- Frequency: Once a week for 1 term
- Number of children: 18
- Age of children: 3-6 years
💥 Project Summary
One day, the children were discussing the similarities between ballet and parkour and became interested in “Ninja Warrior” races. They wished that the school had a Ninja Warrior course they could try and discussed why this wasn’t possible: there was not enough space, no large swimming pool, and no soft landings. While the existing play equipment mimicked elements of a Ninja Warrior parkour course, the children said it wasn’t exciting enough. This sparked a project centred around the question “What is parkour?” and the challenge of making an obstacle course that the older kindergarten children could try.
💡 Collecting Ideas
Most of the children were not aware of parkour. Some children initially shared that parkour was for boys and ballet was for girls. However, this was soon challenged. The children learnt that Spiderman (aka Tom Holland) was a former ballet dancer and this prompted the children to reflect on how similarities of movement of parkour and ballet. They soon realised that both ballet and parkour could be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of gender.
The children thought of many considerations when planning the construction of their own obstacle course. They decided obstacles should not be “too high” or “too tricky” and the course would need to “have big enough holes” for the kindergarten children to fit through. The children also hypothesised that they move through the obstacles quicker than the kindergarten children because they were older and faster.
🧪 Experimenting
The children chose to design their obstacles either independently or in small groups. They were conscious that more children designing obstacles would lead to greater creativity and that the obstacle course would be more interesting if it included a wide variety. Very clever! The children drew designs of their obstacles on paper first and then brainstormed and collected the materials for their obstacles, such as wooden blocks, tubs, and tape. The children created a map of the obstacle course and decided the order in which the obstacles would be set up to ensure a variety of movements would be required to get through each stage.
After planning, the children built their obstacles. This involved asking for help from friends or educators, testing the obstacles, and making adjustments along the way. One child thought she would be able to get over a balance beam made of brick “fast because I do gym”, but she actually found it tricky because “it keeps moving and my feet are just too big!” Another child observed that after creating a “laser” web with string, she had “made some holes too small. It’s too small for the kindy [children] and definitely not ok for me!” When asked what she could do to improve this, she said, “Definitely wind the string down more and have bigger gaps! It’s a bit too far up.”
With their obstacle course in place, the children paired up with a kindergarten child to guide them around the obstacle course before completing it themselves. Their initial assumption was that bigger children would move through the obstacles more quickly because they were “older and [faster]”. But when they tested this hypothesis, it was challenged as one older child “got stuck because he is too big, and [a younger child] beat him because he crawled right under. He’s small”.
WA Winner: Excellence in Early STEM Education Awards 2024
This project was the 2024 WA Winner of the Excellence in Early STEM Education Award as part of the Little Scientists Early STEM Education Awards. These biennial awards call upon early learning services and classrooms to nominate by submitting an inquiry-based STEM project co-developed with their children 0-8 years. Projects were judged on originality, STEM content, alignment to the inquiry cycle, child-led approach, and use of a gender lens.