Playing on the Playground

The playground at my school has been under construction with no progress for a month now. Before school started, someone paid to have low wooden barriers put up around the playgroupnd equipment. Around these wooden barriers, they put stakes and string, which I found very hazardous to running children. It also wound up looped around the jungle gym, just waiting to strangle a student. I cut all of the string down. A few weeks into school, someone dropped off a load of dirt to fill in the barriers under the swings. The same day, someone wrapped the swings around the top of the swingset to get them out of the way and a bulldozer came in and began to shovel the pile of dirt under the swings and jungle gym. But it didn't finish. And now it has left it unfinished for a month.

So there have been no swings. And no jungle gym. Because it is now even less safe because the ground is wildly uneven and there are mounds of dirt everywhere.

We have compensated by playing games. My students are now proficient at several kinds of races, tag, blob tag, Red Rover, and duck duck goose. I can't think of any more games. And there are still no swings and no improvement. Why start a project you can't or won't finish? The playground is worse than it was.

Last week, I stepped on an ant hill on the playground. I didn't realize until I felt a pain and looked down to see my foot covered with ants. I brushed them off as quickly and completely as I could, but there were very many and some had gotten inside my shoe, so I suffered several more bites. My foot swelled to twice its normal size and was very itchy. I used this as an excuse to wear flip-flops to school all week, since my foot didn't fit in any of my normal shoes.

My suggestion to the school: Finish what you started, or at least smooth it out and unwrap the swings, and while you are at it, get rid of the ants.

Any ideas for equipment-free big group playground games?