Playground percussion

Abi went to Eglington Park, Glebe and played mainly on the slides. Then she noticed a roundabout which we have never played on before (not many in the places we have played in). It was under the shade of a large fig tree.

She got on board and the roundabout which was rotated slowly by her mother. Abi was joined by various younger children at various times, all stayed for a short while before leaving. One boy close to Abi's age (maybe a bit older) walked past with his nonna (grandmother) and got on. He and Abi went around for quite a while. The 2 children watched each other out of the corner of their eyes. Then the boy started to copy what Abi was doing: ballet stretches and standing on one leg etc. He started to move around his metal handle, and Abi copied. They imitated each other for a while and the activity progressed to hanging one foot off the edge of the roundabout (still rotating slowly). Abi and the boy were smiling now. Then the boy stepped off the roundabout to pick up a short stick from among the many lying on the bark chip base under the fig tree. At this point the rotating was stopped.

He returned to the roundabout and started tapping his stick on the metal handle frame. Then he quickly found another, longer stick and took the two back onto the roundabout. The boy offered Abi the shorter stick which she accepted. Then he resumed the banging and Abi joined in. They tapped all parts of the frame and also the central drum-like spindle top. Priscilla asked them to hear if the sounds were different depending on what part they were hitting, and the two children explored that idea by hitting all over the roundabout's metal parts.

It ended when the boy decided to leave and took Abi's stick (promising to give her the longer one but not doing so). Abi didn't mind and picked up her own longer stick. She and her mother then went to the nearby metal slide and tapped on it with short and long sticks.