A gym where all the equipment is made for fun, like trampolines and water slides

Active Play

You’ve chosen to imagine a gym where exercise feels more like playtime. You might want to learn more about active play, which keeps us moving through fun. Because, let’s face it…who would choose the treadmill over a waterslide?

Fun Facts:

Copenhagen’s first adventure playground opened in 1943, letting kids build and play freely.
Central Park’s Adventure Playground has tunnels, climbing structures, sand, and water for active play.
The Yard on Governors Island is a large adventured playground where kids build, climb, and zip-line.

Active Play

LISTEN

This scenario explores active play, which mixes movement with things we enjoy. We can run, jump, climb, splash, or invent our own games. Exercise does not always need machines or workout routines. Playgrounds already help us move our bodies while having fun. Future gyms could make even more kinds of movement feel like play. Because, let’s face it…who would choose the treadmill over a waterslide?

Fun Facts:

The first planned adventure playground opened in Copenhagen in 1943. Kids could play with loose materials and build things themselves.
Central Park’s Adventure Playground opened in 1967. Instead of only standard equipment, it included tunnels, climbing shapes, sand, and water.
The first wall-to-wall trampoline park opened in 2004. Sky Zone began with a giant court of connected trampolines originally designed for a new sport.
The Yard on Governors Island lets kids build, climb, paint, and even destroy with tools, wood, fabric, tires, and more!
Parkour is a sport where people use walls, bars, blocks, and rails for running, jumping, balancing, crawling, and climbing.

Discussion Question:

How could you design a fun gym for people who move their bodies in different ways?

LISTEN

Physical Build:

Design your own Fun Gym using cardboard, paper tubes, string, cups, tape, and recycled materials. Create a climbing wall that ends with a slide, or a balance machine crossing a pretend lava river. Show how people move through your gym and invent different ways to use each feature.

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Digital Build:

With an adult, ask ChatGPT:

“Invent five gym machines that feel more like playground equipment than exercise.”

Choose your favorite ideas, mix their best parts, and design your own. Draw it, build a model, or invent a completely different way to make movement fun.

or a park that helps you relax with floating chairs and peaceful sounds?

Relaxation Park

Restorative Landscapes

LISTEN

You’ve chosen to imagine a park made especially for slowing down and relaxing. You might want to learn more about restorative landscapes, outdoor spaces that support well-being and nature. Just relax—but first make sure your floating chair has brakes!

Fun Facts:

Japan began using the term shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing,” in 1982.
Governors Island has a Hammock Grove where visitors swing and relax among trees.
Researchers found that natural sounds like birds and water can help lower stress.

Restorative Landscapes

LISTEN

This scenario explores restorative landscapes, outdoor spaces designed to help people slow down, rest, and connect with nature. Researchers study how time in nature can affect stress in our bodies. A future relaxation park might be built for resting as well as playing—using plants, shade, comfortable places to sit, water, natural sounds, and quiet areas to make the park feel restorative. Just relax—but first make sure your floating chair has brakes!

Fun Facts:

The word shinrin-yoku, meaning “forest bathing,” was created in Japan in 1982. It means spending time taking in a forest’s atmosphere.
Scientists compared people in 24 Japanese forests with people in cities. The forest groups had lower stress-hormone levels, pulse rates, and blood pressure.
HortPark in Singapore has a therapeutic garden that includes a quiet “restorative zone” with shade, wind chimes, water features, fragrant plants, and places to sit and rest.
Governors Island’s Hammock Grove lets visitors relax in hammocks among an urban forest. Its landscape also creates habitat for wildlife.
South Africa's Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden has a Braille Trail where visitors with visual impairments can explore the garden using senses besides sight.

Discussion Question:

What would you add to a park to help people feel calm without using screens?

LISTEN

Physical Build:

Make a tiny relaxation park inside a shoebox using paper, fabric, string, leaves, cotton, and recycled materials. Design floating or swinging chairs, quiet paths, plants, shade, and places where visitors can hear water or birds. Think about what different visitors might need to feel comfortable, then create several kinds of spaces for various kinds of people.

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Digital Build:

With an adult, ask ChatGPT:

“Imagine three very different parks designed to help people slow down and relax.”

Compare the ideas and choose the features you like. Then remix them into your own park, drawing where people rest, what they hear, and how plants and animals share the space.