ESL Discussion: The First Jungle Gym Was Meant to Hack Kids’ Brains

Now with a daughter of my own, I have learned of the joys, the sorrows and the lessons found on the neighborhood playground. From knocking her head on a poorly designed bar and tumbling down the stairs like a ragdoll, to learning about patience while waiting her turn for the one swing on the playground (seriously, who puts just one swing…), my daughter and I have had lots of fun and plenty of tantrums together. I’m looking forward to the day where she will need less supervision, but for now I will keep playing with her.

Who knew that the origins of such an imaginative place of play could have been so mathematical? Learn about how the first jungle gym, the precursor to every playground in the western world, was invented first as a mathematician’s hair-brained scheme to unlock his children’s minds to the fourth dimension and then refined and patented by his adult son.

• Warm-up question: Do you remember the playground you played on when you were a kid? Describe it for the class.
• Watch the video once: Check out the vocabulary words on the worksheet before watching the video again.
• Watch the video again: Answer the questions on the PDF in pairs.
• Speaking Activity: Put students in pairs to complete the speaking activity – directions on the PDF.
• If you’ve still got time left over, put your students in small groups to discuss the group activity.
• For homework, think about assigning the go further article on the back page for a reading and writing assignment.

The video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn_8GXNN7_Q