Playful Ideas for using Pallets in School
21 Mar 2018
You may have never considered using a wooden pallet as a creative and useful resource for an early childhood setting – but it is just that. Often found for a few pounds at a recycling centre, or even free of charge, the wooden pallet is a limitless, flexible resource that can be put to great use in a myriad of ways in any environment. Here are just a few ideas.
Reuse wooden pallets to create the perfect solution for planting and gardening with children. It’s an ideal way to liven up small spaces and bare outdoor walls at your school. Consider vertical herb gardens for a low-maintenance project.
Slightly more ambitious, but an extremely fun and creative way to recycle wooden pallets, garden pallet houses will make a stunning addition. Pallet houses create a fun and interesting space for young children to play and learn in.
If your ambitions do not stretch this far, consider instead reusing pallets to create a cubby space. Simply lie pallets down on the ground and scatter cushions over them, using netting, large branches or anything you can get your hands on to create a tent-like shape.
Pallet Play Space
Re-purpose wooden pallets to create a simple play space on the ground. You could use this surface in any number of ways, from painting and creative projects to sport activities.
Pallet Book Shelves
A handy solution to the overspill of books in your learning setting, the wooden pallet can offer efficient and useful bookshelves. You can hang these on the wall or place them on the floor, painting them in bright colourful shades or themes – a chance to get truly creative.
You could also recycle wooden pallets as display shelving for drawings, paintings, photographs or toys and equipment. Wooden pallets also make useful storage for shoes, bags and jackets.
Wooden pallets offer an opportunity to create a playful kitchen outside for your children. This can be a simple construction where children have a place to set down plates, teacups and pans, hang spatulas and make mud pies!
A Multi-Purpose Pallet
One incredibly useful way to reuse wooden pallets is to use them in not one way but two. By adapting two pallets together, with a sheet of ply attached to the top and painted with blackboard paint, you have an educational tool. Lockable wheels can be added at the base, which makes this the perfect addition for outdoor and indoor spaces when used as a play surface, table, chalkboard, somewhere to sit, for imaginative play scenes or to jump off or climb on.