Visit the Summer of Play at Whitworth At Gallery for free this summer!

Finding enough activities and places to visit with your children during the summer holidays is one of the most difficult tasks of the year! It’s especially hard this year with the Cost-of-Living Crisis impacting families around the country, limiting the money available to spend on fun activities for your family.

That’s why Pentagon Play, Manchester Play Network and the Whitworth Art Gallery have joined forces to provide an amazing FREE play space for children this summer.

Based at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Whitworth Park, Manchester, families can join in the fun of Loose Parts Play between 1-4pm every Tuesday – Thursday throughout August!

Having gathered plenty of resources at Scrapstore Leeds, the Gallery (with the help of a team of wonderful volunteers) will be hosting ‘Scrap Studio’ days. Featuring old tyres, tubes and pipes and even old keyboards, children will be able to experiment with their imagination and create whatever their heart desires.

All this equipment was rescued from the landfill by Scrapstore Leeds and now will be put to good use this summer as children discover all the benefits of Loose Parts Play.

Loose Parts Play is designed to encourage independence, creativity and confidence as children connect different materials, build their own designs, and watch their ideas come to life.

Children will improve their understanding of the world as they discover how things are created and assembled, encouraging their curiosity as they start to ask more questions about objects around them!

Pentagon Play, the UK’s leading school playground specialist, are proud partners with Whitworth Art Gallery, providing educational play resources for the children.

We have donated a new Construction product range, due to launch this September, featuring Play Builder Packages and Construction Skips. Play Builder is our new Loose Parts Play Resource, consisting of timber blocks and planks that can be connected to build low-level active play trails.

This provides a safe space for children to climb whilst also supporting children’s problem-solving, spatial reasoning and coordination.

Play Builder, launching in September, will revolutionise construction play, supporting children as they build their confidence and understanding of the world. Giving children the power to see their ideas come to life at the hands of their own work will not only boost their imagination, but their self-esteem will sky-rocket. Children will have te confidence to share and discuss ideas, building key communication skills as they will attribute value and success to their inventions and suggestions. 

The Construction Skips make good use of waste materials, coming with timber off-cut blocks that children can use to stack and assemble, creating their own designs. The resources can then be tidied away into realistic-looking timber skips, with chalkboard features.

Children love building towers and developing their understanding of spatial reasoning and problem-solving. They will challenge themselves to build taller and taller towers as well as complex and creative designs. This is great for encouraging children to build their fine motor skills, such as grip and grasp, as they lift, move and place the blocks.

Both of these brand new products will be launching in September so keep your eyes peeled for more information, if you're interested! 

The Whitworth also partnered with Manchester Play Network for the National Day of Play on the 3^rd of August, offering Circus Skills, a Climbing Wall and Den Building. This day was full of fun and the perfect way to celebrate #PlayDay2022.

If you missed it though, don’t worry as there are plenty more events coming this summer at the Whitworth Art Gallery.

So, if you’re looking for a family day out this summer, or you just happen to be taking a lovely stroll through Whitworth Park, then stop by and experience a whole new world of play! This free event runs every Tuesday-Thursday 1pm-4pm until the 31^{st of} August.