Life’s not all fun and games, and communities aren’t either. But adding some supersized fun and games to your town or public space will certainly give people a lift — and your local economy too. Check out these free designs and instructions for giant versions of lawn games like checkers, kerplunk, twister, scrabble and more.
Read MoreIs your town stuck in a rut? Too many plans and not enough action? Do you hear too much “no” and not enough “why not”? Sounds like you need a lesson in improv community. Cities, groups, neighborhoods, boards — all can spark big ideas and make things happen by taking a few notes from improv comedy.
Read MoreCommunities face a host of unpredictable challenges — stronger storms and heavy rains, pandemics and wires, heat waves and droughts. Yet it’s not easy to engage people in planning for them. What if we could make it a game?
Read MoreNeed a fun ice breaker or group activity for a community event? Community bingo is one of the easiest activities you can do. Plus it has a whole bunch of benefits, from building relationships and helping neighbors get to know each other to identifying community skills and assets.
We developed this easy activity as a great starter for community workshops and planning events, but there many ways you can use it. We’ve done versions for resilience and climate change workshops, for neighborhood networking events, for municipal planning and more. Just change the categories and the text to help your group discover all kinds of things about their neighbors.
Download our complete versions (for community asset mapping, neighborhood connections or resilience), print and go!
Want to change it up? You can also download a Microsoft Word template and add your own categories or create a new version.
Click download above to get our print-ready files for resilience or community bingo. They’re chock-full of good community-related skills and assets. Print on paper or cardstock — you can even print two to a page if you want to walk the sustainability talk.
If you want to add your own categories or design a bingo game tailored to a different topic, download the Word file instead and click on each square to add your text. Try one for school or education planning, for food and farm events, for climate and energy, or whatever floats your boat.
This works well for groups of many sizes, from about 10 up to 100 or more. If you have a small group size, you might need to let people fill in the same name for more than one square. At a community meeting, set aside at least 10 minutes for people to do this activity, or hand out cards on the way in and let people fill them out as they mingle and get settled.
Believe it or not, there may be a few people out there who are NOT chomping at the bit to play bingo or are reluctant to get all friendly and talk to their neighbors. Prizes will help get them in the game — even small ones. Bonus points for giving away community-related swag: try seed packets, first aid kits, or coupons to a downtown shop.
Another way to get people moving and stay on track: timers. Timers offer instant motivation; as soon as you show them a ticking clock, people will be off and running.
This activity can be just plain fun, but why waste all the info that people gather? Collect the sheets and at the end and you’ll have the start of an inventory or asset map of community skills.
Kids need play for their brains, their bodies, and their spirits. Grown ups and communities do too, for all the same reasons.
Community Workshop was one of fifty winners nationwide in the Play Everywhere Challenge, designed to bring play into everyday spaces and improve the lives of kids and families. Putting up a bright, fun play space can transform a vacant downtown lot (or a Laundromat, office, or bus stop) into a dynamic space for kids, while transforming ordinary errands into an opportunity for families to connect and create. Kids can get dramatic while their parents get the laundry done or pick up a pizza. That makes play truly accessible and makes families' lives easier and more fun.
We designed and built a whimsical, compact, portable play stage that kids can use to create and put on impromptu puppet shows and plays. Our build partner — Living Edge Woodworking — created a flexible and inexpensive design that can easily fold up and fit into a wide variety of small and unexpected places. The prototype has spent time in a downtown parklet, homeless shelter, rec center, and on a Main Street sidewalk. As part of our launch, we partnered with the Arts Bus to offer two kids’ art events to activate the space and help kids make puppets to use.
Check out the other amazing Play Everywhere competition winners, from municipal slides to sidewalk games to a kit of parks. We're honored to be in their company!
You can download the plans for free and build your own. If you’re in the neighborhood and would like us to bring the theater to you, get in touch! We are happy to loan it out for community events or sites, or facilitate a kids’ art or theater event.
The kit includes detailed plans and directions for building your own pop-up theater, painting it, and tips for installing and using it. You’ll need a number of building supplies, paint, some tools, and basic carpentry skills.
The best locations are safe, legal, accessible, and in need of things for kids to do. They can be public or private, indoors or out, one-off events or longer term installations. We’ve brought our pop-up theater to a vacant lot on Main Street, community festivals, schools, businesses, shelters and more.
Set it up, be sure it’s stable and secure, and add a sign telling people what it is and letting them know they are welcome to play! Stop by regularly to check for damage and maintain it if needed.
The theater may be just fine by itself, but it will be even more successful if you can add on some fun elements or include events and programming. Try leaving puppets, costumes or props to make it exciting. We built an improv spinner wheel to give kids ideas when it’s set up in an outdoor location. Puppet-making events, open mic sessions, or theater classes would also help draw people in!
Take photos and spread the word on social media. We’d love to see your theaters popping up everywhere, and we’ll share them here!
Thanks to our partners for help making this happen:
KaBOOM! and the Play Everywhere Challenge sponsors
Living Edge Woodworking
Washburn Laundromat, The Silver Fern Antique Shop, and the Richardson Family
All content copyright 2020 by Community Workshop LLC.
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