LONDON, ENGLAND.-A resurgence of interest in traditional games has been supported by the launch of a new project, funded by Culture Online. The Playground Fun website – jam-packed with ideas to keep your kids active – aims to get your kids logging on…and logging off in droves.

Playground Fun is a new website aimed at getting children outside playing games. From Hide & Seek to It, and from Poison to Zombie, traditional favourites meet with new games in an inspiring new project - www.playgroundfun.org.uk - launched by Culture Online, part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (launched July 2005).

Playground Fun offers children practical suggestions and ideas about how they can get outside and start playing – at home and at school. The project helps 7–9 year olds to re-discover the fun of learning and playing together, trying games played in other counties and cultures, as well as offering children the chance to share their own favourites.

The site, featuring lots of colourful cartoon characters, includes nuts-and-bolts information about how to play games, vintage black and white film footage and guidance on how to help children enjoy group activities. There's also a fun game builder tool that allows children to create their own versions of games on the website. Teacher and parent notes are included with information about how to keep children entertained, fit, safe and well. The site aims to become a growing online compendium of games, as played by Britain's children.

David Lammy, Culture Minister, is enthusiastic about the project. He said: "More than thirty five years ago, Iona and Peter Opie published their comprehensive collection of street and playground games. What they discovered was a world full of vitality, inventiveness and unfettered imagination. Today's young people are no less inspiring than the children that the Opie's interviewed in the 1960s. Regional and cultural variations of children's games abound, even in the age of the games console and the web. Video may have killed the radio star but it's seems nothing can dampen the spirits of a playful child. Playground Fun aims to help children discover and share the joy of play."

Jonathan Drori at Culture Online said: "You might think that the games console reigns supreme but it's important to remember that outdoor games are very popular. Anyone who looks after kids knows that they often have more energy than they know what to do with. This website encourages children to share their favourite games virtually and then to play them in the real world. Playground Fun is primarily for fun, although no one can deny that play has huge physical and social benefits too."

Schools that have piloted the Playground Fun website found a marked improvement in playground behaviour. Teacher, Jo Garbutt, of Throngsley Fields Primary and Nursery School, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, said: "The Playground Fun project has provided a superb focus for our planned school improvement work. We have seen a marked improvement in social interaction and behaviour on the playground already. We are very pleased with the positive impact it continues to have."

Bursting with worksheets and teaching ideas, Playground Fun makes learning fun with motivating lesson plans and materials. Teacher, Rachael Poulson of Rotherfield Primary School, Islington, North London said: "We have been covering healthy eating in the science class and the children have related all activities to the games on the Playground Fun website and being active. They have also talked about the historical aspects of games as part of their World War II work. As a result of the pilot, the children are working together, co-operating and they don't sulk so much!"

www.playgroundfun.org.uk