Playground equipment

Who:
Where: Eden Prairie Mall, Minnesota (indoor playground equipment
Ages: 2-8
Gender: female and male
Demographics: Caucasian, Indian, African American, Asian.
Time Observed: 2:30-3:00

I observed an indoor play area at my local shopping mall. For this afternoon it was quite crowded. There was a circle of couches surrounding a plastic playground structure. It was designed to resemble different climates. One side was warm, with fake flowers and logs. The other was supposed to be snowy. There were also little rides and games on the outside (you could play to play them) but I never saw any children go near them. The equipment consisted of a lot of tunnels, slides, and other structures to stand and climb on. There were children of a wide variety of ages integrating with one another.
The children frequently congregated ino the tunnels. The girls, in particular, liked to do this. Kids also liked to play hide and seek in the tunnels, or just pop out and suprise one another. The boys were running around the outer circle of the area, most of the time. They were either chasing each other, or sometimes just circling by themselves. There was a fake motorboat and jetski that had different children on it throughout most of the time. A group of girls were playing make believe while sitting on these, for at least twenty minutes or so. This particular area had children in it the entire time I was observing.
There were a few 1-2 year olds that were crawling around on the carpeted paths. The older children liked to climb on the top of the structures. The boys especially were jumping off of everything. The slides were also very popular with all of the children. There were a few plastic structures that resembled lady bugs (on the floor). These were the only equipment that I didn't see any children use at all.
I noticed some children falling, but for the most part everyone seemed safe. Most of the children had come in groups, however they all seemed to be mixing and playing with each other. Towards the end, a group of girls starting running around on the couchs. They stopped after their moms yelled at them. However, in a few minutes they were back at it. They liked to bounce on the couchs and seemed very excited about discovering this activity.