Playground Maypole
If you can plan in advance - ask if any of your parents/friends can embed an old broom handle into a bucket of cement!
Once set - paint the handle.
Use a tennis ball - cut out a hole big enough to it to slide onto the top of the handle. Before securing - make slahes around the edge of the hole and thread long lengths of ribbon into them (the 'old' streamers from a doorway blind would be perfect!)
Knot the ends of the ribbon so that they are secure inside the ball.
Put the ball back onto the handle and hammer 2 nails down through the top - this should stop the ball spinning as the children twist the ribbons around!
Craft Maypole
Use circular card tubes (tissue paper tubes - or hand made ones) for the pole.
Decorate with paints, crayons, pens.
Stand the pole upright.
Let the children cut lengths of ribbon or thread and secure to the top edge of the pole .
These can now be used as decorative wands in dance - or tools for weaving patterns around the pole with the ribbon/thread!