Submitted by St. Paul’s Weekday Nursery School
St. Paul’s Weekday Nursery School recently unveiled an expansion to its playground. An additional 1400 square feet of space was added which contains play elements constructed from natural materials. The materials are interesting to children in that they can see and feel actual tree bark and watch how the tree parts change over time.
The play elements chosen offer various scenarios for the children. There are tree stumps to climb on and jump from. A large log acts as both a bench to sit on and a balance beam to walk across. Shorter logs are placed so as to be natural low hurdles for jumping over. A post walk offers a challenge for older children where they must demonstrate balance and patience while stepping on each post successfully to traverse across. This is completed with the hand of a trusty teacher. The large outdoor xylophone is hit with mallets and music emanates. Lastly, for new elements, there are two wood tunnels where the children can be seen crawling through, hiding in for hide and seek, and sitting astride.
The children are busy exploring the new area and are loving the additional elements and the larger space that has been successfully incorporated into the previous area. They can be seen pushing trucks across the ground, digging in the sandbox, creating meals in the playhouse, swinging on the swings, jumping from stump to stump, negotiating the hurdles, and tapping on the xylophone’s keys.
The playground has always been a special place at the preschool where so much learning is fostered through running, digging, jumping, climbing, and discovery. This addition with its natural materials and varying challenges guarantees that the playground will continue to be a place of growth for many years to come. The school’s next open house is January 16 at 6 PM for tours and enrollment.
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