April 2010 - Parks & Recreation - 48

pl ay gr o u n d s

s
iot'nly
natural

Exploring the natural
playground trend

By Boris Weintraub

natural playground, which
ome into the playground
lets kids pump water into a
at Thatcher Brook Elementary
stream and includes a tunSchool in Waterbury, Vermont:
nel under live willow trees,
There's a log-enclosed sandbox, a
a boulder rock scramble,
labyrinth of bricks and gravel, an amand an organic hill with a
phitheater with tiers of boulder seats,
built-in fort.
a " rain garden " filled with plants nur " I was out yesterday and
tured by water dripping through a pipe
they were all over it, " she
from three logs when it rains, a tunnel, a
says one winter morning.
slide built into a hill, a wood treehouse.
" They run from one thing
Over in one corner, there's a pile of dirt.
to another, and their creNot your typical playground, is it?
ative play is flourishing. "
The Thatcher Brook facility typifies a
Proponents of natural playgrounds
P roponents of nat u ra l
new style of playground aimed at encourstress that kids should get outside
playgrounds stress that kids
aging creative play and learning using eland use their imaginations
should get outside and use
ements from the natural world. Dubbed
in a play setting.
their imaginations in a play
natural playgrounds, they are rooted in
the notion that kids today spend too little time climbing trees, setting. According to the Natural Learning Initiative, a program
learning what's under the bark of a rotting tree limb, or inves- of the College of Design at North Carolina State University, too
many have lost contact with the natural world, for reasons that
tigating bugs inside a mound of dirt.
" It's important for kids to physically touch the earth, " says range from child care centers with limited outdoor facilities to the
Teri Hendy, whose Cincinnati-based firm, Site Masters Inc., spread of air-conditioning, from nervous parents worried about
helps design playgrounds and evaluate their safety. " When children's safety, to today's hectic lifestyle. Director Robin Moore
kids play on manufactured equipment, what they do is predict- says extensive research shows the value of outdoor experiences
able. Nature isn't. Kids will spend five times as much time play- in the development of healthy, curious children.
Not surprisingly, officials of natural playground firms hearting in a natural area as they do on a traditional playground. "
Don Schneider, Thatcher Brook's principal, agrees. He says ily agree.
" In a traditional playground, a slide is a slide, monkey bars
the 350 children at his school get creative all the time in the playground that opened in fall 2007, always finding new things to do. are monkey bars, " says Bruce Sudds, vice president of Bienen " I saw a girl last spring walking around holding a worm and stock Natural Playgrounds in Dundas, Ontario. " But a boulder
asked her what she was doing, " he recalls. " She told me she can be a boulder, or it can be something else. Nature is an
and her friends had found worms in the cave and were doing ideal playground. "
Sudds' firm designed a play area for Toronto's McCleary
'wormy day care.' That was on their own! "
Dani Stern, head of Learning Circle Montessori School in Park, with a hill slide, climbing boulders, a misting cloud, a
Bozeman, Montana, says her charges " absolutely love " their new sandbox-and an upside-down tree.

46 Parks & Recreation

APRIL 2010

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April 2010 - Parks & Recreation

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