Whoa, we are SO close to ready for kids to come play in The Climber and Underland when we open our new garden play spaces on Friday!Here’s a look at the last week’s action:
Chris (exhibit designer) moved the musical sculpture he and his crew handcrafted from wood and other natural materials into Underland. It’s really beautiful!
They also installed this cool worm ceiling – giant, backlit rubber worms! –
which Carly (exhibit developer) and Janice (executive director) admired.
Carly installed cases of skulls, rocks and other objects found underground
and Chris and crew member Zach nestled our clay critters into their burrows.
The critters are the creations of local sculptor Marly Rogers – my favorite is the adorable star-nosed mole!
After some serious cave cleaning, we set up the hand-carved Underland furniture and natural materials in the underground kitchen.
And outside the “cave,” the mastodon was installed in the sand pit,
where Hillel gave it a bath and a beautiful paint job!
Masons built a stone wall around the mastodon and then the pit was filled with sand, ready for kids to come with tools and do some excavating. (Staff had to play, of course!) Stay tuned for more about the creation of the mastodon.
Staff and AmeriCorps members tended to the rest of The Children’s Garden to get it ready for visitors. James (building manager) power washed all surfaces
while Mary (early childhood program developer) added some new native plants.
Oh, right, The Climber is complete! Staff scrambled through for a preview
And then we had kids here to test it and Underland and they had an absolute blast!
Check out the action here:Wondering “how in the heck did they DO that?” Find out in this time-lapse video that details the installation of The Climber - see the whole thing built and crawling with kids in less than 2 minutes!
So we’re almost ready for you - come play with us on Friday!
4 comments:
I am disappointed that the Climber is outside. On hot days and rainy days, kids won't be able to use it.
Of course kids can use the Climber on a hot or rainy day! It has a roof to provide shade and rain protection. Of course it's not an air-conditioned environment - so kids might well get damp or sweaty but luckily kids don't melt. We're excited to encourage kids to get outside and play - healthy fun!
As a mom as well as the director and founder of RI Families in Nature, I applaud the PCM for creating such a wonderful outdoor playspace. It will not only help children reap the many, many benefits of time spent in nature, but also allow for unstructured playtime (of which there are also countless benefits). I don't know about your kids, but the ones I know simply love this kind of stuff - even as I'm melting or getting soaked whilst watching them! I can't wait to check it out.
We loved watching the time lapse video! Now we're on our way to test out the real thing and we are extremely excited!!!
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