Now We Can Start on the FUN STUFF!!!

Just like a house needs a solid foundation, so does the playground at L’École King George Public School.

Over the summer, we achieved a huge milestone by completing the foundation of our playscape on the side of the school where the kids from grades 1-8 play. This fall we plan to complement it with the addition of 30 trees that will provide shade and beauty to the schoolyard.

While it’s exciting to see the foundation rise from the once flat and boring playground, we know that this foundation is just the beginning. Just as a house needs furniture and a lick of paint to make it complete, so does our playscape need some climbing structures and bright colours to meet its full potential.  

Now, we can start on the FUN STUFF! We’re looking forward to creating activity areas with exciting new features, such as

• the ‘spiral forest’ of play poles,
• green arbour that will provide some immediate shade,
• butterfly garden that will provide opportunities to teach and amaze,
• balance logs to add some new challenges, and
• climbing features, including a monkey bar complex, that will promote even more active play.   

We’re gearing up to decide on our priorities, raise some money to buy the new features, and recruit some new volunteers to participate in this exciting endeavour. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.

As we contemplate the next stage of our playscape’s evolution, shall we pause and consider what we’ve accomplished so far?

Did you know that when you look at the schoolyard now, you are gazing at the following new additions: 

125 metric tonnes of gravel
125 metric tonnes of crushed stone screenings
60 metric tonnes of brick sand
37 metres of mulch
93 square metres of new sod

66 metric tonnes of armour stone

7,938 kilograms of rubber tires

1,814 kilograms of rubber edging

And not only did we introduce a LOT of new material, we also removed a tonne (figuratively speaking) of dirt and turf.

The 6,600 square feet of pathway was dug eight inches below its original grade and refilled with aggregates. The 750 square feet of ‘beach’ area was dug twelve inches below its original grade before we filled it with soft sand.

All that dirt has got to be the equivalent of a small mountain, right? So, feel free to tell your kids that we ‘moved mountains’ to make this happen!