Playground brings kids close to nature
École St. Norbert Immersion completes $280K outdoor classroom
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This article was published 26/06/2017 (3261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The sound of wind rustling through aspen trees, the scent of native prairie plants, and the chirping of frogs fills the air at École St. Norbert Immersion, occasionally punctuated by the recess bell.
Over the past seven years, the parent advisory council at École St. Norbert Immersion (900 Avenue Ste. Therese) has been working to bring the natural riparian habitat of the La Salle River into the school’s backyard.
On June 19, the school celebrated the completion of a $280,000 playground rehabilitation and outdoor classroom project.
Jason Greenall, past president of the parent advisory council and father of a Grade 5 student, said the years-long initiative began with the intention of correcting drainage issues on the schoolyard and expanded to include the creation of an outdoor classroom and the installation of three new play structures.
“It’s fantastic. We’ve put a lot of work in as a community to this project and at times I think it felt like it was never going to get finished but we got over the hump and put the finishing touches on last fall and into the spring,” Greenall said.
“One of the first things we identified was a bit of a safety problem around the first play structure because of the pea gravel,” he added. “Over time the vision expanded and it became more about how to make it an outdoor classroom with a focus on the environment for the kids.”
Designed by parent Samantha Braun, the changes to the playground include the planting of dozens of native plant species, the creation of a butterfly garden, the excavation of pea gravel from the play areas that was repurposed to build a small wetland complete with a boardwalk, new picnic tables, and the installation of a rope climbing structure, boulders, saucer swings, soccer goal post, and musical instruments.
Braun said in the few months since its completion, there have been reports from students that deer and butterflies are making the space home.
“It’s a living entity already,” Braun said.
In planning the space Braun, a landscape ecologist, said it was important to respect the natural footprint of the schoolyard while bringing in components that would allow kids to get hands-on with nature.
“We’re on a riverbank forest, it’s a riparian forest, it’s such a special place to be able to bring that habitat in, and it doesn’t take much urban habitat to bring in insects, birds and to give them a little refuge,” Braun explained.
Children, including her own, are able to touch the pesticide-free plants, dig in the dirt, and get their hands wet playing among the cattails, Braun said.
“They use the entire space and they all use it in their own unique way,” she said. “There are places for kids to sit quietly and look at the frogs, there are places for kids to join together and move things around… there’s a place for all of the different styles of playing and learning.”
Funding for the St. Norbert Immersion’s outdoor classroom was supported with grants from the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba Hydro, Community Places Program, and a dozen others, including a $88,195 Canada 150 Western Economic Diversification grant.
Greenall said the project has been an opportunity to connect with the community in St. Norbert and his fellow parents as they raised funds and toiled in the soil.
“It was a great way of getting to know some of the other families in the school,” Greenall said. “I didn’t know some of them but suddenly I’m working beside them digging holes and pulling out old railroad ties.
“It’s been a remarkable transformation over the last five years from a really typical schoolyard that was mostly grass and a couple of widely spaced trees to something that starts to feel more natural and is going to really mature with the kids in the school,” he said.