Highland Elementary builds naturescape playground

By Molly Roberts
Posted 8/24/21

Several months ago, Highland Elementary Principal Jane O’Leary told members of the Elementary Support Organization that the school’s playground was lacking a place for kids who just …

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Highland Elementary builds naturescape playground

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Several months ago, Highland Elementary Principal Jane O’Leary told members of the Elementary Support Organization that the school’s playground was lacking a place for kids who just wanted to play in the dirt. There was a large plot of land near the existing playground structures where some kids would gather and make games out of using the earth and nature, but O’Leary and the ESO wanted to give them something more.

“Jane, our principal, said that kids would make a racetrack in the mulch and run along it, acting like they were dirt bikes and making noises and running through it. Or they would find a rock and spend days working to dig up and clean the big rock,” said Maria Meller, ESO president. “She wanted some more items for those kids. We have a large population of kids who don’t want to play on the playground and want to play in the dirt instead.”

So the ESO partnered with the Highland FFA Chapter and advisor Gina Trower and asked the group to build a naturescape area for the elementary playground.

“The students created the ‘Naturescape Committee’ and several students jumped into action,” Trower said.

FFA students involved in the project included Halle Hazelett, Jenna Waters, Kinze Hora, Maddie Peiffer, Kerra Longbine, Peyton Yeggy, Carsen Mellinger, Jack Peiffer and Matt Colbert.

The high school students came up with a plan that included a water feature, a rock feature, a “downed forest” feature, a beach feature and a hiking feature and presented their layout and budget to the ESO and the Highland Board of Education for approval and then got to work sourcing materials and building the unique playground.

A ribbon-cutting for the finished naturescape playground was held on Sunday, Aug. 22. The playground includes four sandboxes with covers that fold into benches (these were built and donated by Joe Thornburg of Fairfield), several sensory tables filled with materials like rocks, sand and water, large logs that can be used as bridges or balance beams, a sitting area with a table made from tree stumps and stepping stones throughout the entire playground.

Children who were present for the ribbon cutting jumped right in to using the playground for a game of “the floor is lava” and tag.

ESO Vice President Jenelle Schnoebelen said she is very excited for Highland Elementary students to have a new space in which to exercise their creativity and pretend play skills.

“They can use their creative minds to hands-on create things, innovate, and even just be in nature,” Schnoebelen said. “It can be a quiet space for personal reflection. It’s a place where the children can play independently or by working together. There are so many opportunities our students will have with this new place built for them.”