The first phase of the Yard Revitalization project included the replacement of the Kindergarten Play Structure. Alta Vista Public School’s kindergarten students were lucky to begin the 2014 school year with a brand new super fun play structure! The tremendous efforts of the School Council, our tireless volunteers, generous donors and the entire school community were paid off when we saw happy smiles of our junior and senior kindergarten students in September.
Kinder yard before
Kinder yard after
Our new boat!
The second and third phases of the project will include the replacement of the Junior Play Structure, which has failed the School Board’s safety inspection on a number of occasions and risks being permanently closed. In order to be accessible by all, the location of the existing play structure would have to be changed, costing more money. All donations received after February 1, 2014 have been allocated to the Junior Play Structure replacement fund.
AVPS Kids Involvement in Choosing the Play Structure They Like.
School Council representatives went in to all five kindergarten classrooms to do the Kindergarten consultations for the Play Structure Replacement Project. The purpose of the consultation was to develop a “dream big” wish list to be used in our planning process, as well as to engage the children in the project. We used the poster pictured below, which had six play structure components on it, and we gave every child three stickers to place in the box of their top three choices. We worked with the kids two at a time, so this was well explained to each child, and we watched them closely to make sure that they didn’t put all three stickers in one box!
The six play structure components selected for the poster are those approved for ages 1.5 to 5 or 1.5 to 12. We also tried to select components that can be used by a group of children at a time, to get the maximum utility for the money.
The tally was as follows:
1st Place: Climbing Structure
2nd Place: Bouncing/Rocking Component
3rd Place: Tire Swing
4th Place: A tie between the Spiral Slide and Swings
5th Place: Double Slide
The kids really enjoyed being involved in the process – they all took it very seriously and were super enthusiastic.
