Messiah Lutheran
Preschool and Kindergarten
We are always excited when we get to work with GRG Playscapes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to add to our already fantastic Nature Playground! This time we were able to replace our music wall with a much needed upgrade! We have a dream music wall that is now another favorite play area! Our new and improved music wall is adorned with large chimes, drums, bells and cymbals. Students can use a variety of mallets, wood pieces and their hands to make beautiful music! We also upgraded our car track area. The new upgrades have reinvigorated these two areas of our playground to become popular play spaces!
We have a staff development training every school year pertaining to nature and utilizing our natural
spaces to their fullest! To engage parents/families in nature engagement with their children, we host a Nature Playground Playdate each summer for our Messiah families! This is a wonderful opportunity for our parents to experience nature play in action, and see how their children interact with loose pieces and open-ended challenge opportunities.
In addition, we host an annual Earth Day Playground Playdate for our Messiah students. Our nature playground transforms with freshly stocked natural materials in our block building area and mud kitchen, binoculars for bird watching, nature paint brushes and sticks for mural painting, seeds for planting and so much more! One of our most-loved events of the year!
We are working with a local library, The Barrington Area Library, to help them develop their own public
nature playspace. A team from the library has been onsite at Messiah to observe, tour, take pictures and ask questions about the importance of nature play in early childhood.
