Students Find Adventure and Explore Nature on New Playscape

Moorestown Friends School opened a new outdoor Playscape on November 2 with the entire Lower School and fifth grade in attendance to celebrate.

Head of School Julia de la Torre and Lower School Director Jenel Giles greeted students, faculty, staff, and guests, and provided an orientation, with the help of fourth grade students, to the various Playscape elements. The Playscape then officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony with a special guest: the Fox mascot!

The Playscape is a product of a year-long design process that included students, teachers, and families. Lower School students built 3-D models of their ideal playgrounds, adults provided their favorite memories of play from their childhoods, and teachers prioritized the types of experiences that prompt meaningful outdoor learning. The school collaborated with Studio Ludo, Metcalfe Architecture, ThinkGreen Construction, and Aegis Property Group on the project.

The goal was to create a natural play space with opportunities for open-ended play that grows with students as they get older. Children wanted places to perch, hide, be upside down, climb, interact with nature, be alone, and be together. The Playscape achieves all of these things in one, multi-age, immersive natural environment. The outdoor area is referred to as a Playscape instead of a  playground because it’s not just about play structures and activity. The space highlights the instructional value of landscape architecture and the desire for children to engage with and learn from nature.

All of this joyous play takes place among over 14 new trees and over 2,600 native plantings featuring 27 different species of plants that were carefully selected to offer children different experiences at different times of year. Many change colors and have seed pods, berries, flowers, buds, and a variety of leaves in different seasons that children will enjoy collecting, sorting, or building into their play experiences.

We are grateful to the School Committee, parents, alumni, faculty, staff and friends who stepped forward to provide valuable philanthropic support for this project. Their investment will impact generations of young people as they play, grow, and learn at MFS.

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