** Happily being the test dummy for our slide.
You probably all know the saying from the movie Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.” And, as you definitely know, we’ve done a lot of building this summer. In the span of our summer, we’ve transformed our forest into an incredible place space, with several different areas and elements; we re-imagined and re-worked our soccer field; and… we spread so much mulch! Seriously, the mulch tested us (mostly Jennifer!). In the end, we not only have a new Forest Playground, but we also have a story to tell...
Phase 1 - Planning
** Delivering tubes for the slide!
The idea of a Forest Playground is not new. But after temporarily losing so many trees and our front play space due to the road project, planning for this became a top priority. And planning began almost immediately, from the kinds of play elements we wanted to where to put everything.
Shifting our attention away from the negative (the trees we lost) to something positive (dreaming of a forest playground) is an important part of who we are here. Shifting into dreaming and imagining takes us into forward motion, and it just feels so much better. We felt our loss here, but we can’t dwell on that for too long. We chose to look into the future and make things better. And that’s what we want our kids to do as well. Take any setback and turn it around.
We dreamed of so many wild and cool elements for the playground. It was fun, and there were lots of laughs along the way. Like about my desire, for some reason, to have a fire pole somewhere (one day!) to the ridiculous idea of a 200-foot slide (wait… we did that!). We took inspiration from Pinterest, natural playgrounds, and everyone here. Towards the end of the year, if anyone was looking for Jennifer or Derek, the answer was often “in the woods,” planning.
Phase 2 - Machines!
** Those first two weeks looked a little like this.
Our first phase of building began immediately after school ended. Our last day of school was a Thursday, and we had machinery here at DGS on Monday. In those first couple of weeks, we leveled and widened the soccer field and installed a new wall. Simultaneously, we had machines clearing brush in the woods to create our new stations or “rooms.”
One of the things we teach our students in Engineering––and really within everything we do here––is that things don’t always go as planned at first. New decisions were being made every day as we encountered challenges to our plans. But, we shifted. And, within any challenge, new and exciting ideas are born. Like, the giant rock pile idea Jennifer had. That last-minute idea came together beautifully and is one of my favorite features in the woods now. They say necessity is the mother of invention, but so is any obstacle or challenge.
Phase 3 - Enter Parents!
** Pictures from our work day this summer with DGS parents and volunteers from Brazil! Plus, some extra pictures of our DGS community helping out.
As Jennifer shared at our Playground Wine & Cheese and Back to School Nights, it’s our families that make this community run, and we’re so grateful for all the help we received this summer. Although we’ve said it a dozen times already, it bears repeating.
Our parent volunteers this summer were amazing. From the hours spent, to working in the summer heat, to donating tools, materials, and equipment (augers for the win!), and doing it all with a smile and laughs along the way was incredible. And I need to give a special shout-out to my slide team. We joked that every time we came to work on the slide, we imagined we’d get so much more done, and yet we’d inevitably always encounter little challenges that would make things take twice as long and we’d get half as much accomplished. Yet, we came in with that same optimism each time, thinking that today would surely be different. Every time.
But I’m not really surprised by that attitude, and I doubt anyone reading this is either. It was the same for every project this summer. It was the same when we came to work on putting up the black fencing last Spring or the day we moved all the animals. And any number of other times parents volunteered to help here. It’s part of who we all are... clearly.
Final Phase - The Future
** A few glimpses of our new play spaces in the woods.
As we neared the end of the summer, trying to finish everything before school started, we eventually had to settle upon a new saying: “It’s ready, but it’s not done.” We accomplished so much, transforming our property in one summer, but we didn’t finish everything. And that’s okay, too.
As I said in the beginning, we have a story to tell from this journey. And I hope our students see and feel the messages in this story as well as just having a good time out there!
Messages like optimism, perseverance, moving forward amidst setbacks, the power of imagination and creativity, continuing through failure, a positive attitude goes a long way, teamwork, teamwork again, and as always… problem-solving.
The quote from Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come,” in the end, is not actually about this playground and what we built this summer. It’s about the very first “build.” If you build a school, and a place, with the values we have here––values of community, positivity, and being problem solvers––then the people who come here come with and embrace those values as well. And the students grow up and absorb those values. And the result, in this instance, is a Forest Playground to rule them all.
Thanks for reading our story, and I hope to see you all at our next Work Day on October 13th!
Until next time,
Derek / Mr. D.
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