Playtime and playgrounds have a unique way of stimulating learning and boosting a child’s cognitive development. Playground equipment offers children a fun way to exercise and improve vital physical skills, such as balance and coordination, gross motor skills and fitness. They also encourage children to learn and enhance their cognitive skills organically as they have fun. Children improve their executive function as they play and master the various elements of the playground. As they play, children develop skills like teamwork, sharing, communication and even leadership. Elmwood’s amazing new play structure is taking play at Elmwood to new heights!
The Physical Benefits of play include:
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Improved Coordination and Balance: Balance and coordination are all-encompassing, as several skills are needed to achieve them. These include concentration, muscular strength, hand-eye coordination, hand dominance, isolating movements, performing double-handed tasks (bilateral integration), and crossing the midline, or crossing parts of your body to the opposite side.
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Enhanced Gross Motor Skills Development: Gross motor skills are essential for completing everyday tasks such as sitting, walking, lifting, kicking and jumping.
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Increased Physical Fitness: Students will enjoy increased physical fitness as playing outside on a playground is a natural cardio workout. They can experience physical activity as they move around the playground, jumping, climbing and swinging.
The Social Benefits of play include:
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Encouraging teamwork and cooperation: Playgrounds are communal areas — everything belongs to everyone, meaning children need to learn to share and cooperate to enjoy the space.
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Boosting communication: Playgrounds are social spaces where children need to learn to communicate what they need or want as they play. This is especially true on motion playground equipment like the seesaws, where teamwork is the only way for the component to work.
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Building confidence and self-esteem: The social benefits children enjoy on the playground also help boost their confidence and self-esteem as they learn how to interact with other children and accomplish fun things together.
The Emotional Benefits of play include:
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Sense of Accomplishment: It can be a soaring experience for a student when they finally get the hang of a playground component. On the playground, children get to see firsthand how their dedication and perseverance pay off. That sense of accomplishment boosts confidence and steels their resolve.
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Reduces stress and anxiety: Play is fun! Children get the thrill of new adventures, the stress-relieving benefits of physical exercise and the enjoyment of laughing with friends — all of which release feel-good endorphins. This means that play can help reduce children’s anxiety and strengthen mental and emotional health.
Below is a visual tour of the new play structure and how each component develops the key competencies in our Junior and Middle School students.
Transfer station decking and stairs are low and wide, at a maximum 8” increments, o allow for easy climbing by children of all ages and abilities.
Activity Panels of different varieties provide great visual and interactive play, inducing wonder, discovery and creative thinking.
The Slalom Slide, with its grooved texture, gives a unique sensory and sliding experience. The Double Wide Slide and Quantum II Spiral Slide offer fun ways to reach the ground from a variety of platforms.
Time Warp Bridge Climber and the Cat Walk connect different decks and focus on developing a child’s coordination, gross motor skills, lower body strength.
The Crazy Curtain rope climber offers tactile rope in a zigzag pattern to allow for imaginative play and a unique environment for students to explore a variety of ways to traverse to different decks on the play structure.
The Cylinder Climber and Tilted Rock Challenge provide students with a tactile climbing experience.
The Fun Wheels, Loop Rail and Challenge Ladder all promote building strength and coordination in children of all ages. These climbers encourage fine motor skills, which involve tasks done with the wrists, hands and fingers. Children must develop and maintain their grip on the playground equipment like these climbers.
The NRG Hammock can accommodate multiple students, of all ages, at once. It is also the perfect place for multiple children to socialize and spend time together improving their communication and social skills.
Nu Edge Roofs provide plenty of shade to protect children from the sun, while providing a natural tree house environment. This sparks the imagination and creative play.
Our thanks to the Donors of the 2022-23 Elmwood Fund and the 2023 Elmwood Gala for helping us bring this incredible new structure to Elmwood!