Learn through Play Panther Parks

A playground isn’t ever just a playground. Play is crucial to children’s physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development. It allows students to interact with their environment differently, have novel experiences, rebalance their energy, learn by doing, and have fun along the way.

Engaging, creative, and adaptable activities reinforce this learning. We’ve recently renovated and opened additional play spaces: our “Parkour Park” and “Sky Park” for elementary and middle school students and our brand new “Panther Park” for pre-k and kindergarten students. There’s something for everyone, from treehouses to zip lines, towers, climbing structures, running stream, building blocks, and more.

As the children play with one another, they quickly form novel and crucial connections in their brains. Playtime incorporates social cues like intention and reciprocity, which involve complex neural exercises and communication. Engaging in these exercises, making those connections, and practicing languaging will help them succeed in the future as they develop.

One of our Elementary School teachers, Zoe Trodden, reflected on the new Panther Park, “We have seen the phenomenal impact this space has had already. Lots of collaboration, peer-to-peer learning where older children are helping younger children, and the language that’s been going on to support one another, it’s fantastic...the language piece and how we communicate with one another - that really transfers back into the classroom! So the spaces support each other, and really, this is an outside classroom. It has a positive impact on their whole learning.”