Read our story here...

A Seed Is Planted

In early September 2016, our 6th-grade class took a trip to Shelburne Farms to take part in a workshop titled Cultivating Pathways to Sustainability, learning how we, as kids, can take action to save our earth, and how to build sustainable communities where everyone has what they need and is happy. As the youngest kids taking part there, it was kind of nerve-wracking. By midday, we had been introduced to the U.N.’s 17 Goals for Sustainable Development. We were told to choose one that we wanted to take action on in our community. One student in our class picked equity and sustainable communities because he wanted to bring older and younger students together on our playground. The seed was planted!

Our Idea Takes Shape

At our school, fort building has always been a long-standing tradition- from the ‘between the bleachers’ fort inspired by the Pilgrims to the sixth-grade forts back in the bushes- everyone here at Cornwall is a big fan. A few days after our trip to Shelburne Farms, we were talking with our principal and somehow the topic of the sixth-grade fort came up. Unfortunately, the year before the tradition had ended due to safety hazards and not being within the sight of the recess monitors. We asked our principal if we were able to make a new space, within teacher supervision, could we bring the building area back. She replied with “If you can get it past the school board and playground committee, sure”. So, we began...

Raising Money

Now that our idea had been approved, we had to begin really thinking about what we could do to set up. Our first idea for money raising was a bake sale on an Election Day, but that wasn’t a good idea due to creating competition with a non-profit organization. We decided to go with a different approach.

Biking for Books, a hands-on fundraiser, has been a tradition at our school for as long as we can remember. We decided to do a similar fundraiser called Moving for Materials (M4M), with a flat-rate donation, and activity stations- kind of like an obstacle course. Kids could come and go as they pleased, and they got a certain number of hole punches in a “gold medal” to show for their effort at each station. We ended up raising almost $400!

A Word on Partners

We worked with a lot of people to make this happen: our principal who originally sparked our idea and then helped get us the go ahead. The Playground Committee (thanks for all of your constructive feedback and the first go ahead), our P.E. teacher helped us draft the first plan for M4M and then helped organize it during P.E. time. The other students at Cornwall helped by donating money, getting excited, offering feedback for the area, and playing there. Our K/1 teacher helped us brainstorm ideas for making the area younger-kid-safe, and how to keep the area interesting for them. And many other parents & volunteers for donated time, money and (much needed) materials.

Breaking Ground

Finally, the day of set up came. A very cold day, with a -5 windchill. Some of us didn’t even have gloves! We had previously measured out the area and decided that it would be 30’ by 20’ in the northwest corner of our playground. We painstakingly rolled out the landscaping fabric, making sure to overlap each row, then forced the ground staples into the frozen earth. It looked great!

A week or so later we went out there again to spread the wood chips. Again it was freezing! We used rakes and shovels and did our best to spread the frozen wood chip clumps. Finally, we had finished setting up the area. Now we had to put in the materials.

Gathering Loose Parts

We used our school newsletter to send out requests for a variety of materials, like milk crates, logs, and tarps. (See the complete list here.) Luckily, a fifth grader's father provided us with a huge pile of tree cookies, stumps of varying sizes, and some cool shaped logs. We also got some tarps, and we took some of the sticks from the old fort area. We also have some wood pallets, 55-gallon drums, and milk crates. We plan to add more materials to the area over time.

Managing the Space

So far things have gone pretty smoothly in the Loose Parts area. In our planning, we decided on a few ways we could help manage the space, including having a "Village Council" and "Elders". We made some rules and shared them with the school before we opened the area. People have been pretty good about following them. At this point, we take turns spending recess in the area to help out and play. If we need to make a stronger plan, we will!

Risk versus Hazard

After meeting with some free play experts, we began learning about the difference between a risk and a hazard. Basically, the main difference is that a risk is something that you know you’re doing and are willing to do. A hazard is a danger that you don’t know about. Climbing high in a tree is a risk, but climbing high in a tree with rotting branches (that you don’t know about) is a hazard. In the Loose Parts area, we are we are trying to eliminate all hazards, but hope to leave room for some healthy risk taking. Leaving an area open for risk allows kids to learn how to keep themselves safe and leaves room for creativity. Our K/1 teacher taught us that a risk for an older student might be a hazard for a younger student. We are working on making the area hazard-free for all ages.

Sharing Our Story

Since Loose Parts opened, there has been a lot of interest in our project. We’ve been interviewed by our local public radio station, been visited by the filmmakers of “The Land”, and talked with kids at other schools about how they can start their own Loose Parts play spaces. We made this website with our teacher to share our story, and are currently working on a short documentary telling our story.

Other questions? Email our teacher Emily at ehoyler@acsu.org and we’ll try to answer them!