Playground!

So, one of favorite places to go and visit is The Learning Community Charter School in Central Falls, RI. The school is grades k-5 and is housed in a former assisted living facility. . . before I ramble on and on with my effusive praise of this place, you should check out this succession of photos. That series of photos sums up how exciting the Learning Community is. Make sure you start at the begining with the "Leadership Makes a Playground" set. So cool. . .
I have a friend, Sarah, who works there, and this past week she ran a training on how to use the new Imaginarium{this is the name of their new playground of awesomeness}. As she was preparing, she talked excitedly about the potential learning that is offered by recess: Time away from structured learning, time to interact with each other away from adult instruction, a complex and varied environment to explore. Going from a mentality of structure and instruction to one of exploration and self definition is risky business, but is so important for life long learning. Obviously all of this is not as simple as I make out to be in this short post, but I look forward to the coming year and seeing how the kids and faculty learn to use this beautiful new resource.