Tessa’s Place renovations are finally complete. After a long journey of construction dust, swapping classrooms, and many days of putting together new furniture and toys, most of the building is brand new! One of the major renovations you’ll notice is our brand-new playground. We worked with Nature Explore to create an outdoor oasis, made accessible for all our participants.

Nature Explore’s mission is to help transform children’s lives through meaningful, daily connections with nature. Children can often have a growing disconnection with nature due to a lack of access to green space, being occupied with TV and video games, or fear of stranger danger. Having access to nature facilitates social development and well-being, improves physical fitness, supports creativity and imaginative play, promotes collaboration, reduces stress, and creates empathy for plants and animals. The Nature Explore outdoor classroom benefits our participants by building their critical thinking, problem solving, language and literacy, visual-spatial thinking, as well as their construction, language, and math skills.

The new outdoor classroom comes equipped with an open area for large motor activities, a climbing and crawling area, a “messy materials” area, a building area, a nature art area, a music and movement area, a garden, a gathering space, and a storage area. Within these areas we have water play, a dirt-digging section, sand boxes, a hill slide, and a wheeled-toy area. We really wanted our participants to learn through play and really be able to touch things and not be afraid to get dirty.

Accessibility was also another important aspect of the new outdoor space. Our old playground was very difficult for participants in wheelchairs to navigate and often was difficult for them to climb and use all the play space. The space could also be a bit overwhelming. Nature Explore allowed us to customize the playground to our preferences. Our hill slide area isn’t just a regular slide but is built into the hill so it’s much easier to climb up on. We also added ramps, railings, sensory spots, and a path to allow for easy navigation. Now the space is much more open and calming.

The space is already becoming a favorite spot among our participants including toddler, Maddie. “The nature explore playground has only been open a short time, and we have already seen improvements with our daughter,” said Maddie’s parents Steve and Shannan.

“Maddie has been at Hand in Hand for just over a year. She had a mild gross motor delay when she started which made the traditional playground overwhelming for her. Since then, Maddie has also struggled with some anxiety and sensory issues which has kept her from really opening up to show her true self. Within 30 minutes of being on the nature playground, Maddie was running around, talking loudly, and asking to play with her friends. She was even riding a bike which she had previously refused to do. Maddie has been so excited to tell us what new thing she played with on the nature playground. She has been busy playing with musical instruments, riding bikes, playing in the sandbox, and even splashing in the water table. We are excited and hopeful that the nature playground is exactly what Maddie needed to overcome her struggles. Hopefully, before too long, her teachers and friends will be able to see the same energetic, talkative, and funny little girl we see at home!”