MAYFLOWER — Kindergartners at Mayflower Elementary School weren’t shy about offering their favorite thing to do with the new Imagination Playground they got about a month ago.
A cross between big foam Legos and Tinker Toys, the equipment was a KaBoom! project, paid for by the Dr Pepper/Snapple group, said John Gray, Mayflower School District superintendent. He said the playground equipment arrived about a month ago.
Gray said the pieces are kept in three or four carts in the elementary gymnasium.
“It’s pretty cool; there are all these big fun blocks the kids can be very creative with,” he said. “It’s like a big Lego set that you can take up and down. They love it. They get out and make all sorts of things — a motor bike; one of them made a suntanning bed. They make forts and all kinds of things. When they first get the equipment, they play individually. You can watch the transition; they start to work in groups because they can do more with the blocks. It’s an interesting social activity as well.”
Six-year-old Ava Baughn was the first kindergartner playing at recess on Monday, a sunny, windy day, to offer her opinion on the Imagination Playground.
“I like building castles. I’m like the queen, and my friend is like the princess,” she said.
Castles were a popular design among the girls. “I like to build castles; then I like to take it down and build a house with my friend Alyssa,” 6-year-old Michelle Mikel said.
Amanda Lynn, 6, said, “I like to build with them, and I have blocks at home I like to play with.” Kaylie Harris, 6, said she likes that they can build towers with the blocks.
Kaleb Leak, 5, jumped in the middle of the group and said, “I like to build houses.”
Six-year-old Patience Webb agreed. “I like to build houses like my daddy.”
Gray said an employee with the national nonprofit organization KaBoom! “gave us a call and said, ‘We’d be interested in helping you out because the tornado came through.’” Monday was the one-year anniversary of the deadly 2014 tornado that tore through the state, including Faulkner County. “They suggested we apply for the grant. I made the argument that this would be good for the kids because it’s creative.”
Kindergarten teacher Kristin Allbritton agreed that the set fosters creativity.
“They can do so many cool things. They can make mazes and runs with marbles and balls that run off them,” she said, putting her hands together and moving them like a swimming fish. “It takes a lot of creativity and imagination.”
Gray said “community groups can come in and use it if they’re trained. Supervisors have to be trained. The focus needs to be on creativity,” he said.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.