Equipment by Kompan.
Surface: wood chips.
Every kid has something specific that they look for in a playground; an item on the menu that is their go-to element. For my daughter, it’s monkey bars. No monkey bars? No deal.
For my son, soccer fields have become a requirement whenever we’re looking for somewhere to play.
Thankfully for us, the school grounds at John Fisher PS in North Toronto have both. The play equipment itself (despite having monkey bars) isn’t great. A few minutes was enough to try everything, including the Bloqx climber, an element we’ve always liked.
However, like many Toronto schools, there’s a good amount of play possibilities painted onto the pavement. I really like the way so many school yards have random things on the blacktop: hopscotch, targets, mazes. At John Fisher, we played for quite a while on a ten-by-ten square that looked a bit like a Snakes and Ladders board…minus the snakes and the ladders.
My daughter and I weren’t sure what it was for, but that’s just the point: give kids open-ended play opportunities and they’ll find a way to make it fun.
For us, the numbered square became a way to find patterns. Odd numbers only! Only numbers with the same digit twice! What do you notice when we walk diagonally? Eventually this turned into a modified game of “Guess Who?” in which one of us would turn away while the other stood on a number. The one who was turned away would ask questions to try and figure out which number the other was standing on. It was great fun, and kept us occupied for longer than the actual climbing equipment.
All the while, her brother was practising his free kicks over on the turf, which seems fairly new and in decent shape. A condo tower kindly provided shade on at least half the field during the afternoon. Although there’s no netting, there are short fences to stop the ball from sailing too far from the playing area.
So we had a good time here – although with so many superior playgrounds in the area, it’s unlikely you’ll want to play here unless a place to play soccer is what you’re looking for.
Side note: the TDSB claims that this is the oldest of all its schools; the first iteration was a log cabin built in 1816. So that’s cool.
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