Story by Maria Mata
PISD Communications
Over 250 volunteers from the Rebuild Texas Fund, Atkinson Elementary, and across the community joined forces recently to transform an empty site into a kid-designed KaBOOM! Playground – in just five hours.
The state-of-the-art park is a pilot program for a new Environmental Resilient component from KaBOOM! The playground features rock-climbing, fast-paced slides, monkey bars, floating stepping stones, and a sign that encourages kids to find insects. The park’s design was inspired by student drawings and brought to life by Landscape Structures, who finalized the design.
Atkinson’s new play area also includes an outdoor classroom, raised planter boxes (one for each grade level), 19 new trees native to Texas, a weather station, a rain water storage tank and other environmentally conscious additions. Students can now exercise, pump water from the rain water tank and enjoy the outdoors from an environmental perspective.
“This new play area will allow children to be active while learning about the environment all at the same time” Lena Ortiz, Atkinson Elementary principal said. “The kids and teachers will be able to enjoy this beautiful area for years to come.”
