Ancona School began in 1963 as a 3-6 year-old Montessori preschool in a storefront in Chicago's Hyde Park. The open classrooms give students a great deal of autonomy in where, how and with whom they engage in learning. Ancona adheres to Maria Montessori's belief that children are naturally motivated, active learners who build their own understandings of the world as they interact with their environment.

"We don't want to stay in the box," says Robert Lockhart of Dynamo Playgrounds. "If you give kids a box, they'll play for awhile before they get bored, because the walls are all the same. You have to keep giving them something bigger and greater. (Here) they're having fun, but they're getting exercise and interacting with the other kids." He notes the atypical structures and layout at first give the kids pause. You can see them thinking, "What do I do here?" They have to take it all in and decide how to approach the various play elements. "It's a playground design that makes kids want to leave the "technology' behind and be kids again," he adds.