A new playground designed for the Upper Marlboro Child Care Center in Prince George's County, Md., promotes imagination-themed play with fun and educational elements. The "Hungry Caterpillar" play space was conceived by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission's design team, with consulting assistance from Landscape Structures and Sparks @ Play.

The landscape architecture section of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission is in the midst of creating new playgrounds for the citizens Prince George's County, the Maryland county adjacent to Washington, D.C. One of the newest play areas, still in the design stage, will be located at the Upper Marlboro Child Care Center.

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The fruit play equipment in Play Area A is a custom design, which includes a reading circle that also serves as a stepping pod play activity. A large caterpillar crawl tube lets children experience being the caterpillar eating its way through the garden. The garden floor will be composed of artificial turf safety surfacing.

Design
The design team consulted daycare center employees about their ideas for the playground renovation. The staff seized on a garden theme, centering the playground on caterpillars and butterflies. Project lead Brenda Iraola took the idea and transformed it into an imagination-themed playground called "Grandma's Story Garden – Caterpillars and Butterflies!" Landscape Structures/Sparks @ Play consulted on the design of the custom equipment. It was important to design learning elements for "Grandma's Story Garden". Children learn and develop skills at the daycare to help them prepare for kindergarten, including the A,B,C's, writing, colors, and days of the week. They read books with staff in reading circle time and learn how to count using objects.

The storybook concept for the playground design is about a caterpillar that eats food found in Grandma's garden during the week. After a couple of weeks, the caterpillar transforms into a beautiful butterfly. At the end of the story, Grandma tells her grandchildren that the butterfly is a symbol of beautiful spirits in the sky, like rainbows, and she is happy that the butterfly lives in her garden. Each play area portrays an educational part of the storybook – the beginning in play area A, the middle in play area B, and the end in play area C. Play Area D is designed as Grandma's picnic area, with checkered tablecloth covers which serve as game tables for play.

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Since the caterpillar in the story eats unusual food, the swing set supports in Play Area B represent the lollipops dropped by the grandchildren. The play structure is designed with tall flower tops and garden bugs to make the children feel "caterpillar-sized" in an outdoor environment. The children can use talk tubes shaped like garden flowers, and the toy house has crooked pieces of wood-like timber and a small mailbox for the children, where daycare staff can post letters for the children to answer.

Play Area A
Children can play and learn in an outdoor classroom setting while experiencing the caterpillar and butterfly garden. Play Area A, the story's beginning, is designed for children to count the numbers of different foods Grandma has growing in her garden, such as plums, strawberries, and pears. They can learn the colors, like purple plums, red strawberries, and yellow pears"?(R)?and see the caterpillar crawling on the fruit!

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The features in Play Area C are also exaggerated to increase the children's sense of wonder and immerse them in the feeling of being "bug-sized". Swing sets are designed to look like Grandma's pickles, climbing elements and supports in the play structure look like large leaves, and a crawl tube doubles as a caterpillar cocoon.

Play Area B
This play area captures the progress of the story's development. The caterpillar eats unusual food, so the swing set represents the lollipop dropped by the grandchildren. The play structure is designed with tall flower tops and garden bugs to make the children feel small like the caterpillar in an outdoors environment. The children can use talk tubes shaped like garden flowers or play with kaleidoscopes. The toy house has crooked pieces of wood-like timber and a small mailbox for the children. Daycare staff can actually communicate to the children via the play mailbox. Staff can place letters in the mailbox with questions, then children can write letters back to answer staff.

Play Area C
The play area is designed with huge green leaves to make the children feel small, like the caterpillar in the garden. Children can climb the giant garden leaves, play on a swing set supported by Grandma's pickles, explore a bridge with peephole bubbles, climb mushroom steps, or sit inside a human-sized caterpillar cocoon. "Grandma's Story Garden – Caterpillars and Butterflies", will be a place where children can play and have fun outdoors – and they may learn a few things about nature, and themselves, without even realizing it.