A month ago, the children at MishMash preschool got a special delivery.
"I pretend it's a submarine," Evelyn Blair, 4, said as the youth huddled around a short table near the back of a room full of bright paper planets, trees and birds.
"I like the walls," Robert Hughson, 5, said in a very matter-of-fact tone.
"I like the door," added Alexis Shaw, 5.
Soon everyone at the table had something to say about the preschool's new addition. One thing's for sure; the whole class loves the playhouse built by students in Howe Sound Secondary School's woodworking class.
In January, MishMash program director Michelle Pontini happened upon pictures of the students' work on Facebook. In groups of four, the class had designed and built four playhouses. They offered them up to the community for the cost of the materials required to construct them.
"I love that it is something from our community made by kids, for kids. It's been fantastic," Pontini said.
Vicki Schenk's Trades Discovery class was learning carpentry when the students undertook the project. The playhouses gave pupils the chance to learn to frame a house and complete roofing, she said. For five months, the students designed, costed out and build the mini-homes.
"They got a lot out of it," Schenk said, adding the playhouses had to break down into panels for easy transport.
When the class posted the structures on Facebook, within six hours they received 74 requests from the community, Schenk said, adding the students were pretty excited.
"It helped them see that they can create their own market," Schenk said.
They brought the playhouse to MishMash preschool piece by piece. They spent 2 hours setting it up. Ever since, the "little home" has provided the kids at the school with endless hours of fun.
"I love the windows," Harper Lindroos, 4, adds as an afterthought, as her classmates hurry through to the yard.
