Michael designed and built an awesome and visionary outdoor playground/classroom/learning space. The kids and staff love it and now want to spend all day outside. The design concept is different than any preschool outdoor play space I have seen and from the beginning we were excited by the possibilities.
Prior to remodeling we had a traditional metal climbing structure—now we have so much more. Our preschoolers’ critical gross motor skills development is now achieved by climbing boulders and logs and steep steps in an exciting environment that connects our preschoolers with nature and fosters adventure and creativity through play based learning. Every day is a new playing and learning experience.
Michael worked with us to educate our staff and parent community on the benefits of this type of outdoor play space. He is imaginative and has a unique ability to see through the eyes of a preschooler. We most appreciated how Michael always listened carefully to our suggestions and concerns, and considered our goals during the outdoor play space design process.
Michael was also our lead designer for and built our preschool. Walking through the school, parents, kids and my professional peers love everything about our indoor space but it is when they walk outside into our yard that they really rave.
I encourage everyone from educators to parents to re-imagine the traditional outdoor play space and create innovative experiential play based environments for our preschoolers.
—Laura Lipman, Gan Shalom Preschool
Michael has created an incredible new play space and outdoor classroom for our preschoolers. Every day during construction our staff became more and more excited with the transformation taking place. Climbing rocks and tree stumps provide gross motor skill development and the risk factor supports critical executive functioning development for our preschoolers. Michael has a terrific video on his website (as well as other useful information) that discusses risk in playground design that we sent to our parents in advance of the first day of school. Upon seeing our new play space our parents were as excited as their kids. There is so much for each kid to explore and adventure and creativity abound. The farmer’s pump, stream bed and water play are a tremendous hit and we look forward to using the herbs planted in the nooks and crannies. We have a variety of mints for tea time, rosemary for cooking and plan to plant even more. Our kids and staff are having so much fun, love playing, and at the same time learning, in our new natural environment. A conventional climbing structure simply doesn’t compare. Every preschool playground should look like this.
—Ruth Shorer, Director, JCC Preschool, Berkeley
Michael Feiner was hired by Tehiyah Day School to transform a residence into a preschool. Michael was wonderful to work with from the beginning to the end of the project. He was organized, efficient, and dependable, making the construction process easy. He was especially instrumental in designing and installing our backyard space. A creative and innovative design changed a small backyard into a large outdoor classroom than includes intimate seating under an arbor, a climbing hill (berm) with a farmer’s pump and a variety of textures and substrates. He also included rain barrels to recycle both the rainwater and the water from an outdoor sink, and planting beds for the children’s vegetable and herb garden. Michael was very willing to work with me to help create some of what I had visualized for both the indoor and outdoor spaces. He listened to my ideas and made the entire project fit together into beautiful spaces for children and adults. Everyone who walks in comments on the beauty and functionality of the school. We so appreciate all Michael did for Tehiyah.
—Susan Danek, Director, Tehiyah Bridge K/Kindergarten
Michael reinvented our playground so that the natural environment was highlighted, allowing children to use their imaginations to climb, run, and slide. The children use the berm in many creative ways, allowing them to engage with each other in their dramatic play.
The dirt, plants, rocks, and tree stumps create a natural environment that brings many life science opportunities to the yard. Butterflies, insects, and the natural growth of plants stimulates kids’ questions about their environment. This eventually led the students to apply and receive National Wildlife Habitat status from the National Wildlife Federation for our outdoor space. We are grateful to Michael for designing and building a play space that allows endless possibilities for learning.
—Kathy Duhl, Director of the ECC, The Berkeley School