The kids at the Boothbay Region YMCA Child Care Center got a little help from their friends on July 29 in creating the new natural playground. Twenty-five Y volunteers participated in planting flowers and other landscaping tasks around the new 80-foot by 60-foot natural playground.

The new facility is a stark difference from the previous playground which included a slide and swing set decorated with red cedar chips on the ground. The new, natural playground is designed with the Y’s child care center’s educational program in mind.

The Montessori School program is crafted for students age 3-6 years old. The Montessori program encourages learning through creative exploration. The natural playground includes a rock scramble where students climb a hill and after reaching the top slither down a five-foot slide. There is a two-story red cedar playhouse where students enter through the top floor. The natural playground will have a fallen, 15-foot-plus red oak tree, six feet high, and 10 feet wide for kids to climb.

The new playground has a double wooden gate shaped like a butterfly. And the stone structures around the playground will have children’s faces sculpted into them.

“There are a lot fun elements, but it’s focused on landscaping and creative exploration,” said Y Facilities Director Rose Mooney. “With the new Montessori program, we also wanted a new style of playground. So it’s really a different take on what a playground has traditionally been.”

The playground has two sand piles, one designed for the older students and the other for the younger ones. Among the most interesting features are the mirror balls in the smaller sand pile, according to Mooney.

“Babies crawling around see themselves in the mirror and can push the balls around. There are also pull-up bars 18 inches high in the smaller sand area so babies can develop their motor skills by pulling themselves up,” she said.

Osprey Services partners David Reiss and Ed Russell were among those who volunteered to prepare the playground.

“We’ve done the wood work here for years so naturally when they called us to help today we told them we’d be happy to contribute,” Reiss said.

The volunteers spent four hours last week planting flowers and spreading sod in preparation for putting the final touches on the playground. The greenery around the space includes both vegetable and flower gardens. Osprey Services built two 4-foot by 8-foot raised garden beds 18 inches high. The playground also includes a new style of gardening. A hugelkultur — a German-styled, natural raised garden bed culture — uses hay and mulch to spur vegetation growth.

Mooney said the child care center students “really like” the non-traditional methods of gardening used in the program.

“The garden has a lot of whimsical things we hope inspires thoughtfulness and creativity in our kids,” Mooney said. “We purchased a lot of plants from Conley’s Garden Center at cost, which helped us immensely with the greening which is really important.”

Mary Lou Newstead of Boothbay is one of the volunteers who was notified by email about the project.

“They were looking for warm bodies and this is something I can do,” she said. “I’ve done some gardening work in the past for other community projects so I like supporting good things in the community.”

A grand opening is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 6.