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With the recent completion of renovations to our historic Playhouse, Smith is excited to announce the opening of Smith Urban Nature Preschool!
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View the SUN Preschool Virtual Info SessionView Frequently Asked QuestionsView 2021-2022 School Year Calendar
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Parents can get playful learning tips and games and track their children’s points from playing at Smith for FREE!
Click to download the Smith Playground App on iOS or Android.
Smith Memorial Playground has been a diverse, treasured play space in East Fairmount Park since 1899. Smith offers opportunities for unstructured creative play for children through free family visits and special events and programs.
Play is a powerful tool for children to learn, grow, and heal. Parents can use the app to get playful learning tips and games, learn about our events and programs, track the points their children gain from playing at Smith, and donate or sign up to volunteer at Smith.
This app is for new or current visitors interested in engaging their children in unstructured creative play!
Creating an account is simple and easy! Go to the App Store or Google Play on your mobile device and type Smith Memorial Playground in the search bar. Once you’ve found the app, click on it, and start downloading. Click here to see a demonstration!
Open the app and create your very own account to get started!
Users can use the app to check-in at Smith, earn points and rewards for playing at Smith and at home, attend events and get playful learning ideas for home.
Users can learn about Smith’s spaces, events, and programs that promote unstructured play that fosters social and physical growth in children.
Users can engage with Smith by signing up to volunteer, making a donation, and more.
Smith Memorial Playground worked closely with MilkCrate to build an app for our volunteer coordinators and volunteers to use. MilkCrate is a tech company that empowers nonprofits to grow their mission and achieve goals all from an app.
To learn more about MilkCrate, visit www.milkcrate.tech and get a referral from us for a discount if your organization is interested in building their own app!
“Smith Play Jawn” is Smith Memorial Playground’s new TV show which encourages and models playful learning at the Playground, in nature, and in everyday spaces. Join us for music time, story time, at-home and nature play ideas, and to share YOUR jawn! Smith will produce a new episode with a special theme each month which will air weekly on Wednesdays.
Tune in Wednesdays at 3pm on:
Comcast 66/966HD | Verizon 29/30 | phillycam.org/watch
Each month, Smith features something made by a young person on “Smith Play Jawn”. Submissions may be artwork, videos, poetry, or something else creative!
Smith also needs recorded music and/or music videos to for the “Music Time” feature segment of the show as well as for background and transitions.
If you are a musician or music artist interested in submitting music, please email zoe@smithplayground.org to discuss further.
Sunday, August 29 from 2pm-5pm
Councilmember Derek Green presents his annual Autism Play Date at Smith Memorial Playground. This is a FREE, fun-filled afternoon for youth (grade school to high school age) and their families to enjoy fun on the Playground, sensory friendly activities, food, and information about autism resources.
*This event is currently at capacity*
Friday, September 3 from 7pm-8:30pm
Start the school year off right with a free, outdoor screening of family friendly, community-minded film shorts by independent film makers and a back pack giveaway (while supplies last) courtesy of T-Mobile as part of Scribe Video Center’s 24th annual Street Movies! festival*.
FILM LINEUP
*Scribe Video Center’s Street Movies! is made possible with additional support from PECO.
Watch Party + Children’s Concert (Free)
Saturday, September 11 from 4:00pm-8:30pm
Smith is excited to partner with First Up to present an afternoon of family fun with a special outdoor screening of “Reflecting on Anti-bias Education in Action: The Early Years“, an award-winning film that features vignettes of anti-bias strategies in early childhood classrooms and reflections from the teachers practicing them. The event will also include a read aloud by local author John Butler and a performance by City Love, one of Smith’s favorite bands! Learn more and register below.
Saturday, September 25 from 2pm-3:30pm
Join Project Moshen, Philadelphia’s all-female jazz dance company, on Smith’s front lawn for a free, interactive and family friendly performance and dance class! Learn more about Project Moshen
Smith Memorial Playground has been a treasured destination for generations of families for over 100 years. An individual’s “Smith memories” can illustrate our positive effect on a child, which can last a lifetime.
Last month, Helen Porter, a 92-year-old Philadelphia resident, visited Smith for the first time as an adult. She brought two family members with her to reminisce about her time at Smith as a child. Helen recalls her first visit to Smith in 1930:
When I was 6 years old, my Sunday School teacher took our class and some of the mothers to Smith Playground. The year was 1930. It was a very long ride on the number 3 trolley. Because I got “trolley” sick, I was always given peppermint Chiclets. To this day, I seldom eat anything peppermint!
Helen (middle) visited us with her daughter, Gale, (left) and sister-in-law, Joanne.
We spent many hours in the big house playing checkers and other games, but the highlight of the day was the big sliding board. We went up and down, up and down. Every so often, it was adults only and the mothers stood in line and took their turns.After that visit, my mother took my brothers and me every summer. And now, the summer of 2016, 86 years later, I went back to Smith Playground! I remember the sliding board being much bigger, housed in a two story house with lots of steps to get to the top. Of course, I was very little and it seemed huge! What a surprise! My daughter, Gale, enjoyed her turn on the slide. We had a wonderful visit.
The mansion and grounds are a treasure and I was so glad to see it maintained so that it can be enjoyed by today’s children. Just like me, these children will have wonderful memories of Smith Playground.”
Gale goes down the Ann Newman Giant Wooden Slide for the first time!
We want to hear from you. Please email your story/memory to Zoe Hillengas, Communications Manager, at zoe@smithplayground.org.
Thank you to former Smith board member Terry Ruggles and film maker Meredith Nutting for creating this video about Smith. Feel free to share, so that more families can learn about us! Watch “A Mansion for Kids”
