BUFFALO, N.Y. — The only thing that could make the new attraction in one kindergarten classroom at Clarence Center Elementary more popular, was if it was actually serving up real ice cream.
"The kids have been waiting and waiting," Kindergarten Teacher Boni McClaren said. "We've been talking about this play structure that was going to arrive soon, but we just didn't know when, and when it arrived, the kids were ecstatic."
What made the play ice cream stand even more special, is that it was a handcrafted gift from students at the middle school.
"We had this idea to create a play structure for structured play, something that was multi-use, that could be turned from a post office to a flower shop to whatever they wanted, Clarence Middle School Technology Teacher Daniel Tarnowski said. "I thought it was such a cool idea to have students building for students."
"I think it turned out way better than anyone thought," Eighth Grader Mia Collins said, who worked on the project. "It's really sweet to see, because you know it's going to be carried on to people in the future, and I remember being in kindergarten and how much I loved to play, and just I hope that the kids keep this as a memory and remember this in the future."
Working together with Buffalo Construction, the plan is to make a playset for every kindergarten classroom.
"It's just unbelievable because I know some of my students that are in 7th and 8th grade now actually helped build that structure," McClaren said. "So it's pretty cool that it's pretty cool that it's kind of come full circle for us at Clarence Center."