Chris Remson crawls through a hoop on the new Wolfpit School playground.

Photo Credit: Jim Gerweck

Wolfpit assistant principal Christopher Weiss cuts the ribbon to officially open the school's new playground.

Photo Credit: Jim Gerweck

The kids start the action on the new Wolfpit School playground in Norwalk.

Photo Credit: Jim Gerweck

Katrina Bowers takes the new equipment for a literal spin.

Photo Credit: Jim Gerweck

Lisa Ponce walks along the balance beam.

Photo Credit: Jim Gerweck

Two Wolfpit first-graders meet at a playground Promontory.

Photo Credit: Jim Gerweck

Tyler Guzman emerges from a tube slide.

Photo Credit: Jim Gerweck

NORWALK, Conn. – For the students and teachers at Wolfpit Elementary School, Christmas definitely came a bit early as they assembled for the dedication of two new playgrounds.

The chill in the air Monday didn't deter the kids from climbing, sliding and crawling through the new apparatus after assistant principal Christopher Weiss snipped a red ribbon with an oversized pair of scissors and officially declared the playground open for business.

"This is both a school and a community resource," he said, noting that the facility is used extensively after school and on weekends. "You wouldn't believe the withdrawal some people went through the six weeks it was under construction."

Wolfpit PTO president Drew Todd applauded the city Recreation & Parks Department for the speed with which it built the playgrounds. "It took more time to plan than build," he said. The city cleared and regraded the land around the playground and removed most of the old equipment, which had seen better days. Two tube slides and a balance beam are the only holdovers.

Rising from a base of wood chips are multicolored nets, hoops and modern incarnations of the old monkey bars previous generations cut their teeth (and sometimes knees and shins) on. A separate playground for the kindergartners was built on the north end of the school.

"We built this for you," Ken Hughes of Parks and Rec told the assembled student body. "We just ask you to do two things: take care of it, and enjoy it."

A committee consisting of parents and teachers toured area playgrounds during the planning last year, taking notes on what everyone wanted in their dream playground.

"It's really state of the art," said Todd.