Climbing wall helps develop more than just muscle
SLIPPERY ROCK — Slippery Rock Area Elementary School finally has a piece of gymnasium equipment that lives up to the school district’s name.
The school purchased a 40-foot long rock climbing wall that was installed Tuesday, Feb. 28, and was only made possible via community-led fundraising efforts.
Students in all grade levels at the school have been enjoying the wall, which Kristen Czubiak, the school’s principal, said likely is a new experience for all of them.
“It’s really challenging physically, but the students don't mind it because it's new and innovative,” Czubiak said. “It's something they have never done before.”
The new installation is on a wall of the school’s gym and is equipped with foldout pads at its base to be a buffer to the ground.
Obstacles such as hoops can be attached to the wall and require climbers to maneuver through them at different angles to successfully cross it. Additionally, climbers can challenge themselves by only using pegs of a certain color to cross, with green pegs being the easiest and red the most difficult.
Chad Rosatelli, physical education teacher at the school, said the wall is a good way for students to learn personal lessons through experience.
“It helps with their emotional control … It helps build their self-confidence,” Rosatelli said. “It improves their motor-planning skills because they have to know where to put your hands and feet.”
Czubiak has seen this emotional development firsthand.
“While they are climbing, the other students are coaching them and encouraging them,” Czubiak said. “They’re down there saying things like, ‘Good luck, keep trying, move your leg to the yellow peg on the right.’”
According to Czubiak, the school hosted a glow run in January that had a fundraising goal of $9,000, which would be enough to buy a 20-foot rock climbing wall. The event raised $30,000, which allowed the school to buy a 40-foot wall for $16,000 with obstacle course attachments. The rest of that money will be used for playground equipment, Czubiak said.
A glow run is an indoor fun run done with the lights off and the running track and surrounding areas of the gym lit up with special touches of glowing light.
“The community came out in droves,” Czubiak said. “We were able to come together as a school, fundraise for (the climbing wall) and buy it all in one year — such a short period of time.”
Ayla Gamble, a fifth-grader at the school, said she was excited to try the wall when it was installed. While she has done some climbing outdoors, she said the wall presents a different kind of challenge.
“Usually, we don’t do a lot of climbing, but I think it’s a good change,” Ayla said. “It’s interesting to go from side to side instead of up and down.”
Fifth-grade student Carter Rudish said he has almost made it across the entire wall using only the red pegs — the hardest challenge the wall has to offer. Even though he had never scaled a rock wall lengthwise before, he said he enjoys the challenge.
“We have never been climbing here before,” Carter said. “My hands get sore from gripping the rocks.”
Rosatelli said he plans to use the wall often, in part because of the many developmental abilities it helps promote in students. He added that he has yet to cross the wall using only the red pegs, but he and the students have come a long way with their climbing skills.
“We started with two panels, now we’re doing half the length of the wall,” Rosatelli said. “By the end of the unit, the hope is that they can do the whole wall.”
