Douglas County Libraries' playscapes are museum-quality, interactive indoor spaces designed to give children a break from technology and inspire imaginative play and self-guided learning. DCL provides the pieces to spur the imagination, and kids create their own play.
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Castle Pines – Little Letters Post Office
The Little Letters Post Office features playful facets of a real-life post office, including a stand-alone mail delivery truck.
Kids can act out the different aspects of mail processing and delivery from both the postal worker and consumer end using their imaginations and provided play materials, equipment, and devices.
They can also dress up in provided postal employee uniforms to accept packages and mail, weigh the items, ring them up on the cash register, place them on the conveyor belt, and sort them into mail slots.
Castle Rock – The Ranch
Kids can rustle up ranch-size fun using a variety of interactive play materials and equipment in this playspace sponsored by the Rotary Club of Castle Rock.
The Ranch features a stand-alone barn where young cowpokes can tend to horses, cows, and other animals and a conveyor belt to move hay bales into the barn. The tractor provides endless imaginative play, featuring an actual gear shift and movable steering wheel, while the mini grain silo is perfect for a ranch hand's respite or reading.
Kids can plant and harvest vegetables and flowers in the garden, dress up in provided ranch wear, play ring toss on the bull horns, and much more. They will also have fun running cars along two hills affixed to the wall adjacent to the Ranch.
Highlands Ranch – The Market
The farm-to-table play market and kitchen in Highlands Ranch let kids cook up all kinds of imaginative fun, from shopping for farm-fresh fruits and veggies to ringing them up in the Market to cooking up something playfully delicious in the kitchen.
The Market features kid-friendly shopping baskets, produce in produce bins, weight scales, checkout stands, and a galley kitchen with aprons where the day's "purchases" come together.
Kids have a blast playing shopper, grocery checker, and chef — all in one day — and can also serve up playful treats from the Freshies Food Truck.
Lone Tree – Playful Pets Animal Clinic & Grooming Spa
Kids can discover, create, and act out various aspects of veterinary-style pet care using provided tools, devices, and their imaginations.
In the Animal Clinic, kid vets can don lab coats to examine stuffed animal patients using play veterinary devices and equipment. They can also groom the stuffed animals in the Animal Grooming Spa using provided brushes, combs, and other tools.
Parker – Plants & Pollinators
Kids will be buzzing with excitement to play in this interactive play space, sponsored by Tagawa Gardens. Imaginations will soar as children learn about the plant-pollinator system through hands-on playtime in the apple play house, which features a specimen table for insect observation.
Busy little bees will have fun exploring the world of bees and playing beekeeper in our realistic beekeeping station, complete with materials for role play and dress up.
Crawl through the caterpillar, spin the blossoms, and more while learning about this fascinating ecosystem.
Photos coming soon
Expected to open in mid-August
Roxborough – Mission Control
Kids get an out-of-this-world play experience at Mission Control in Roxborough!
The space-themed playscape features a stand-alone rocket and other playful facets of a mission control room where imaginations can soar.
Kids can dress up in spacesuits, climb aboard the rocket, run a "systems check," and prepare for blast-off using their creativity and the provided play materials, equipment, and devices.
