Parks Go High-Tech at Webber Greens Playground

Have you ever visited at Biba Smart Playground? We had our first experience at one this week and it’s fair to say my kids are now big fans.

Webber Greens bright and colourful Playground, photo by Jill Footz

We discovered Biba by accident. We were in the far west end of Edmonton and did what we always do – sought out a new playground to try. We stumbled upon the fabulous new park, Webber Greens Playground, in the Lewis Estates neighbourhood.

From rocks and tree stumps to colourful climbers, this park has a mix of everything! Photo by Jill Footz

This park is huge, bright and fun. It has a large toddler area, an even bigger “big kid” structure, and plenty of extra pieces of equipment, like spinners, swings, climbers and a merry-go-round, scattered around.

We loved the orange climbing “doughnuts”, photo by Jill Footz

Webber Greens checks all the boxes. It has the staple favourites as well as some unique pieces. Our favourites were the two giant orange “doughnuts” – perfect for climbing on, hiding in and even sliding down.

Multi-directional spider web climber, photo by Jill Footz

The unusual blue teeter totter and bright orange multi-directional spider web were favourites of one of my daughters, while the other was keen to try the geometric climbing wall.

Colourful geometric climber, photo by Jill Footz

If you read my park reviews, you know monkey bars are prioritized in our home, and this park has both a set of monkey bars and a set of swinging hanging rings.

2 sets of rings! Photo by Jill Footz

The majority of the park has a woodchip bottom, with a couple rubber-based areas, and one sandpit with some toddler equipment for the little ones.

Monkey bars on the toddler park, photo by Jill Footz

We were climbing around and playing and checking everything out when my daughter noticed a small plaque on one playground post. It looked like a big eyeball with a funny mouth. She said “Mom, this park must have a spinner!” (My daughters love the parks that have the spinner scavenger hunt games, which encourage players to find images around the playground.)

Search for these scannable plaques around the park, photo by Jill Footz

We started to look for the spinner, but instead found the sign identifying this as a Biba Playground. I downloaded the free app, and we chose from a list of games. (Many of the games are free, but they also offer paid games.) I chose a basic scavenger hunt game and the app prompted me to identify types of equipment at the park with a simple touch-to-choose menu. The girls had to run and use various pieces of park equipment and return to me, at which point the invisible Biblet they found would appear on the screen. They were encouraged to colour, wiggle, wash or tickle their biblet. At one point in the game, we were instructed to find and scan one of the coloured squares and were rewarded with a special Biblet.

Screen grab from part of our scavenger hunt game, photo by Jill Footz

I suggested we try another game from the list, but the girls loved the first game, so we repeated it. They especially loved collecting the special Biblets and are so excited about this new playground offering that they are drawing pictures of their Biblets at home and encouraging me to “look on google” to find out if there are any more Biba Playgrounds in Edmonton. (The Biba games can be used at any park, but those that do not have the signs or special plaques would not offer players the chance to collect the Special Biblets.)

Webber Greens Playground, photo by Jill Footz

Whether you choose to add the digital angle to your park experience or not, Webber Greens Playground is a ton of fun with options all kids will love and plenty of space to play. It includes a covered picnic area, many benches, a porta potty and even a green shack.