Best Playground Markings Ideas: Creative Designs Your Pupils Will Adore
Updated on: March 12, 2024
If the thought of playground markings ideas conjures little more than running lines, chessboards, and hopscotch, you’ll find plenty of inspiration in this handy guide. We’re a leading playground markings supplier who prize educational value and fun, imaginative play in equal measure.
Our use of hardwearing and versatile thermoplastic frees us to, quite literally, let our imaginations run wild. With every one of our playground marking ideas rooted in objectives from the national curriculum, we produce imaginative, exciting designs which enable children to play and learn at the same time.
From number bonds to continents, school values, phonemes, road safety, school logos, languages, and the solar system, we have fantastic playground designs to fit almost all of the national curriculum subjects. With each design open-ended in how it is used, you’ll find lots of cross-curricular links amongst our markings.
Lasting up to 10 times longer than traditional playground painting whilst delivering bright, vibrant markings in a wide range of colours, our thermoplastic playground markings for schools are perfect for busy playgrounds.
Anti-slip, weather resistant and robust, our playground designs have all the hardiness you need.
Let’s take a whizz through our collection to see some of our most popular playground markings ideas. We’ve also included a selection of complementary pieces from the Equipment for School Playgrounds Collection. With many pieces designed in line with our playground markings, you’ll find plenty of our activity panels fit seamlessly with our markings.
Best Playground Markings Ideas: Creative Designs Your Pupils Will Adore
For the design process, we’re a playground markings company that puts the needs of you and your school community first. Every design in our collection can be adapted and customised to suit your requirements.
If our playground marking ideas spark some of your own, we can also produce your own bespoke designs for you. That’s what the staff at Falconers Hill Infant School did. Incorporating their own ideas into starting points from our collection, look at what we did for their EYFS playground!
Read more about our project at Falconers Hill
At Oakleigh School we provided another custom project. Here are some of the playground designs we created in collaboration with them:
Read about our project at Oakleigh School
Beyond the design and installation of new playground markings, we also provide playground marking removal and a wide range of other playground equipment. …more about our services for schools
Here are some of our most popular playground marking ideas:
Best Playground Markings Ideas: English
At Fun & Active Playgrounds, our collection of playground marking ideas are designed in line with the English national curriculum. From reading to writing and spelling, we have something for every stage. There’s letter recognition and early phonemes for EYFS, more advanced phoneme stages, SPaG activities and more.
Open-ended designs and cross-curricular links mean lots of our playground ideas can be used to support the planning stages of creative writing. From vocabulary extension to spelling games, phoneme-grapheme recognition, phonics assessments and more, there are a huge number of learning opportunities to be found.
Suitable for EYFS, KS1, KS2, 3 and more, there’s lots to keep minds busy as pupils play. These are just a few of our popular playground markings ideas which work alongside the English national curriculum.
Visual cues can make such a difference to learning across the curriculum. From spellings to phonics and descriptive writing, the opportunity to leave the classroom and go out into the playground in a small group can provide a refreshing, relaxing environment for brainstorming and information recall.
Familiarity with the markings from playtimes means all children will have a solid starting point. Additionally, the outdoor environment enables both visual and kinaesthetic learning approaches to be easily utilised.
Robust and hardwearing, whether children want to run, jump, draw around or rub over markings in chalk, our thermoplastic playground markings stand up to persistent daily use by eager hands and feet.
Discover more of our playground ideas which use English strands
Best Playground Ideas: Maths
Spanning just about every topic across the maths national curriculum, our playground markings ideas which incorporate maths topics are extensive. Whether it’s time, fractions, the compass points, calculations, shapes and more, we have a range of exciting markings and activity panels to suit.
Providing great support for everything from quick recall of number facts to identification of well-known shapes, regularly seeing these bright and colourful visual cues can aid pupils’ memory and recall.
Spending time playing amongst key mathematical concepts fosters an advantageous familiarity with foundational learning.
Whilst at play, children can discuss and engage with maths concepts when they are relaxed and at rest. The opportunity to discuss ideas with others provides ample opportunity for pupils to expand and consolidate mathematical concepts with peers whilst solving misconceptions.
For TAs and LSAs, our markings provide creative opportunities to head outside with a small group and revisit or assess key maths skills in an informal setting. The freedom for pupils to move around easily and touch as well as see, adds an additional and beneficial element of support.
When out at play, children have endless time to consolidate mathematical knowledge and remember learning from sessions as they use the markings during free play.
See more of our playground ideas using mathematics
Best Playground Markings Ideas: Foundation & EYFS Understanding The World
With imaginative, fun play a priority, it’s really important to us that our playground ideas are open-ended as well as educational. As a leading UK playground marking supplier, we like to think creatively. You’ll find lots of cross-curricular links within our designs which cover a variety of foundation subjects.
From PHSE to geography, science and PE, children can explore a wide range of skills which ignite the imaginative and creative spaces within their minds.
For science, whether it’s healthy eating or the solar system, seeing daily visual reminders of classroom learning will help to consolidate ideas and embed important information.
For geography, our maps give pupils plenty of time and room to traverse the many regions of the UK and countries of the world. From oceans to continents, countries and rivers, the opportunity to look again and again as they grow will impart general knowledge pupils will use for life.
For versatile physical education, the Trails Collection is super. Boosting everything from co-ordination to concentration and perseverance, they are popular, energetic designs.
Meanwhile, within our Activity Panels Collection all sorts of games aid personal development and social skills.
For EYFS Understanding The World there are so many avenues. Amongst the Activity Panels Collection, a wide range of resources can be found to support imaginative play for a variety of EYFS topics including people who help us.
Inclusion is addressed throughout our collections. From multi-lingual panels to Makaton, welcome signs, braille and more, there’s lots to discover.
See more of our playground markings ideas using curriculum topics
Best Playground Markings Ideas: Road Safety
Our road safety resources for schools add a creative and fun slant on what can be quite a dry topic. With the subject matter so important, our practical resources are a welcome change.
Place road safety within the context of your school playground and steps to safety become much clearer for all. From the Green Cross Code to important signs and key concepts, the Roadway Markings collection has all the ideas you need.
Help children remember Think, Stop, Look & Listen, Wait, Look & Listen, Arrive Alive. Our range of colour coded visuals are a vital cue which will help to embed the all-important Green Cross Code in pupils’ minds.
See more of our playground ideas for road safety
Use the stop sign or give way sign to help children to understand the levels of alertness and consideration essential to keep everyone safe on the road.
Keep fast little wheels and energetic feet organised and safe with our roadway markings. These are ideal for ensuring pupils experience how secure it feels when all traffic is moving in the same direction on the same side of the road.
And that’s just a few of our most popular playground ideas for schools! Browse our full collection. Remember all our designs are bespoke so you can commission any ideas you have in mind.
Browse playground markings ideas
Jess Sparks
Jess is deeply committed to supporting our mission of positively impacting UK outdoor play environments to promote healthy lifestyles in children.
With a CIM Level 6 Diploma in Sustainable Marketing, Jess channels her passion for sustainability into her marketing role, using her skills to promote eco-conscious practices and raise awareness for our initiatives.
Jess’ experience within the industry is instrumental in driving engagement and supporting connections with those who require ultra-durable, high-grade playground markings both locally and internationally.