How Our Playground Designs Create Fun Playground Games For KS1
Updated on: February 18, 2025
Today, ensuring younger children have access to fun playground games for KS1 is more important than ever. From busy parents to an over-reliance on screen time, so many contemporary children have little or no exposure to structured group games.
We know there are lots of important skills to be learnt from playground games at KS1, particularly more structured traditional games which remain popular. From snakes and ladders to mazes, What’s the Time Mr Wolf, hopscotch, these timeless games for kids provide rich learning experiences.
Social skills, emotional skills, problem-solving, communication, physical development, cognitive development, it’s so easy to forget the number of benefits that KS1 playground games offer.
But how do you make playground games relevant for modern children?
Fun Playground Games Children Will Enjoy
As a leading supplier of playground markings and equipment for children across the UK, Fun & Active Playgrounds know what contemporary children like! That’s why we create playground designs that are an upgrade on the more traditional creations. For us, play has to be fun and educational for all children, so relevance is essential.
That doesn’t mean we do away with much-loved outdoor games. Instead, we re-evaluate them to see what could be improved.
For example, we incorporate current curriculum topics and areas of interest into all of our playground marking designs. We like to produce creative and innovative ideas that add excitement, colour, and interest to your playground.
For traditional playground games, we take them to the next level by exploding boundaries with designs like 3-way hopscotch. 3-way hopscotch is a game-changing idea to enable more than one group of children to play at the same time.
Here’s a quick guide to our top playground games for KS1, both new and old, we guarantee they’ll enjoy.
How Our Playground Designs Create Fun Playground Games For KS1
1. What’s The Time Mr Wolf
Remember this game? Fast runners would go tearing across the playground. Inevitably, this would lead to bumped heads, knocked over children and arguments. We’ve solved all those problems and more with our innovative designs.
Markers keep players in order and make the wolf easier to spot. Clear places for the wolf to stand and children to start eliminates the cheating and arguments which used to arise.
Not only will each game move at smoother, quicker pace, but a greater number of children will want to come and join a game that’s calm and fun.
2. Equipment Free Playground Dice
We know how busy you are so one of the things we like to do is to think as practically as possible. We all know how easy dice are to lose, roll too far and pull apart.
Our Playground Dice Playground Marking is the perfect solution for games which require dice!
Children roll the dice by throwing the waterproof bean bag onto the dice marking when it’s their turn. The absence of physical dice means there’s no small items for staff to pack up or children to lose!
3. Duck, Duck, Goose
Fun playground games for KS1 don’t get much more classic than duck, duck, goose. This beloved outdoor game for children is still as enjoyable today as it was in the past. The difference is, we’ve made it a lot more organised so everyone knows what’s going on!
Without markings, duck, duck, goose gets very confusing, and we know confusion leads to arguments! Our playground markings show children where to stand with specific markers for the ducks and goose. All this means children can focus on playing the game and join or leave the activity with ease.
KS1 Playground Designs That Last
You’ll notice all of our playground designs are bright and colourful, but we know every school community is different. School playgrounds are personal spaces so you can customise any of our playground games.
Custom Designs
In fact, why not get a group of children from your school involved in the design process? In the past, we’ve seen schools involve school council reps, learning mentor groups, school prefects and more.
We’ve been working with schools across the UK for over 10 years so our team are awesome at incorporating children’s ideas. In fact, they really look forward to it! More about bespoke design.
Long-lasting Designs
We make all of our playground designs from high-grade thermoplastic. Thermoplastic playground markings deliver superior performance that’s 10 times better than traditional playground paint.
Your thermoplastic playground markings can be used safely by children in any weather and won’t fade under UV light. You’ll also find the bright colours are long-lasting, resisting flaking and chipping to keep your playground looking fresh and inviting long-term.
4. King Square
Whether you know it as king square or four square, this is another classic playground game, contemporary children love. If you want to support ball play in a more compact space or have no football days, king square is great.
King square has enough appeal to draw in those children who adore football whilst also appealing to quieter children and those who enjoy social play.
The big issue with king square in the past was about where to stand and whose turn it was to serve. We’ve solved those problems with clearly numbered squares, plus a space for the king.
Marked positions mean everyone knows whose turn it is to serve and which square to move to next when someone is out.
With turns clearly organised, staff can concentrate on supervising play and children can enjoy their time together.
5. Hopscotch
Hopscotch enables you to provide a fun playground game which supports quieter play. Our creative team have come up with a variety of ways to ensure hopscotch is indeed, fun and holds appeal for a diverse range of children. Rather than the usual grid, we’ve taken things a lot further!
We have multiplication hopscotch, 3 or 4-way hopscotch, circular hopscotch, hexagonal hopscotch, sunflower hopscotch, and lots more. At Fun & Active Playgrounds, anything can be made more fun!
Take the 3 or 4-way hopscotch. These innovative designs make hopscotch more appealing to more children because there’s no waiting around. 3 or 4 grids mean more pupils can play and interact at the same time. Stimulated children mean happy children and happy staff, so these game-changing designs are a winner on every level.
6. Playground Games For Dance
Every playground has them – children who love to dance together. We’ve provided a designated space for them with our dance mat-style playground markings. Promoting collaborative play, co-ordination and self-expression, our dance mat playground markings are a fantastic way for KS1 children to unwind.
Children follow the leader who stands in the clearly marked circle. Each step is easy to copy because everybody has the same coloured circle layout. Our dance playground games are a great way to ensure quieter play is given as much attention as other types of play.
7. Snakes and Ladders
It’s easy to overlook the multitude of benefits this popular playground game for KS1 offers. From dealing with disappointment to concentration, turn-taking and encouraging others, the social and emotional skills alone are huge.
Our giant grid means children also build co-ordination, balance and more as they move around the grid. The multi-sensory nature of the outdoor activity makes it even more enjoyable than the board version.
We have a 1-36 grid for younger children, or you can request a custom grid which ends at the number of your choice.
8. Noughts and Crosses
Before hand-held devices, noughts and crosses could keep children occupied for hours. We’re bringing back this top game of logic with a simple grid. Noughts and crosses is a fun game any KS1 child can play without assistance.
The large grid makes mark-making easy for all children. Chalk can be used to make the crosses and zeros in the grid with ease.
We’ve also got Twister, Bowling, Piggy In The Middle, Chess, Mazes and lots more fun playground games for KS1 children. Browse now.
View our full range of playground markings
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.
