Making the most of your space in a small playground
Wanting to make sure that your children have a safe and entertaining environment at school or nursery is natural for every parent and teacher. However, sometimes having limited space can get in the way of plans and when it comes to the experiences of your children, it’s not always easy to compromise. That’s why in this blog, we’ll be giving you a few ideas on how to make the most of your space in a small playground.
Build you own trail
Big play equipment such as swings, slides and climbing structures are some of the things that you can miss out on if you have a small playground. Though these are great for getting children active and moving, playground markings can be a simple and cost-effective alternative.
Playground markings have many uses – despite being durable, anti-slip and excellent for high footfall areas, they will also brighten up any outdoor space making it more colourful and engaging for kids. Why not choose one of our popular trails? Each one can be customised to fit your available space, size and shape. Or, you could get creative and build your own trail!
There are plenty of fun activities to choose from. Make it an adventure course with our crocodile and shark stations, or focus on fitness with our various physical activities – jump, hop, lunge, skip, squat and more. You could even add in the classic playground game, hopscotch. The best thing is you can mix and match any of these activities to fit your space.
Make a playground for friends
Developing friendships and making new ones is a major part of every child’s first years and that includes having fun times in the school playground. Running around, laughing, exploring and bringing their imagination to life are some of the best ways they do this.
Introducing playground markings and games designed for pairs or teams can be great for making new friends and nurturing their current relationships. Markings such as Mirror Me, and Dance with Me are helpful for encouraging new friendships as each child takes it in turns to copy the leader. Other games such as our 4-way hopscotch can inspire healthy competition between pupils as they race each other. Our mazes are also super for teamwork as children have to work together to find their way to the middle.
The size of a playground won’t matter if your children are having fun with their friends!
Choose markings with multiple uses
If you have a small space at your school, try to choose playground markings with different ways of using them. A multi-court instead of a single basketball court, a compass clock instead of an 8-point compass and a 12 hour clock, or a times table hopscotch instead of a standard one. Combing designs is an efficient way to fit a lot more activities into your playground.
Make your playground entertaining
Make your playground entertaining by using designs that will motivate and inspire children to keep playing and to use it more. A lot of different games can be played in a relatively small space. For example, our chessboard is 2.5m wide, noughts and crosses is 2m by 2m, our snakes and ladders 1-36 is only 1.8m wide and our twister game is 2.2m x 1.6m.
Always remember to consider the age and interest of your pupils, as trying to cater for all age groups may not always be possible with a small playground.
Your play area doesn’t have to be huge to be able to turn it into a fun and engaging place for children! By following our tips above, you can make the most out of your available space. After all, it’s not what you have, it’s what you make of it.
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