Popular Character Designs To Make Maths and Literacy Fun
Updated on: January 5, 2024
Outdoor maths and literacy activities have come a long way. Our maths and literacy playground markings feature cute character designs that make learning more fun and memorable.
As a permanent part of your play space, our educational playground markings give you a powerful resource which can be used to practice and consolidate learning throughout the day.
Why Use Character Designs?
At Fun & Active Playgrounds, we use character designs to make playground markings more enjoyable to use.
Connection
The presence of a cute animal face instantly builds a connection between the playground marking and the children, creating a more personalised experience.
By delivering such a warm welcome, our friendly characters will give your playground added appeal. Each character design you install will help to make your playground more inviting and interesting to a wider range of children.
Colourful
Here at Fun & Active Playgrounds, we make our playground markings from high-grade thermoplastic. Thermoplastic is extremely hardwearing meaning you’ll have bright, colourful character designs that are weather-resistant and won’t fade.
Personality
We all want play spaces to be fun environments. At Fun & Active Playgrounds, the character designs we use in our maths and literacy playground markings help to add personality to your play space.
The sight of child-friendly characters in vibrant colours makes the playground a memorable and exciting experience children can look forward to.
Imaginative
A character design’s cheerful face is instantly familiar. Whilst provoking a positive emotional response which makes children feel safe, character designs also ignite children’s imaginations.
Our memories are immediately reminded of related narratives about similar animals and emotions when we see character designs. These memories in turn, inspire us to create imaginative stories about the games we play.
Non-Verbal Messages
The decision to go the extra mile and install character design maths and English playground markings sends children and other stakeholders a clear message that your school is a fun place where learning is enjoyable and where children’s needs come first.
Let’s take a look at some of our most popular character designs.
Most Popular Character Designs To Make Maths and Literacy Fun
1. Caterpillar A-Z
The caterpillar’s big eyes and cheeky smile give this character design an animated feel which will catch children’s attention.
As the brightly coloured sections with cute feet play on children’s curiosity, they’ll find themselves repeating the letters of the alphabet in order, as they move along the caterpillar’s body to see how long it is.
As children read the letters in both lower and uppercase, they’ll be engaging in important learning to recognise each letter in its lower and uppercase form.
The continuous stream of sections means children will be motivated to get to the end of the caterpillar quicker each time.
View the Caterpillar A-Z playground marking
2. Other Top Letter Character Designs
Our letter playground markings are extremely popular with schools across the UK.
In addition to the caterpillar character design, the Dragon, Snail and Snake A-Z playground markings are also much-loved resources.
The Snake and Dragon letter playground markings feature lowercase letters which make them particularly ideal for EYFS as well as KS1.
Meanwhile, the snail’s spiral shell will appeal to children’s inquisitive nature, inspiring them to keep going until they get to the centre.
For children today, letter playground markings are a highly valuable resource. We know so many pupils don’t get much time outside of school with adults, let alone space to do things like recalling the alphabet.
At the same time, inside the classroom, the pressure is on to fit in lots of formal learning. With a letter playground marking installed on your playground, all children have the opportunity to practice their alphabet daily, in a fun way.
Meanwhile, staff can take children outside to use the marking for enjoyable outdoor literacy activities in a relaxed environment.
Making it easy for all children to have unlimited time to practice a core skill for both reading and writing, letter playground markings are a top choice for school playgrounds.
View letter playground markings
3. Number Character Playground Markings
And it’s not just literacy. Our number character playground markings give children the chance to practice counting and reading numbers at any time of the day.
Whether during playtime or as part of a group activity with an adult, a number playground marking provides a fun outdoor maths activity all children will enjoy.
The Caterpillar 0-20 gives you plenty of progression for children in EYFS and KS1. Eye-catching eyes and vibrant coloured sections make the caterpillar a striking maths activity children can’t fail to see!
For a slightly lower level of challenge the Dragon and Caterpillar 0-10 ensure all EYFS children will feel a sense of achievement as they learn to count and read numbers to 10.
Beyond 20? Whilst the Snail 0-25 playground marking goes up to 25, our bespoke design team can create any custom range for you. Whether you want to count up in 2s, 5s, odd numbers or even, every option is open to you.
View number playground markings
4. Phonics Character Playground Markings
It’s a big challenge to keep daily phonics lessons interesting but our phonics character playground markings can help.
Not only do our phonics playground markings provide a brilliant educational resource for playtimes, they’re also a great outdoor phonics resource for group activities.
Each phonics playground marking includes the phonemes for a particular phase, in some cases two phases. We’ve concentrated on phase 2 and 3 but you can choose any phase you wish.
The phonemes are accompanied by a cheerful character design featuring a character in its own setting.
Each phonics character design lends itself to both phonics teaching and other areas of the literacy curriculum. The presence of both a character and its setting, is ideal for story writing, for example.
We have a wide range of designs and you also have the option to commission a custom version. A popular choice is to create a bespoke phonics design to match a particular year group topic.
See the full range of options for yourself!
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.