How to Design Outdoor Play Areas for Kids
Children require varied outdoor experiences to develop and learn. Integrating developmentally appropriate activities into outdoor play areas is crucial to encouraging active lifestyles among your young players.
Some of the best play equipment fosters cognitive and social skills in its users, from learning how to navigate playgrounds to developing their own imaginative stories. You can also add sensory elements into your playground.
Green Spaces
Landscape design creates vibrant environments that support children’s physical, social and emotional growth. While playground equipment often gets the spotlight, the outdoor environment plays a pivotal role. Sandboxes, mud kitchens or flower gardens provide low-energy opportunities for connecting children to nature in low-key ways.
Add natural elements, such as tree roots, boulders, and textured trails, to an adventure landscape and challenge children to move in different ways. Grassy hills encourage running, rolling and climbing movements that strengthen strength coordination and balance; boulders and logs become pirate ships, stepping stones or castles in imaginative games; green tunnels of ferns and vines draped over archways provide magical paths which blend in seamlessly with their environment.
Kids’ energy levels fluctuate throughout the day and it may be necessary for them to release some of this pent-up energy through low-intensity activities such as playing in a sandbox or secret hideout or gardening in their gnome garden. By providing multiple spaces where children can release some of this excess energy when necessary, creating spaces like these allows them to find exactly what they need when needed.
Other elements, like bird feeders, frog ponds and wind chimes, add personal touches that enhance the play experience. Butterfly and pollinator gardens transform recess into an opportunity to learn about ecology; vegetable patches with berry bushes offer children a taste of self-reliance; while sensory gardens featuring lavender, mint or thyme provide sensory experiences for kids. Green spaces also allow children to unleash their creativity – whether painting rocks as ladybugs, frogs or fairies and scattering them across flower beds; setting up mud kitchens using old pans and spoons or creating fairy or gnome houses from twigs leaves and moss!
Sandboxes
Sandboxes are classic backyard playground favorites that help children of all ages explore their creativity while learning how to interact with their environment. Digging, pouring and shaping sand can engage multiple senses while at the same time aiding in the development of hand and arm muscles as well as coordination.
Build or buy one pre-built for an easy DIY project in your garden. Prioritize safety over appearance; add a sand cover to provide weather and debris protection; choose an area in the shade so as to reduce UV ray exposure, heat gain, and maintenance requirements.
Use child-safe sand that has been treated to reduce dustiness and is safe for digging to create an appealing play surface for kids. Make sure the box is only filled up a few inches shy of reaching capacity to prevent overflow during activities.
Consider including natural elements into a playground design without hesitation, as they can enhance both children and adults alike’ experiences. For instance, turn a winding path into a low-key obstacle course by adding stepping stones, logs to jump over and tunnels (such as willow arches). Soften any berms or nooks with low moisture-loving native plantings so children and adults alike can discover all of nature through fun yet low-key activities.
Sensory Bins
Sensory bins can be fun and inexpensive to make; simply raid your pantry, recycling container, or kitchen drawers to find an appropriately large bowl. Choose a theme (such as ocean life or animals) before filling it with easy-to-access materials that promote fine motor development such as scooping, pouring, and transferring activities that help develop fine motor skills. Children gain invaluable lessons during unstructured free play such as problem-solving skills, emotional regulation strategies, social abilities – all while having loads of fun!
Although playgrounds may provide necessary play spaces for children, many prefer natural outdoor destinations over structures. As an alternative to playgrounds, consider creating natural outdoor destinations for your child such as garden paths with stepping stones and stumps, simple dirt trails or low-key obstacle courses in wooded or edge-zone areas; create a shady grove full of logs for jumping over or crawling under into hillside slopes for an edge zone experience; or carve an intricate log maze into hillside for an idyllic woodland trail feel!
Create an immersive and imaginative world by adding fairy gardens or playhouses with architectural intent – such as salvaged windows and cedar shingles from salvaged windows or rustic wood sheds fitted out with green roofs – into any landscape feature that sparks their interest and offers them something more stimulating than simple playground swing sets that confine children in one area of their landscape and encourage only playground-type movement.
Bubble Station
Kids playing outside have the unique chance to explore and understand their environment in a whole new light than when indoors. Outside, children can release energy with physical play that includes loud noise and vigorous physical play, unleash their creativity through creative play or engage in messy projects for sensory exploration – the possibilities are truly limitless!
Make the most of your backyard play space by designing it with multiple areas. Instead of confining children to one spot like a swing set, design zones with play equipment that suits each child’s interests and development skills – like sandboxes, water tables, tree houses, block play areas, mud kitchens or cozy spots where multiple children can interact simultaneously.
Make your backyard play areas as engaging and inviting to adults as they are to children by including seating, grills, firepits or pergolas for adults to hang out while their children play.
If you plan to add a bubble station, be sure it is on grass rather than an easily washable surface like patio or deck – this will prevent bubble solution or toddler soap spillage that could end up at an emergency room. Also provide a clean-up station so parents have buckets of wash water and towels readily available when it is time to rinse off bubble wands when finished with them.
Sidewalk Chalk
Sidewalk chalking fosters creativity and imagination while helping students develop hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. Beginning kindergarten students may simply write basic letters on the sidewalk while older ones could use this activity to design an entire city with roads, buildings, houses, traffic signals, parking lots etc. Using sidewalk chalk is also an excellent way to develop engineering skills by designing an entire town that includes roads, buildings, houses, traffic signals parking lots etc.
Offering children an array of outdoor play activities can help them engage in various forms of play based on their mood and energy level, as well as provide quiet or low-energy activities to allow them to relax and recharge. It is also essential to include areas for quiet or low-energy activities so they can recharge during their down time.
If your playground lacks enough room for an obstacle course, turn a garden path into one by adding logs, stumps and tunnels (such as woven willow arches) that make crawling or walking through fun. Plant them with moisture-loving natives or ornamental grasses for an inviting sensory trail experience that feels natural. Also add in a mud kitchen, flower garden or vegetable patch so kids can connect with nature while getting active; this will teach them respect and care for the environment while offering healthier snack options!
Outdoor Race Track
Young children need plenty of outdoor playtime to release excess energy, use their loud voices, and engage in messy and sensory activities. Play is also an opportunity to explore their local environment while connecting with nature; therefore it’s crucial that outdoor play areas meet each child’s physical, social, emotional, cognitive needs.
Instead of confining children to one structure or area of the landscape, encourage their freedom of movement by creating low-key paths that resemble trails but serve more like movement labs. You could turn a garden path into an obstacle course by adding stepping stones, logs and willow tunnels for example.
Install a zig-zag road and steep ramps for extra fun (via Buggy and Buddy). Incorporate other centers from your classroom like block play, housekeeping, cozy areas or fine motor space outdoors into the mix to expand curriculum into outdoor settings (here’s an article with ideas). Of course all areas should remain safe from preventable hazards like lawn equipment, chemicals, pool toys, grills and plants that pose risks.