Inspiring Playground Equipment To Create Stimulating Active and Imaginative Play Areas
Our playground consultant, Chloe Pope, worked with Whitehall Primary School, located in Bristol, to revitalise their EYFS playground and create an energetic area for physical development. The KS2 children needed a space to climb, swing and explore to release all their excess energy and keep active at playtime.
Chloe worked closely with the school to transform the outdoor areas into stimulating spaces for active and imaginative play. Installing a wide selection of playground equipment and playground surfacing has truly met their needs and transformed the playgrounds!
EYFS Messy Play Area
Previous to our development, the early years children’s messy play area was full of tired equipment, which was no longer appealing or exciting for the children. From this, we decided to remove the existing equipment in the area and replace it with a lively selection of Mud Play Equipment.
The brand new area enables young chefs to explore their inner creativity with a huge mud kitchen and mud box with a fantastic rope and pulley materials mover connecting the two resources.
The children have been exploring mechanisms and participating in imaginative play as they move their ingredients from the mud box into the Mud Kitchen before baking up exciting mud cakes, mud muffins and mud pies. Yum!
Before moving their ingredients across, they have been weighing them in the timber weighing scales to ensure they have enough for the recipe they want to create.
This exciting area has been developing the children’s fine motor skills, gross motor skills, creativity and communication and language skills as they transform the space into a 5-star restaurant.
Along the side of the messy play area, a wonderful planter bench has been installed to encourage the children to learn about scientific concepts through play. It also provides them with a sense of responsibility, since they have to remember to water, feed and weed their plants each week.
This wonderful playground seating is a lovely addition to the restaurant, providing customers with a place to sit and enjoy their meal!
In another area of the Early Years playground, we transformed the previous mud pit into a magnificent space for relaxation and socialisation.
A bespoke Giant Playhouse has replaced a tired den, which is now easily accessible and spacious for the children to play and share stories with one another. Surfaced with artificial grass playground surfacing, the playground can be used all year round as the children play, relax and socialise!
To aid supervision, we opened up the playhouse so that it two completely transparent sides. Therefore, the children can always be seen enjoying relaxation and social time.
Active Play Area
Whitehall Primary School identified that they wanted to extend physical play opportunities at the school. Chloe worked with them to install a selection of active play equipment that would meet the requirements outlined, including:
- Developing upper body strength
- Encouraging language, communication and social skills development
- Creating a challenging, exciting and engaging area
- Accessible throughout all weathers
We installed a huge selection of Trim Trail Equipment in the area using our huge Tryfan Climber as a focal point. Through the installation of exciting active play equipment, we have created an energising area that meets the needs of the school and provides the monkeys with a forest area to practice swinging and climbing through the gigantic trees.
With such a range of equipment, the children are developing their climbing confidence as they pick and choose which challenge they’d like to conquer – making their way up to the high level branches of the towering trees.
Imaginative play has been enhanced as the children make up their own games, racing through the obstacles. The equipment, arranged as it has been, encourages the children to talk and socialise with one another as they climb and play together: further developing their communication and language skills.
The area is full of monkeys climbing, hanging, swinging, stepping and jumping through the different obstacles featured in this area, developing their key physical skills.
Surfaced with our amazing Artificial Grass Playground Surfacing, the area is accessible throughout all weathers. As it is free draining, pools of water won’t gather on the surface when the elements strike and the space never becomes muddy, like the ground deep in the rainforest.
The little monkeys’ responsible adults don’t need to worry about their safety since the new surfacing is impact absorbing and prevents serious injuries.
Overall, we have created an amazing active play area, which is sure to be a hit with the children for many years to come.
If you’d like to revitalise your school’s Early Years playground or create an amazing active play area to extend the physical play opportunities for your children, please feel free to Contact Us for a free, no obligation consultation.
Alternatively, you can view our full range of curriculum focused EYFS Outdoor Play Products here or exciting Active Play Equipment.
