Themed playgrounds combine physical and mental stimulation to keep kids active in different ways. They’re also plenty of fun to look at! By choosing a unique theme for your playground, you can set your park apart from others. Kids will come to know your playground as “the one with the castle” or “the one with the fire trucks!”
To help you start planning for your themed playground design, here are five cool ideas to take in any direction you choose!
1. Nature
Nature playgrounds are an excellent fit for urban, suburban and rural areas. These playgrounds provide creative and unstructured play while incorporating elements of nature, such as tree stumps, logs, boulders, water, plants, ropes and bridges. Nature-based playgrounds also feature earth or more muted color tones and asymmetrical topography, allowing you to draw from the natural surroundings. Using nature theme play components allows you the opportunity to bring nature experiences to large cities. Fallen log balance beams or stump climbers that really look and feel like real tree bark with GFRC. Including flowers, animals, or animal tracks in the surfacing also provide fun learning opportunities for children.
2. Farm/Western
A farm or western theme is another option to consider for your custom playground design. This type of park looks great on its own or as part of a larger recreation space, such as a children’s petting zoo, or a farmer’s market. Think of this: a generously sized barn structure with slides, corn stalk climbers, freestanding tractor and other farm animal climbers, swings that look like a large farm irrigation piece of equipment and stacked hay bales. We’ve also designed western playgrounds with multiple playhouses, such as a bank, livery and general store. Wagons that look like gold mining carts, covered wagons and other western features.
3. Sports
A sports playground theme gives you plenty of design flexibility. You can incorporate interactive playground equipment, such as the Yalp Sutu Interactive Ball Wall, or you can create climbing structures in the shapes of baseballs and soccer balls. Sports-themed playgrounds tend to use bright colors like blue, green and red, and you can add additional sports graphics using poured-in-place rubber playground surfacing. From panels to GFRC play components you can create a fully immerse sports theme, or just give it a light theme look. How in-depth you decide to venture depends on you, your imagination, your budget and the size of the space you have to work with.
4. Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs are fascinating creatures because they lead us to a different time on our planet. In fact, kids who are obsessed with dinosaurs develop a better attention span and deeper information-processing and linguistic skills. You can feed this fascination by creating a dinosaur-themed playground with dinosaur climbing structures, panels with dinosaur facts and sand pits. Dinosaur theme playgrounds are great additions to children’s museums, zoos, science centers and more.
5. Castles
One last playground theme to consider is a castle theme. People like this theme because it’s easy to work with and appeals to a wide range of kids. You can start with a giant castle structure that has plenty of activities including tall towers with slides, ropes, bridges and various climbers. Add poured-in-place surfacing with a moat around the castle, a sea serpent and sharks. Castle can be a variety of styles—from knights to Rapunzel, historical to whimsical or fairytale like. The sky is truly the limit. Create themed play spaces that take children to far away lands and fun adventures letting their imaginations soar.
Themed playground designs capture the imaginations of children and provide them with imaginative play experiences. Themes can also link a community to its rich heritage. No matter if you want a fully immersed themed design or just a few pieces, we have the capabilities to accommodate your ideas. To discuss your themed playground design, contact Cunningham Recreation today.
