Play Structures

Below is a brief guide to choosing and evaluating components for your structures.

Play Structure components:

Climbing

• Kids love climbs, so it’s ideal to include as many as possible.
• Include simple and easy climbs for younger kids.
• Use complex and hard climbs for more advanced climbers.
• More climbing means more fun!

Sliding

• The higher and faster the better.
• Slides are high profile destination points.
• Go for variety: single, double, straight, wave, curved, and spiral.

Hanging and Swinging (overhead traverses)

• Kids love to hang and do tricks, and they'll also sit up on top.
• No playground is complete without an overhead traverse (i.e., monkey bars).
• Add hanging rings for more variety on bigger structures.

Bridges, Pods, or Stepping Links

• These create chase and tag pathways around and through the playground.
• They become great gathering places for social interactions.

Gymnastic Components

• Simple bars to hang from and do tricks on.
• Parallel bars and trick bars are one of the best kept and least expensive secrets in the industry.

Role Play and Manipulative Panels

• Panels that provide props for fantasy or dramatic play are the best (i.e., steering wheels and store fronts).
• Panels that can be manipulated can add play value.

Decks

• The decks of a play structure provides travel routes, waiting platforms, look out points, and places for the kids to gather and socialize. 
• The size of deck can vary according to the number of children using the play structure.
• Structures without decks are often less expensive, but they often do not offer children the same rich play environment that structures with decks provide. Decks make the play components more user friendly.

Roofs

• Roofs make a play structures look polished and finished. They add cost, but the look gives the structures curb appeal.

No matter the size of your playground, we try to include this full range of components in each of our structure designs. On bigger structures we incorporate a wider variety of components, but even small structures should have one of each of the basics, as outlined above.

Some other things to consider about structures:

Play structures for different age groups

• For 5-12 year olds we design higher play structures.
  • High slides, challenging climbs, high skill activities, and more social play opportunities.
  • These structures also appeal to young children because it’s where the big kids are.
•  2-5 year olds must be properly supervised on these structures.
  • For 2-5 year olds we design smaller play structures.
  • These structures should be smaller and lower, but often have the same basic component types.
  • Lots of chances for 2-5 year olds to learn and develop new motor skills.
  • Encourage imagination through props like steering wheels and store fronts.
  • If you add a low overhead ladder the four and five year olds will love you.
  • The CSA standards are different for 2-5 year olds and 5-12 year olds.
• Infant toddler play structures
  • Simple structures with stairs and slides for newly emerging gross motor skills.

Our Play Consultants use the PlayWorks play structure design philosophy to bring play to life.

Our photo and video galleries show examples of how kids play on the structures we design.