Playground Equipment for Schools: How Backyard Playgrounds Differ
It’s seems obvious that backyard playground sets differ from playground equipment for schools, but if you take a closer look, you’ll notice more differences than just size. Here are five key differences between backyard varieties and School Daz, Inc. school playground equipment.
Swings
Look at any School Daz, Inc. playground and you won’t see swings. At home, swings don’t pose a safety risk like they do in a school setting. Swings are a major liability when placed in elementary school settings. First, the child on the swing is not strapped in. There is no way to protect a child from falling off or being thrown from the structure. Second, those walking around the swings are one misstep from a kick to the head. Most backyard models keep the swings much lower to the ground to reduce fall heights. Also, fewer children around the backyard play structure minimizes the chance for a passerby to be injured.
Wood
Several big box home improvement stores still sell wooden playgrounds. For the do-it-yourself parent, wood serves as an excellent material for home use. Wood is easy to work with because it’s predictable, durable and uniform. For a school, wood is not a suitable building material for playgrounds. Splinters and the lack of interchangeable parts make maintaining a wooden playground a daunting tasks. Moreover, regulatory safe bodies like IPEMA continue to find wood treatments that contain potentially hazardous materials. Plastics and molded rubber are much safer, and therefore, the only option when building playgrounds for schools.
Line of Sight
Most backyard play structures look like a small, vertical fort with a slide on top of a platform. In several cases, the space underneath the platform is closed off or shielded on two or more of the sides. This is great for kids who want to have a special place in the backyard. It is not safe for a school environment. Without a clear and direct line of sight, playground supervisors cannot sufficiently monitor the children. School Daz, Inc. playground equipment keep the spaces as open as possible, allowing supervisors to shift around the playground area and maintain a close watch of the children they are supervising.
Softfall Materials
When I was a kid, playgrounds were steel beams driven into concrete. At home, grass stains from falling were a welcome reprieve from the bits of rubble that got lodged in my knees. To this day, grass still offers a nice, natural cushion for backyard playgrounds. However, elementary school playgrounds typically have taller structures, meaning the grassy ground may break more than a fall.
A Full Spectrum of Physical Development
School Daz, Inc. carefully constructs playgrounds that address the key elements of physical fitness in developing youth. Balance, cardiovascular health, dexterity, hand-eye coordination and large muscle group development are each addressed by certain playground components. Backyard playgrounds do a fair job of working a few of these important development areas, but few maximize each area like playground equipment for schools can. A lot of this has to do with the sheer number of playground components in an elementary school playground, but school playground companies like School Daz, Inc. make sure each playground design features and highlights these physical fitness elements.
What’s important to remember when considering building a new playground for your local elementary school is that there are companies, like School Daz, Inc., that specialize in the design, financing and installation of playground equipment for schools. The expertise in this field goes a long way to insure the safest and most rewarding experience for your children.
