18 Playground Games to Improve Your Child’s Health

It’s National School Sport Week, one of the biggest sporting events in the school calendar this year! Hundreds and thousands of pupils across the UK will be partaking in this week-long sporting celebration taking place between 25^th to 29^th June.

National School Sport Week is one of the best ways to encourage students around the country to ditch the screens in favour of some outdoor fun in the sun! Here at Thermo Plastic Designs and Lines we are proud to be raising awareness of this fantastic event, supporting teachers and parents around the UK promote fitness in young people. To help support this cause, we thought we’d share our best playground game ideas with you.

The Benefits of Outdoor Play and Activity

Children benefit significantly from outdoor play and physical activity and we should be encouraging them as much as we can to play outside. Playing outside is beneficial for children in numerous ways: it allows them to develop their strength, coordination, motor skills, and gain self-confidence and increased health.

Sitting inside glued to a screen all day is not at all beneficial for children and can often hinder their development. So, it’s important we all do our best to encourage youngsters to play outside and stay active. And one of the best ways this can be done is by raising awareness of National School Sport Week.

5 Cardio Playground Games that Burn the Most Calories

Playground games that burn calories and get the heart rate up are ideal for kids at school on their lunchbreak because it lets them use up all that pent-up energy. What’s more, the sport court markings we provide at Designs & Lines motivate kids to get outside and partake in physical activity. Our sport court markings provide such a variety for you to choose from and certainly offer up some fantastic outdoor game potential.

1. Netball and Basketball Court

Netball and basketball court markings are a fantastic outdoor activity for children as not only do they help burn those calories and get kids the physical activity they need, they also encourage group participation and interaction.

2. Rounders Bases

Rounders bases are another fantastic outdoor activity for school children and they can be used in either playtime or physical activity lessons. Alongside standard rounders games, these bases can be used for a variety of fun game activities and certainly help children get the physical movement in they need day-to-day.

3. Standing Long Jump

Standing long jump encourages core strength, muscle development, and improvement in physical fitness. Children are encouraged to stand on the marker and jump as far as they can. The fitter they become and the more they practice, the more their agility, strength, coordination, and flexibility will improve.

4. The Cricket Run

For a fun running activity, the cricket run is ideal. The cricket runs we paint onto playgrounds are brightly coloured, so they appeal to children and encourage participants to run back and forth to score points. In an actual game of cricket, to score points players have to run the length of the pitch. However, with a cricket run you need less space and children can still play the game without requiring a large amount of space.

5. The Chest Throw

The chest throw requires strength, balance, and agility. It encourages children to develop their sporting skills by practising their throwing and catching. A child must stand behind the line, bend their knees, and throw a ball from their chest as far as they can. The more their fitness improves and the more practice they get, the further the ball is likely to go. You can encourage competitions among your students and give rewards at the end of the week for those who can throw the ball the furthest!

Playground Games Specifically for Fitness

Keeping young people fit and healthy can be difficult – especially today when technology is such a prevalent part of their lives. However, one hour of physical activity in class every week is quite simply not enough to maintain a healthy body. That’s why we have created a variety of playground games specifically with fitness in mind. Check out our list of 5 playground games for fitness.

1. Agility Trail

The agility trail is a brightly coloured activity children can enjoy all year round. Not only will the agility trail transform your playground with its splash of colour, it will encourage children of all ages to jump, hop, skip, side-step, run, walk, and spin their way into fitness. The agility trail is a great option for schools throughout the UK and is a fun way for children to enjoy staying fit in the playground.

2. Fitness Circle

The fitness circle is a fantastic class activity and a great way to keep children active throughout the day. Every circle requires a different action such as a squat, stretch, star jump, spin, skip, or lunge. Children can move around the circles completing each of the exercises a number of times. The fitness circle can be used as a warm-up to a lesson or children can enjoy running around on it at lunch time. However you decide it will be used, the fitness circle is a fantastic way for children to stay fit.  

3. Fitness Test

Competition between children is always rife and the fitness test is a great way to encourage this healthy challenging between pupils. The fitness test can be played by two teams at the same time. Laid side-by-side, the fitness test includes hopscotch, skipping, running, and star jumps, all must be completed as quickly as possible. Played in teams, the first team to complete the fitness test wins! A great way to get kids excited about fitness and working hard, the fitness test is fantastic.

4. Race Line

Similar to the fitness test, the race line needs even more speed and is all about challenging students in how fast they can run, hop, and jump. Play two teams against each other and encourage some healthy competition in the name of fitness!  

5. Mile a Day Circuit

Running track is something many children enjoy, particularly on hotter days. However, the mile-a-day-circuit is a fun and engaging way to encourage students in their fitness. All the children have to do is complete the circuit once and they will have run a mile. Complete the mile-a-day-circuit every day and you will improve the fitness of your students significantly – all through the simplicity of school playground activities.

Creative Playground Games that Inspire Their Imaginations

Developing a child’s imagination is one of the most important ways you can encourage and inspire children to be and do better.

Creative playground games that inspire their imaginations are so incredibly important. Not only do they develop the creative side of the brain, they also help children develop their social and verbal skills. That’s why, here at Designs & Lines, we make and install creative playground markings that encourage and inspire their imaginations. Discover three of our best playground markings to inspire creativity.

1. Treasure Island

Pirates, ship wrecks, hidden treasure, and shark-infested waters all make for great imaginative play. Many children love growing their imaginations through location-based learning. That’s why we provide vibrant and enjoyable treasure island markings that capture youngsters’ imaginations and let them explore whole new worlds.

2. Adventure Trail

The adventure trail is a fantastic game for children of all ages. Not only does it help develop their imaginations, it also helps encourage fitness and physical activity. The adventure trail can be played by two people at once and children can hop, run, and skip their way to the finish line.

Playground Games that Get Them Thinking

The great thing about Designs & Lines is that we combine fun, learning, and fitness. Our playground games aren’t simply limited to keeping fit, they also provide children the chance to learn while having fun at the same time! Check out five of the games we make that help kids work out and burn energy while also working out their brains.

1. Maths Maze

Maths is a difficult subject for many students, but there are so many ways the learning process can be improved. That’s why we are proud to provide our maths maze, an activity that combines fitness and outdoor activity with learning and mental challenges. The maths maze teaches children great math skills while also helping them burn off all that energy – it’s a great playground game for children who struggle to sit still for long periods of time in class and is a great form of interactive learning.  

2. Premium Roadway

What better way to teach children the rules of the road than through our premium roadway markings? The road is something all children need to learn how to stay safe on and our premium roadway helps them learn this. What’s more, it can be used for fitness too as children can run around it or learn how to safely ride their bikes on the road by using the markings as a practice point.

3.What’s the Time Mr Wolf?

A great active game for younger children, while also teaching them how to tell the time, What’s the Time Mr Wolf? Is a fun activity for many children. This game is a great way to keep kids active as it requires them to run away from the ‘wolf’. If there are students in your class struggling with telling the time, this game is a fantastic exercise to help them understand more easily.  

4. Piggy in the Middle

An excellent game for improving cognitive function and reflexes, Piggy in the Middle is an active game that also works the brain. By using our Piggy in the Middle playground markings, you can enjoy playing a few games of piggy in the middle and watch as the children interact with each other, act quickly, run around, and (most importantly) have fun!

5. Twister

This is an old-school game that everyone has heard of and is an easy way to stay fit and encourage children to stretch and develop their muscles. It may not be the most active of games we have mentioned, but it certainly helps children develop their strength, core muscles, balance, and coordination.

How Parents Can Use These Games at Home

In celebration of National School Sports Week, it’s important that we also encourage the parent’s out there to provide outdoor play and exercise opportunities for their children throughout the week. If you’re a parent and you’re wondering how to keep your kids fit at home, you can use any of the activities mentioned above – all you need is a space of concrete and a big piece of chalk! Get drawing and perhaps even create your own creative outlines, trails, or games to keep your kids active on a daily basis.

Get Involved Today!

Whatever you do, we hope you will get involved in National School Sports Week and encourage your children, students, or family members to join in too! Promoting fitness is extremely important to work towards a healthy way of life, good mental health, and a better quality of life. We hope our playground game suggestions have given you some great ideas and will encourage you to get outside and get active!

Join Our Playground Design Competition

To help unleash the imaginations of young people throughout schools in the UK, our team at Designs & Lines have launched a children’s playground design competition. So, if you have a great idea for a playground game, why not design it and send it in to our team by following the submission guidelines here.

For more information about playground games, give our team at Thermo Plastic Designs and Lines a call today.