• fading and discoloration,
• thinning of the top course through the loss of granules around high traffic areas
• peeling off of shredded rubber when using a bonded rubber

Faded rubber without roll coat

Restored with roll coat applied to rubber playground surface

Read the rest of this story here- restore faded darkening rubber playground surfacing with a roll coat layer , where we’ll be migrating all of our content.

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One of the best ways to stretch your playground budget is by having a community build… You’ll find the complete  article at our new site dedicated to playground planning We can’t have duplicate copy out there, so we’re saving the good tips for tips and tools for saving thousands and installing your community playground. Considering installations run between 25-40% of your total budget, it can be a disappointment to know that $6000 of a $10000 budget actually goes toward the equipment, while the rest is applied to installation/shipping/mulch/borders/taxes, etc. Those who work on a community built playground project gain a sense of ownership and responsibility toward the finished project, and the pride felt by the volunteers in their accomplishment translates into pride toward the school or the community. You’d be surprised the number of people willing and able to put their tools & efforts to work.

Unfortunately, the major power tools should be left at home.

Related posts:

1. Must-Have List for Designing Your Playground
2. The Sensory Rich Playground
3. Definitive List of Playground Grants and Fundraisers

Read the complete story here: Playground Safety in Georgia, what do you need to know?  While the national safety standards for playground equipment as established by ASTM and CPSC are still considered as “voluntary standards”, each state may have its own criteria. The Childinjurylawyerblog has a great summary of Georgia daycare center playground rules and regulations.

You can download the Georgia Daycare Center Playground Area Standards here. The outdoor play area requirements begin on page 3.

Related posts:

1. FAQ’s for Accessible Playgrounds–Are They Enforceable?
2. How Can We Compare These Playground Designs?
3. The Sensory Rich Playground

As law, no they haven’t been enforced–yet.  The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. In 2000, the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board issued a final rule in the form of accessibility guidelines to serve as the basis for standards to be adopted by the Department of Justice for new construction and alterations of play areas by the ADA.–as from the National Program for Playground Safety website.

Please visit our post on Accessible Playgrounds – What are They and What’s Enforceable?

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1. Are there Georgia safety standards for public playgrounds?
2. The Sensory Rich Playground
3. Must-Have List for Designing Your Playground

Good design involves balancing your children’s needs, volume, age distribution, developmental aspects, and site conditions. Assess your present space by drawing a rough diagram. Include the seasonal aspects of your layout including sunlight, wind direction, snow/ice/rain. Observe the following:

• type and amount of natural materials
• small vs. large space
• topographical features, e.g. steep slopes, trees, rocks
• shared spaces with other age groups
• shaded area–either hard shelter or shade structure

You’ll need assess the following site conditions:

1. Measure your site and scale to your drawing. Triangulate your area be placing flags that will act as your measuring points, e.g. pt A, pt B, pt C. You’ll then be able to take effective measurements as triangles. Once you have all sides to a triangle, e.g. A to B to C, you’ll be able to calculate your area. The site can be split into rectangles, triangles and circles as you place your flags.

2. Identify all existing elements on the site: paths, trees, shrubs, fencing, buildings, large rocks, drainage, and swales.

3. Identify the plants and trees present and check that are all nontoxic

4. Note any areas affected by the sun, shade, wind, rain, and snow

5. Locate any underground services, such as sewer, water and gas. Any overhead power or phone lines? Any overhanging roof or tree branches?

6. Indicate any natural slopes or valleys

7. Identify any drainage problems

8. Determine if there’s a connection to water for play activities

Operational aspects:

In addition to overall environment, address the folloiwing:

* How will it be financed?

* What are the zoning requirements? What permits are needed?

* Determine the best source for evaluating, and ordering equipment and materials. KorKat can assist with the initial design and specifications for obtaining quotations.

* Consider your installation method–self-install, community build, turn-key installation

* Who will do landscaping and initial site preparation?

The following was adapted from Tracy Theemes’ “Let’s Go Outside! Designing the Early Childhood Playground”

Don’t forget to reference the Fundraising Resources page on the top right tab, for products and resource to help you with your playground fundraiser.  If you are planning a playground in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, or North Carolina and would like additional advice as to making the most of an existing budget, please contact us at www.korkat.com

Related posts:

1. The Sensory Rich Playground
2. 7 Critical Steps for Planning a Playground Layout
3. Save Thousands With a Community Built Playground

1. Organize zones to facilitate play and minimize conflicts, e.g. locate quiet play areas away from active spaces

2. Provide areas that encourage group interaction as well as places from solitary and partner play

3. Avoid putting high-activity zones close to transitional zones

4. Locate compatible play zones close together, e.g. creative play and social play can be placed adjacent

5. Design all play zones for child-initiated activity

6. Locate play areas for toddler and areas involving quiet, creative activities near the entry to building

7. Use low, natural partitions and different surfacing materials to define zones, i.e. EWF hardwood fibers around swings, and pour-in-place rubber surfacing around the playsystem

8. Use space wisely, leaving some areas open. Cluttered playground detracts from children’s explorations and cause injuries

9. Plan zones to take advantage of any prominent or unusual elements, e.g. physical area around a sloped designed for running

10. Be sure that equipment landscaping do not interfere with visual supervision. Adults must have a clear line-of-sight

11. Retain as many existing trees, shrubs, and other landscaping as possible.

12. Locate equipment away from dumpsters, heavy traffic and loud noises. Plant trees or build fences and visual barriers to block nuisances.

13. Make sure site is accessible for maintenance and emergency equipment

14. Use your imagination. Paint stones, create a mural, make hand prints in cement. Cue children through the color, shape and type of materials that this is their place to play.

The following was adapted from Tracy Theemes’ “Let’s Go Outside! Designing the Early Childhood Playground”

If you’re looking for a fundraising partner or program, don’t forget to review the Fundraising Resources pages on the top right tab.  If you are located in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, or North Carolina and would like assistance with designing your playground,  please contact us at www.korkat.com

Related posts:

1. 7 Critical Steps for Planning a Playground Layout
2. The Sensory Rich Playground
3. Must-Have List for Designing Your Playground

Young children learn by using all of their senses, so your playground should offer as many experiences as possible. The more sensory experiences, the more is learned and gained during development.  The playground should include the following sensory areas:

• Visual
• Vestibular
• Tactile
• Kinesthetic/Proprioception
• Auditory

Visual: Adults tend to look at the functional aspect of playgrounds that includes the natural coloration and a traditional theme.  Oft times, the natural looking playground is aesthetic for the adult rather than the child.  It’s rare that the typical child-oriented environment consists of typical natural coloration, i.e. beige, green, brown.  More likely, a playground with a variety of shapes, colors, and forms will offer the most stimulation and improve spatial perception.

Vestibular:
The vestibular system consists of small, liquid-filled tubes in the inner ear and is important in maintaining a child’s sense of balance.  The movement of liquid through these canals produces stimulation of the nervous system. Sensory experiences change every time the head moves in a different direction or at a different speed; this explains children’s great enjoyment of whirling, spinning, swing, or being tossed in the air.   During the first years, children’s vestibular systems are very receptive to even small amount s of stimulation, and slight variations in speed and direction have a substantial effect on balance.  The vestibular system works with the senses of touch and vision as well as sensations from the joints and muscles to help children orient themselves in space.  When children go down a slide, for example, they both feel and see themselves moving downward through space.  by about the age of 8, the sensory-motor development of children is well established.

Tactile:
This involves the entire surface do f the body as children experience changes in texture and temperature through their sense of touch.  in the outdoor setting, nature alone provide s children with a  great variety of interesting texture to explore.  building snow sculptures, digging in dirt, rolling in grass, and tending a garden provide excellent opportunities for children to gain an appreciation of the natural world thorough their sense of touch.  Weather conditions also provide natural tactile sensations as children feel the rush of the wind, the warmth of ht sun, or the nip of the cold on their skin.  you can extend and enrich children’s tactile explorations by providing water, sand and other sensory materials.

Kinesthetic/Proprioception:
The kinesthetic sense detects body position, weight, and movement of the muscles, tendons, and joints.  This sense influences children’s eye-hand and eye-foot coordination. Children develop spatial awareness by using their bodies to experiment withe the relationship of self to the environment.  you can give children opportunities to do this by providing equipment and materials for them to climb on, crawl under, jump over, and hang from. children also like to hid in small spaces, crouch in corners, and squeeze backwards through holes as they experiment with moving their bodies in many different ways.

Auditory:
the outdoor setting provides tan array of sounds if only we take the time to listen.  help children focus on an d identify the different sounds around, such as children shouting, birds chirping, leaves crunching, dogs barking, and street sounds around them.  children’s auditory experience is enhanced as they hear and listen for new sounds in the outdoors.  children should be encouraged to use their outside voices to sing, shout, and make whatever noises they wish.

Adapted from Tracy Theemes’ “Let’s Go Outside! Designing the Early Childhood Playground”

Don’t forget to reference the Fundraising Resources page on the top right tab, for products and resource to help you with your playground fundraiser.  If you are located in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina and would like specific design ideas and playground equipment suggestions, please contact us at www.korkat.com

Related posts:

1. 7 Critical Steps for Planning a Playground Layout
2. Must-Have List for Designing Your Playground
3. 14 Layout Considerations for your Playground Design

Before choosing the actual layout for your playground, it’s helpful to have an overall plan or design for the placement of furnishings.  You will want to organize the space in a way that will promote physical and social play while minimizing conflicts.  The following is called the zoned approach and was outlined in Esbenson in his book “The Early Childhood Playground: An Outdoor Classroom”. Similar to the way a classroom is arranged  into specific areas or centers, small groupings of functionally separate outdoor play areas called zones can enrich children’s interaction withe the equipment, nature, adults, and one another.  Instead of having one large, central structure that attempts to provide a variety of experiences and activities for children, each zone includes several smaller, related activities and pieces of equipment. This allows more active play areas to be separated from areas that involve less noisy creative of manipulative activities and can help minimize the tendency for louder, bigger boys to dominate a play structure.
Esbenson outlines seven distinct zones:

1. Transition zone: The area between your building and thee playground or between different play zones.  This area allow children time  and space to decide where they want to go as they enter the playground.  This can include open space, or seating areas.

2. Manipulative/Creative Zone: Although a place for large-motor activities, fine-motor activities can also be promoted outside.  The zone can include a table, ease with paints, or panels with manipulatives.

3. Projective/Fantasy Zone: This area is filled withe materials to fuel children’s imaginations: crates of plastic animals, loose parts, stacks of blocks, and buckets of toy bulldozers.  Locate water and sand nearby.

4. Focal/Social Zone: Although an action-oriented space, this area fosters a sense of community, a place where children can sit and talk with their peers, share a discovery or simply observe.  Picnic tables, benches, shaded area, or large stones.

5. Social/dramatic Zone: Dramatic play offers a safe arena to try out new roles.  A playhouse with sensory panels, play car, play fort, trike track with stations and signs, can stimulate all kinds of language and social play.  Add some props from in-doors too, e.g. costumes, etc.

6. Physical Zone: This area includes activities that can’t be included indoors.  children can develop climbing skills, strengthen their muscles, and improve balance and coordination.  The equipment in this zone should allow for many different uses and stimulate the imagination as well as encourage physical activity.   Plan open areas, as some of the best physical activity – running, walking, jumping, rolling–requires no equipment. equipment such as a toss-up goal, stenciled areas, and trike tracks are important elements.  The equipment must be age-appropriate and scaled to the developmental abilities of the children using it.  The structures are so high that children need assistance, or so low that they misbehave and abuse it, accidents  both minor and sever are sure to occur.

7. Natural element zones: Sand, grass, nontoxic plants, flowers, and trees are an important part of children’s outdoor exploration, and certainly your entire outdoor space should contain a variety of natural elements.
The following was adapted from Tracy Theemes’ “Let’s Go Outside! Designing the Early Childhood Playground”

Don’t forget to reference the Fundraising Resources page on the top right tab, for products and resource to help you with your playground fundraiser.  If you are located in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina and would like assistance in planning and designing an early childhood playground, please contact us at www.korkat.com

Related posts:

1. 14 Layout Considerations for your Playground Design
2. The Sensory Rich Playground
3. Must-Have List for Designing Your Playground

Be sure your playground incorporates as many play experiences as possible.  Remember, it isn’t always the number of play events that are on a play structure that make it a good value, but the value of the play itself.

As an example, let’s compare Playground A vs.  Playground B

Playground A contains a 3 foot slide three-foot climber 4 foot slide and eight activity panels for a total of 11 activities. Playground B has the same three foot slide and climber, but also a six foot 360° slide and an eight foot slide and climber;  instead of monkey bars a spinning device; and tow rock climbers.  Although B only has 10 activities and costs $1750 more, it is without question, the better value.  Why? Children have slides and climbers at three different deck heights on Playground B.  It also has motion incorporated; and imaginative play that accompanies the unique climbing experience of the Climbing wall.  Although Playground A has more activities and costs less seven of those activity panels don’t compel kids to return.  Don’t forget to reference the Fundraising Resources page on the top right tab, for products and resource to help you with your playground fundraiser.  If you are located in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina and would like additional advice as to making the most of your existing playground budget, please contact us at www.korkat.com

Related posts:

1. The Sensory Rich Playground
2. Must-Have List for Designing Your Playground
3. 7 Critical Steps for Planning a Playground Layout

Here are a few ideas to help make the most of your hard-earned funds.  As an example, here’s how your funding will normally break down with a typical turn-key project:

Description	Percentage
Equipment	60%
Installation	28%
Playground Borders	7%
Mulch/In-fill	10%
Taxes/Shipping	5%
Total	100%

1. Sales promotions- Make sure that you’re able to take advantage of any of several substantial sales taking place throughout the year.  Discounts range from 20%-30% & may include free items!!
2. Community Build-The next largest portion of your budget is given to installation.  We can provide the option to supervise your project if you have a committed group of volunteers willing to donate their weekend, tools, & their sweat (only consider for projects >$14000)
3. Self-install- Playland offers detailed instructions intended for the layman with no experience installing playground equipment.  Our industry partners choose Playland for their explicit instructions and ease of installation.
4. Lease Option- Installment payment options are available for those with cashflow variances.  This is a suitable alternative to Phased-in projects.
5. DIY mulch/in-fill & borders- We’ll let you know how much mulch is necessary to meet today’s safety standards so you can shop your local providers.  Borders are largely just a containment for your in-fill and there are several options that can be purchased locally including: wood, conduit, rubber, playground timbers.

If you are located in Georgia/Alabama/Tennessee/North Carolina and would like additional advice as to making the most of an existing budget, please contact us at www.korkat.com

Related posts:

1. How Can We Compare These Playground Designs?