We’re excited to share that we’re standing strong in our support of parks and recreation professionals with the launch of the 15th Annual State Speaker Scholarship program. The 2023-2024 scholarship program is about bringing in amazing keynote speakers—experts in topics like play, inclusion, equity, urban parks planning or any professional development—to state parks and recreation associations’ annual or regional conferences.
So, what’s in it for the lucky recipients of the 2023-2024 scholarship? They will receive $3,000 to support the appearance of these remarkable speakers at the conferences. We’ve increased the parks and recreation speaker scholarship amount to ensure that these conferences are filled with insightful discussions and eye-opening presentations.
The application is open! You can apply for a scholarship until May 31, 2024, to support a brilliant speaker at your conference. Head on over to playlsi.com/speaker-scholarship/ to fill out the application today!
Let’s take a moment to reflect on the impact this scholarship program has made over the years. Since 2009, we’ve awarded 350 scholarships totaling over $867,000 for speakers at national conferences.
It’s time to take action. Apply now to bring an inspiring, challenging speaker to your conference. Head over to playlsi.com/speaker-scholarship/ and fill out that application. This is just one more opportunity to get and stay connected through play and recreation.
Commercial playground equipment is an investment that brings joy and play opportunities to children. To ensure its longevity and safety, regular maintenance is crucial. Explore five playground maintenance tips below to help you keep your playgrounds in top shape.
Inspect and Clean Regularly: Perform routine inspections to identify any signs of wear, loose bolts or damage. Clean the equipment regularly to remove dirt, debris and potential hazards. This not only enhances the appearance but also prevents corrosion and extends the lifespan of the equipment.
Address Repairs Promptly: Don’t delay repairs when issues are identified. Attend to loose parts, broken components or damaged surfacing immediately. Timely repairs prevent further damage and minimize potential safety risks. Keep a record of repairs and create a schedule for regular maintenance tasks. Learn how to do this by scheduling a Learning Academy session about Maintaining Safe Play Environments.
Follow Manufacturer Guidelines: Refer to the manufacturer’s guidelines for playground maintenance tips or instructions specific to your playground equipment. Adhering to these guidelines ensures that you’re using the appropriate cleaning agents, tools and techniques for your equipment. It also helps preserve any warranties that may be in place.
Educate Users and Supervise: Educate playground users including children and caregivers on the proper use and care of the equipment. Encourage safe play practices and discourage behaviors that could lead to damage or injury. Additionally, having vigilant supervision can help identify any misuse or potential hazards quickly.
Playgrounds offer learning and growth opportunities, not just fun and physical activity. Incorporate educational elements into your playground designs to foster cognitive, social and physical development. Explore some effective ways to infuse educational playground designs into your school, childcare or community playgrounds below.
Themed Playground Structures
Consider incorporating educational playground design themes into the design of your playground environment. Whether it’s a nature-inspired structure or a space-themed play area, themed elements can spark children’s imagination and encourage imaginative play. Themed playground components like climbing walls resembling mountains and entire structures offer endless learning possibilities.
Alphabet and Number Panels
Integrate alphabet and number panels into your playground. These play panels, installed on walls or integrated into climbing structures, help children learn letters and numbers as they play. Encourage interactive learning by incorporating sensory elements, such as different textures and braille.
Musical Play Equipment
Including musical elements like our Rhapsody® Outdoor Musical Instruments in your playground can enhance auditory skills and creativity. Install a selection of chimes, metallophones and drums to engage children in musical exploration. These features encourage collaboration, rhythm recognition and the development of fine motor skills.
Science and Nature Zones
Create dedicated spaces where children can explore scientific concepts and nature. Incorporate planters for gardening, sensory paths for tactile experiences and weather stations to teach about climate. By encouraging hands-on learning, you can foster curiosity and a deeper understanding of the natural world.
Sensory Play Stations
Incorporate sensory play elements into your playground design. Sand play like fossil digs, water play areas, and interactive sensory walls stimulate children’s senses and promote cognitive development. Sensory play encourages problem-solving, fine motor skills and social interaction.
Storytelling and Reading Nooks
Designate areas for storytelling and reading within the playground. Install benches, small libraries or even mini amphitheaters where children can gather for storytime. We also love incorporating Talking is Teaching panels from Too Small to Fail into the playground design. Story trails along a walking path also encourage children and caregivers to talk, read and sing with each other. Encouraging literacy in a playful environment fosters a love for reading and language development.
Incorporating educational elements into your community, childcare and school playground designs create an enriching play space for children. Themed playstructures, alphabet panels and outdoor musical instruments are a few examples of how to infuse learning opportunities into the playground. Remember to consider age-appropriate designs and create an inclusive play environment that caters to children of all abilities. The combination of play and education will not only ignite children’s creativity and curiosity, but also provide a foundation for their lifelong love of learning.
At Landscape Structures, we see connections made every day. Everywhere. This is the beauty of play. An extraordinary opportunity for interaction and imagination. Coordination and cooperation. Freedom and fun. Play lets us connect to who we are and see our wonder amplified in the connections we make. That’s why, in everything we do, we celebrate the beauty of play.
We are proud to lead the conversation about the power of play with our videos. Watch the trilogy of Shaped by Play below.
The beauty of play is that it’s not just play at all. It’s magic. An opportunity to make connections. Use our social media toolkit to share your story of how play has helped you make connections throughout your life.
2022 has been an amazing year… filled with great people, designs and products. See the best of 2022 Landscape Structures in the form of our most-read blog posts.
3. A cost-effective, simple approach to building community splash pads Our AquaSmart™ Packages are self-contained splash pads that are powered by HydroLogix®, which eliminates the need for costly electrical installation and allows you to install one just about anywhere.
4. Delivering adventure with playground towers The best way to create adventure-filled play experiences for kids of all ages and abilities is to look for playground designs that encourage the progression of the play experience.
5. Welcoming and supporting all with Universal Design Our design philosophy at Landscape Structures is heavily influenced by the tenets of Universal Design, a theory of design that strives to make environments more usable, safer and healthier for all.
Thank you for tuning in to Together We Play in 2022. We’re looking forward to an exciting year of play; tell us below what you’d like to see more of in 2023 and we’ll do our best to share it here.
Collaborating with you this year has been a joy and a privilege. We are inspired by the work you’re doing to bring amazing play spaces to communities around the world. Thank you for your continued support. The work we’re doing together is helping bring together children of all ages, abilities and backgrounds for play.
Wishing you and yours the happiest of holidays from all of us at Landscape Structures, Aquatix and SkyWays.
Modern day merry-go-rounds attract kids of all ages and abilities. But why are kids so fascinated with spinning activities? Because it’s one of the core movements that engages the vestibular system. When a child twists and turns on playground spinners their brain receives signals to help control movement and balance. Even more, playground spinners offer developmental benefits including social and cooperative play.
We understand that kids discover their world and how to be successful in it through sensory play. And the more sensory-rich play experiences kids are presented with, the more they can fully develop a wide array of skills necessary to engage, change and impact the world around them.
Adding multi-user playground spinners to playground designs is a great way to expand play spaces and freshen up the play experience. Best of all, while kids whirl and twirl their day away, they’re receiving developmental benefits like building an array of motor, cognitive and social/emotional skills.
Try placing one spinner or multiple together to create a play zone filled with thrilling experiences that are great for kids of all ages and abilities. The Revi™ products including the ReviRock™ Bouncer, ReviWheel™ Spinner and ReviWhirl™ Spinner are a great option for this. Designed with inclusion in mind, all three Revi products are designed at transfer height, offer multiple ways to hang on, and provide plenty of room for kids of all abilities to lay down, sit, kneel or stand as they experiment with the motion.
When children play together, they develop in ways that they couldn’t alone. That’s why we develop multi-user spinners that combine the sensory input of spinning and social interaction among peers. Even better, many of these products like the We-Go-Round®, OmniSpin® Spinner and WhirlyQ® Spinner are inclusive to individuals of all ages and abilities.
Learn more about how certain types of play may shape children’s development by requesting our whitepaper, Shaped by Play: How Play Types Impact Development. Our observational research with the University of Minnesota examines whether certain types of developmentally significant play are best supported by certain playground components.
The 2022 Legacy of Play Contest in partnership with Kiwanis International is open for applications! This is the ninth year we’ve partnered with Kiwanis to offer this contest, which awards one Kiwanis club US$25,000 in commercial playground equipment to be used toward a Landscape Structures playground project.
The Legacy of Play Contest helps Kiwanis clubs achieve their goal of bringing play to all children. See the timeline below, and review questions, read the official contest rules and submit your entry at kiwanis.org:
Entry Period. Connect with your local Kiwanis club and have them submit an entry now until Sept. 10.
Voting Period. All eligible entries will be open to public vote beginning Sept. 18. Encourage your community to vote!
Selection Period. The top 10 finalists from the public vote will be reviewed by a jury of past winners, members and more.
Winner Announcement. We, along with Kiwanis International, will announce the winner of this year’s contest on or around Oct. 13.
We’re happy to offer all 2022 Legacy of Play Contest entrants a complimentary ReviWheel™ Spinner, ReviWhirl™ Spinner OR ReviRock™ Bouncer, all of which were designed with inclusion in mind, if they continue on with their playground plans with Landscape Structures. Stay tuned for more details post-entry period.
Partner with the Kiwanis club in your community to apply for the 2022 Legacy of Play Contest and make your playground project a reality! Use the Club Finder to connect with local Kiwanis members, or contact your local Landscape Structures playground consultant to help introduce you.
Playgrounds and outdoor play do so much more than expend a child’s excess energy. Playing on a playground teaches children self-regulation, how to handle stressful situations, and increase self-confidence and self-esteem. Including adventure-filled playground designs that test and challenge children of all ages and abilities increases these benefits.
We are aware of the importance of designing challenge into our playground products as well as overall playground environments. Our team of playground designers, conceptors, sculptors and artists work with clients to create playgrounds that offer exciting and challenging play activities to not only entice children to participate and be active but help them to fully develop a wide array of skills.
Creating adventure-filled play experiences
The best way to create adventure-filled play experiences for kids of all ages and abilities is to look for playground designs that encourage the progression of the play experience. Playground towers like the Alpha® Tower and Alpha Link® Towers, Super Netplex®, PlayOdyssey® Tower or custom options like the Hedra® Towers all offer a variety of ground-level play components, plus deliver multiple climbing opportunities that take kids as high as they’d like as well as slide options along the way. Each of these playground towers help kids gain confidence through repeated and slow exposure to new challenges.
Additionally, the Super Netplex provides an inclusive play experience with an easy way to transfer and an accessible route to the top of the highest tower via its center spiral belting. Kids of all abilities can enjoy the view, hang out with friends and take whooshy rides down one of the playground slides.
The research shows that if children are not provided with challenging play opportunities they may be more prone to problems such as mental health concerns, a lack of independence, and a decrease in learning, perception and judgment skills. Learn more about how to create adventure-filled playground designs using our various playground towers at playlsi.com. And learn more about balancing safety and challenge in playground design by requesting our whitepaper.
We are excited to announce the 14th Annual Parks and Recreation State Speaker Scholarship Program has launched! The 2022-2023 program will support the appearances of keynote speakers at state parks and recreation associations’ annual or regional conferences. State associations that are chosen will receive a scholarship of $2,500. Applications are being accepted now through June 30, 2023; submit your application today!
Since the scholarship program’s inception in 2009, Landscape Structures has awarded more than 300 scholarships to state associations and nearly $800,000 to support the appearances of speakers at parks and recreation conferences throughout the nation.
