What to Look For in Park Equipment
What to Look For in Park Equipment
Small slides allow kids to practice balance before moving up to bigger structures. These park items also teach kids to take turns.
Climbers provide kids with different difficulty levels of physical activity. These freestanding structures can be configured in many ways to create unique pathways and structures.
Sandboxes encourage kids to build and dig while expressing their park equipment creativity. These classics are essential for a fun playground.
Site Amenities
Site amenities are the little extras that make a park more comfortable and welcoming for visitors. From benches and picnic tables to trash receptacles, these items give visitors a place to relax and enjoy their outdoor experience, while keeping the park clean and safe.
Adding these elements to your park is an easy way to increase visitors and build community pride in the park. For example, bike racks allow cyclists to lock up their bikes and spend more time exploring the park without having to worry about their bicycle’s safety. Having an adequate supply of trash receptacles throughout the park prevents littering, reduces odor and discourages pest invasions. In addition, our wide selection of outdoor furnishing designs means you can find the right style to match your park’s aesthetic.
While the playground is often the focal point of the park, it’s important to remember that people come to parks for a variety of reasons. Adding site amenities that help people stay longer and explore the park will ensure your park is a popular destination for all ages.
Sensory Panels
Sensory panels consist of groups of trained sensory assessors that characterise and quantify product attributes using objective terminology. They are used as an analytical measurement tool to evaluate products against a pre-agreed attribute list and to compare results from different tests or time periods. They are a great alternative to mechanical testing methods, especially when a high degree of accuracy is required such as when assessing the tenderness of meat samples.
Panels can help people with sensory processing disorders desensitize to tactile textures and materials by offering a range of surfaces to touch. They are also a fun and engaging way to keep kids occupied and focused, perfect for classrooms, medical waiting areas or children’s rooms.
These sensory panels are designed to encourage social interaction between users by having them interact with each other as they complete puzzles, move parts and solve the challenges. Increasing the number of social interactions is beneficial for early childhood development as it can lead to better language, problem-solving and motor skills. They are also a fun addition to play spaces for kids of all ages and abilities, from those who enjoy more physical activities to those who prefer to explore with their sense of sight. A large cabasa allows kids to learn beat patterns and explore sounds, while the vibrations of a vibe help them create their own songs.
Musical Playground Instruments
Whether they’re banging on pots and pans in the kitchen or singing along to lullabies and sing-alongs, kids love music and often show musical aptitude before they’ve even started school. Musical play offers developmental, social and emotional benefits for kids of all ages and abilities, so adding outdoor xylophone playground equipment or a music wall to a park helps families make memories that last a lifetime.
LSI’s Concerto line of musical instruments lets children of all ages and abilities experience the joy of creating music together. Each instrument is designed at an angle and height that’s comfortable for all kids, including those using mobility devices. Kids can experiment with percussion, chimes, melody and harmony to create unique sounds, imagine they’re putting on their own rock concert or composing a symphony.
Landscape Structures’ Rhapsody outdoor musical play instruments invite everyone to join the band and explore the power of rhythm, subtle shifts in tone and ways that individual sound can be creatively combined. The superior collection of metallophones, chimes and drums is ideal for parks, schools, community centers and senior living facilities to encourage intergenerational play that celebrates music. These eye-catching musical interactive sculptures are built to endure rigorous use while maintaining pure pitches and soothing sounds.
Fitness Stations
Park workout equipment offers a cost-effective way for visitors to strengthen their muscles, burn energy and improve flexibility without the expense of a gym membership or the commitment of taking classes. It’s park equipment also a great attraction for seniors and millennials who are increasingly interested in outdoor exercise to combat obesity and sedentary lifestyles.
Choose from a variety of outdoor fitness stations or group training structures to provide an invigorating, full-body workout. Equipment such as dip stations, hyperextension benches and push up bars targets the core, while arc ladders, step-up bars and rowing stations strengthen arms and legs. To increase flexibility, try adding a balance beam or plank to your fitness equipment.
Onsite and video observations of OFE usage at Xihu Park in Taiwan showed that the facilities attracted significant numbers of users during peak hours (early morning and afternoon). The most popular OFE stations were the triple arm stretch and air walker, consistent with prior qualitative studies indicating many seniors use OFE to improve flexibility and alleviate shoulder pain. However, the average duration of OFE use was less than nine minutes per individual, which may not be enough to achieve recommended levels of physical activity.