Parts of a Playground – Equipment Names With a Picture

All 9 pieces of equipment on the diagram

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Start here: 5 you know 5

Slide A sloping chute you slide down from a raised platform. A flatter exit at the bottom slows you down.
Swings Seats hung on chains from a top beam. An A-shaped frame at each end holds the beam up.
Seesaw A long plank balanced on a pivot in the middle. A child sits at each end and they take turns going up and down.
Sandbox A low box filled with sand for digging and building. Also called a sandpit.
Merry-go-round A round platform that spins on a post in the middle. Children hold the bars and push it round.

Other 4

Jungle gym A frame of bars to climb on, hang from and sit on. In British English it is a climbing frame.
Monkey bars A ladder laid flat overhead. You hang by your hands and swing from bar to bar. Safety guides call it a horizontal ladder.
Spring rider A seat shaped like an animal on a big coil spring. It rocks back and forth. Also called a spring rocker.
Protective surfacing The soft layer under the equipment that cushions falls. It may be wood chips, sand, pea gravel or rubber mulch.

How this list was compiled: Read 2026-09-28. (1) U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Public Playground Safety Handbook (Pub. 325), https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/325.pdf : slides (with an exit region), swings and tire swings, seesaws, merry-go-rounds, spring rockers, climbing equipment and arch climbers, upper body equipment such as horizontal (overhead) ladders, composite structures, and protective surfacing (loose-fill such as wood mulch, pea gravel, sand and shredded rubber mulch, or unitary mats). (2) Wikipedia, Playground, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playground : equipment such as the seesaw, merry-go-round, swingset, slide, jungle gym, chin-up bars, sandbox, spring rider and playhouses; rubber mulch on the ground to cushion falls. (3) Wikipedia, Jungle gym, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungle_gym : a climbing frame in British English; monkey bars as the part where a child hangs and swings between horizontal bars. (4) Wikipedia, Sandpit, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandpit : sandbox. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site by script, 2026-09-28. Own work, nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

These are the parts of a playground: the playground equipment names, each on one piece of a drawn playground. Start with the 5 most children already know.

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The five you know

The slide comes down off the top of the jungle gym. The swings hang from a top beam, the seesaw rocks on a pivot, the sandbox holds sand for digging, and the merry-go-round spins on a post.

The rest

The jungle gym is a frame of bars to climb. The monkey bars are a ladder laid flat overhead, crossed hand over hand. The spring rider rocks on a coil spring. Under it all, the protective surfacing cushions falls.

Other names for the same thing: a seesaw is a teeter-totter, a sandbox a sandpit, a jungle gym a climbing frame.

Questions and answers

What are the bars you swing across called?

Monkey bars. Safety guides call them a horizontal or overhead ladder: a ladder laid flat above your head that you cross by hanging from your hands.

What is the ground under a playground called?

Protective surfacing. It is a soft layer that cushions falls, such as wood mulch, sand, pea gravel, shredded rubber or rubber mats, laid under and around the equipment.

What is a spring rider?

A seat shaped like an animal, often a horse, fixed on a big coil spring so it rocks back and forth when you ride it. Safety guides call it a spring rocker.