The 5 Key Pieces to Your Gaga Ball Pit Plans

The 5 Key Pieces to Your Gaga Ball Pit Plans

Gaga ball pits for schools are popping up everywhere, and students are racing to play during recess. They provide a low-cost play addition for school districts and a game many students can participate in at once – a win-win for everyone!

As gaga pits have gained popularity, we’ve developed recommendations on how to plan a safe and student-approved gaga pit. Our guide on how to build a gaga pit considers the long-term maintenance and performance of the gaga pit.

For school staff or student-based organizations, our guide offers a starting point for planning a successful gaga pit project that both you and your students will love.

The 5 Steps of Your Gaga Ball Pit Plans

1. Location of the Gaga Pit

When starting your gaga ball pit plans, the first step is deciding where to build the gaga pit. The three location considerations include:

A. Easy to Supervise

While adding another play site is exciting for the students, it’s important that your school’s supervising staff can handle the new responsibility. To make it simple, we suggest adding the gaga pit near your playground and courts where supervisors are already stationed, and away from parking lots and roads.

B. Good Draining Area

The new location should be a level surface (or a space that can easily be leveled) that’s free of pooling water. If your gaga pit has poor drainage, you’ll end up with a messy, unsafe mud pit instead.

C. Away from the Snow Plow’s Path

Make sure your gaga pit is far enough away from where your school snow plows to limit the risk of hitting it during the winter season.

2. Permanent vs Temporary Gaga Pits

When planning your gaga pit, you have the option to choose a permanent or temporary gaga pit.

Benefits of a Permanent Gaga Pit

• Lasts longer because you are not disassembling and moving the gaga pit
• Invest in higher quality, longer lasting outdoor gaga pit flooring (see below)
• Less labor-intensive than temporary gaga pits require moving and installing throughout the year

Benefits of a Temporary Gaga Pit

• Can bring the gaga pit indoors for playing during the colder seasons
• Able to test the location of the gaga pit without installing a permanent pit

3. Type of Gaga Pit Walls

You can use different gaga pit materials to create the walls or borders. The primary differentiator between the options is price and movability (for temporary gaga pits). When starting your gaga ball pit plans, the prices and quality of the walls need to be incorporated into your budgeting.

A few of the wall material options include:

• Composite lumber
• Wood lumber
• Plastic

4. Outdoor Gaga Pit Flooring

Next is deciding on what outdoor gaga pit flooring you want to install. Depending on your school’s budget and safety standards, there are various options.

• Grass
• Asphalt
• Concrete
• Turf / artificial grass
• Poured in place (PIP) rubber
• SafetyFirst’s rubber ImpactMats

5. ADA Accessible Gaga Pits

Similar to your playground and other play areas, accessibility is critical to a school’s gaga ball pit so all students can enjoy it. The features of an inclusive gaga pit include:

• A gate so children with wheelchairs or walkers can pass through the wall
• A route to access the gaga pit, such as a sidewalk or pathway

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