Education United States Project #5995

Improve Outcomes for Pacific NW Kids through Play

by Playworks

Improve Outcomes for Pacific NW Kids through Play

Project Report | Aug 15, 2017
6 Ways to Improve Kids' Social Skills at Recess

By Beth Kimberly | Playworks Marketing

What happens when you approach the entire day as a lab for social learning?

Matt Harris, a principal at a Playworks school, noticed, “In the classroom, time is structured; it can be hard to gauge empathy or lack thereof in quieter kids. During recess, all students have a voice and all students want to play, whether or not they speak up in class. They demonstrate social and emotional development by how they play together . . . or don’t.”

CASEL identifies social awareness and relationship skills as two core competencies for social learning. Principal Harris sees recess and playtime as important social learning opportunities.

“By tackling empathy at recess, we aren’t just hoping that kids will practice it. We know they do, because we see the difference,” he shared. “Kids are playing more inclusive games, listening to each other, and solving conflicts quickly so the group as a whole can get back to playing.”

Here are six ways you can help kids practice social awareness and relationship skills during recess.

Build Social Awareness:

When students are socially aware, they practice skills like inclusion, respect, compassion, and empathy. To encourage social awareness:

Teach students to play in ways that are inclusive. For example, in a game of foursquare, set the expectation that whoever is serving will rotate out after 3 serves so that more students have a chance to play. Find tips on inclusion here.
Model positive social skills. Join students in a game at recess. Lead by example. Offer high fives, use positive language, and encourage students with a “good job, nice try” when they rotate out. Children will take their social cues from adults.
Use games to teach social skills. Build social awareness through games that encourage students to take the perspective of others, to walk a few steps in someone else’s shoes, or to collaborate as a team. Try Fake Out or Hi, My Name Is.

Build Relationship Skills:

Relationship skills include conflict resolution, cooperation, playing fair, and playing with students from different friend groups or ages. To help students practice relationship skills:

Teach Rock, Paper, Scissors for conflict resolution. Playing Rock, Paper, Scissorsteaches students to resolve disagreements in a way that feels fair without adult intervention.
Teach games that encourage cooperation. Three-lines Basketball teaches the skills used in traditional basketball, but children must cheer on their teammates and work together.
See it in action.
Agree on the rules. Elementary-aged children are learning to follow social norms and appreciate clear expectations. Display rules for popular recess games on the playground.Set the expectation that all students can join games like foursquare and jump rope to encourage students to interact with peers outside of their friend groups.

Want more help building social skills at recess?

Our professional development workshops help teachers and recess staff use games, attention getters, and other hands-on tools to help kids build social skills through play.

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May 15, 2017
Junior Coaches Become Leaders

By Sarah Shaw Dixon | Development Manager

Junior Coaches from Lent Elementary School

Yesterday, we celebrated as the 2016-17 Cohort of 480 Junior Coaches graduated!

The Junior Coach peer mentorship program, one of four components of Playworks programming, focuses on increasing self-confidence, leadership, and conflict resolution skills in 4th and 5th grade students. These upper class students, known as “Junior Coaches”, serve as peer leaders for their classmates and the younger children. Junior Coaches teach games to their classmates and to younger students and, just as important, they model positive language, positive culture, and conflict resolution techniques for the other kids. It is not uncommon on a Playworks playground to hear a 1st, 2nd or 3rd grader say, “I want one of those purple t-shirts,” a reference to the Playworks purple t-shirts worn by Junior Coaches across the country. Younger kids always look up to older kids, and having positive, friendly older kids on the playground and around the school campus is valuable to improving the entire school climate for every student.

Within the Junior Coach cohort, kids are given exercises on conflict resolution and other topics to complete as a team. By thinking and talking within the group and in subgroups, Junior Coaches mentor each other. On the playground, Playworks coaches often assign Junior Coach pairs to teach games, coordinate equipment check-out -- with 200 kids coming onto the playground at once, this task requires strong coordination -- lead cheers and other tasks. It can be intimidating to lead certain tasks alone; working with a supportive teammate builds confidence and respect.

Junior Coach Victoria from Beach Elementary School in Portland shares what she learned this year:

"I have learned to be active and hard working. I also learned to lend a helping hand if someone is struggling."

Links:

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Feb 14, 2017
An Open Letter to America's Kids

By Sarah Shaw Dixon | Development Manager

Playworks’ commitment to safe and healthy play for every kid continues during this time of political transition—and may be needed in some communities now more than ever. Bullying is on the rise across the country, including on playgrounds.

Thankfully, student leaders on our playgrounds take pride in supporting their peers and resolving conflicts respectfully. We are confident that Playworks coaches and school staff trained by Playworks will continue to prevent bullying and exclusion in their schools.

We’re nurturing the values of inclusion, respect, and healthy community in young people who are becoming the engaged citizens and thoughtful leaders of tomorrow.

Playworks has been positively impacting school culture for 20 years, and together we’ll continue to create safe places for kids to play. We aim to impact 3.5 million additional youth by 2020.

In response to recent events, Playworks founder and CEO released the following open letter to America's kids:

Dear Kids of the United States,

It’s been quite a year for us grown-ups in the United States, and it occurs to me that you may be wondering what’s going on. Maybe you’ve noticed many adults in your life having a lot of serious conversations.

The basic story is we haven’t been doing a great job of communicating well with one another. And we grown-ups have to figure out how to do that better.

As I’ve been thinking about how to do that, I realized there is something really important to share with you.

You, America’s children, are far more powerful and influential than you know. There are many historical examples of exemplary kids—like Ruby Bridges and Malala—who helped to change the world for the better. And there are also lots of examples of everyday heroics—like when I got my parents to stop smoking when I was 8. Kids all across our country championed recycling and seat belts before they were popular, defended schoolmates who were being picked on, marched for justice, registered voters and raised huge sums of money for causes they believed in.

In this spirit, I offer three concrete suggestions of things you can do to use your power and influence to help people get along.

#1 Ask Questions. I know some teachers want you to give them the right answers to everything. In life, though, asking the right questions is way more important. If you are wondering about something you’ve heard—on the news, in class, on the playground—ask a grown-up, like a parent, a teacher, a coach, or a librarian—librarians are the superheroes of question-answering. Just by asking questions, you’re making a difference. Questions make people think, and that’s always a good thing.

#2 Play More. Sounds crazy, but you playing well with other kids actually makes the world a better place. The more you play, the more joy is released into the atmosphere, and the more you and your friends learn to solve problems and work together.

#3 Be Kind. This may seem like it couldn’t possibly be that important, but being kind is the single most important thing you can do to make a difference. This small action has an impact way beyond what you imagine because your kindness not only influences the people you’re being kind to, it also affects people who see you being kind and . . . BONUS, the person who benefits most of all from your kindness is you.

All of the grown-ups at Playworks are 100% committed to ensuring that you and kids everywhere have access to daily, safe, and healthy play. Beyond that, we want to make sure that schools are kind and respectful places, where learning and joy happen and where you are able to discover your best selves.

We know you are capable of far more than what grown-ups sometimes believe about you, and that this includes extraordinary leadership. We grown-ups have a lot of work to do to make life in the United States better for everyone, and I, for one, believe we will do a better job if we have your leadership to guide us.

Many thanks for all your help with this. On behalf of the grown-ups, I am so glad you’re here.

Play on,

Jill Vialet
Playworks Founder & CEO

Links:

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