Play is Powerful!

Principal ponderings...

I came across this slightly depressing headline and took some time to read over this post: https://www.stack.com/a/how-america-killed-play-and-what-we-can-do-to-bring-it-back?fbclid=IwAR026vcyu49HAKkbyeXQX8F7MHBGkhtxS6qjAHRGDMv2KqHEmQD2ozIlqEc

I can't help but think about how I played when I was younger compared to what tends to happen with our students today.  From 2nd grade to 5th grade, I lived on a farm in Ohio.  We lived in a big, old farmhouse and I can remember playing throughout the house, out in the big yard, inside our barn that only housed a dog and cat, and even exploring some of the acres behind our garden.  My mom was not usually with us, we were never in structured programs, and we created lots of grand adventures and acted out wondrous scenes.  We were allowed to play with pretty much zero adult intervention.  Yes, we argued, but we figured out how to solve problems and resolve issues on our own.  Yes, we got hurt and our beyond the garden explorations sometimes ended in one of us having to suffer through poison ivy, but our scratches and bruises healed and we quickly learned to identify the leaves that we needed to steer clear of!  Those years of play in that farmhouse and outside on the land were glorious and I am grateful for those play memories.  In 6th grade, we moved to Virginia Beach.  Slight culture shock to go from a farm where you had to drive to trick or treat because neighbors were miles apart to a cookie cutter neighborhood in a city that was much more modern than the small town we had lived in.  But still I can remember riding my bike and playing outside until it got dark.  I also remember my parents having a giant pile of dirt delivered to our backyard.  Our house was a brand new construction and there was no yard when we first moved in.  Whether they did this on purpose or whether it just happened that they weren't ready to start the yard work, we had that amazing giant dirt pile in our backyard for at least a week.  Every kid in the neighborhood wanted to come play in our backyard!  And our parents let that happen.  We were filthy and needed extra long showers (also an exciting new experience that we never had in our farmhouse), but those uninterrupted, unstructured hours playing in, on, around that giant dirt pile were worth it.

I don't know if all of our students are getting the same unstructured, unscheduled, unsupervised time to play.  I know that many kids are scheduled into lots of after school and weekend activities.  Soccer games, hockey practices, social skills groups, arts and crafts classes, gymnastics sessions, swim lessons, robotics clubs, the list goes on and on.  I know as a parent and a working mom of a child who will soon enter the world of public school, I fear the activities/clubs/sports circuit.  And I worry about how I will be able to help my child enjoy the activities that she might want to be part of.  And the trouble is...this culture of activities and structured time and organized sports is here...hard to go back to the days of play that many of us grew up experiencing.

That's why I am so glad that Global School Play Day exists and is coming up in February...February 5th to be exact.  Of course, it is also a little sad that our society has changed in a way that it's necessary for us remind each other about the importance of play.  The topic of play and the importance of learning through play was actually an agenda item during my conversation with Commissioner Riley last week.  For those of you new to Mayo this year, here is my post last year about Global School Play Day.  Teachers and teams explored this new idea in different ways last year.  Some teams chose to set up classrooms with different types of play and had students rotate through and then used the pod space for building some epic box forts.  Other teachers chose to spend half the day playing and the other half of the day sticking to a more typical schedule.  It's up to you how you want to do it, but I would like to see all of our students have part of their day dedicated to play! (It's also World Read Aloud Day so I am sure there will be lots of read alouds happening as well!)

Here's a clip from Colby Sharp, 5th grade teacher in Michigan, all about his day of play back in 2018.  I definitely recommend that you record parts of the day in some way, either video, photos, or writing about your observations.  You will learn a lot about your students if you give them the freedom to simply...play!

Let me know if you have any questions or need some help planning for Global School Play Day!

I.cannot.wait.

Currently reading:
I am part of a virtual book study with other principals in the state so I just downloaded and started listening to The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog.  Looking forward to learning more about how to help kids in trauma.

I got an early copy of the new I Survived series...the graphic novel version!  Kids are going to love this new format and especially since the first book is all about the Titanic.  It will be available in the March Scholastic Book Fair.

You can't ever go wrong with a Peter Reynolds book, and I love his new one called Be You!  I am excited that many teachers signed up to have me come read to your class over the next few weeks.  I have lots of great read alouds to choose from.

Events this week:
Monday - No School, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Bedtime Story w/Principal Garden @ 7:30
Tuesday - Fit Club @ 8:00am, CST Meeting @ 8:30
Wednesday - Motoko visiting grade 5 classes, Holden Principals host Safety Information Night for parents 7:00pm @ Mountview
Thursday - Fit Club @ 8:00am, Liz at MSAA Board Meetings in Franklin during the day, Parent Teacher Night Out sponsored by Holden PTAs at Recess from 6:00-9:00
Friday - K-3 Early Literacy Writing Grant Team @ Literacy Institute in Worcester all day

Great things I noticed last week:

• 2nd grade classrooms have been transformed into different habitats.  I saw an igloo being built in 2K and students were exploring ocean creatures in 2T! 
  
  
  
  
• I heard lots of students talking about what dreams for the future they had.  I stopped by to hear things like "I dream that all people will be safe" and "I dream that everyone will have a home" from the students in KM. 
  
• I stopped in a 5th grade class to listen to Motoko, our writer in residence, teach the students about writing Haiku riddles to add into their folktales. 
  
• If you have not been down near Liz Hilton's classroom, you must make sure to visit and see the 'House of Joy' that she created with her students! 
  
• And now for your public service announcement for the week...Wash hands, Wipe down surfaces, and Stay healthy! 
  

Check it out:
I wrote an article for Principal Magazine about how I brought co-teaching to my last school: https://www.naesp.org/principal-januaryfebruary-2020-special-education/journey-taken-together
Do you know that you can create a free account on CAST.org and then they have a CAST UDL Exchange page where you can search for lessons/activities that have been designed with UDL principles in mind? Check it out: http://udlexchange.cast.org/home