Monday Morning Musings: A Playful Interlude

Principal ponderings...

As the daughter of a retired Latin teacher, I am a lover of words. I was raised to break words down and find the Latin roots. Some kids sat in church playing word searches or quiet puzzles. My siblings and I spent time searching for words that could be broken down and puzzled over what you could create when you put different Latin roots together. That's pretty normal, right?

I titled this post 'A Playful Interlude' and I want to first break down the word interlude. It comes from the Latin root 'inter' which means "between", "together", "in the midst", "mutually." It also comes from the Latin word 'ludo' which means "I play." We know interlude to mean the pause between the acts of a play, an intermission, a recess. When planning to write about the feedback from Global School Play Day, this amazing word, "interlude," kept popping into my head. There is certainly a lot of playing on words that I can do with it!

If we take the roots and define it straight from them, we get "together I play." Wednesday was an amazing day as together as an entire school, we played. Play day happened to fall on a Wednesday in the middle of the week....an in between play day, an interlude that we all seemed to need and enjoy.

It was great to reflect on the day and hear from many of you. So many of you had the same observations! Here's what we noticed when we let kids enjoy unstructured play...

Kids who are typically more shy and introverted were talking, laughing, playing with different peers.
Kids had no problem combining materials, games, toys to create something new together.
Many of you noticed that dismissal was quiet and calm...the kids were tired and relaxed from working hard at playing all day!
Everyone was respectful to each other.
Kids stepped out of their comfort zones.
Some teachers noted students taking a lot less bathroom trips. (Wondering if our nurse visits were less too?)
Kids began playing based off of friends they wanted to play with, but by the end of the day were choosing the activity over the friend group so they played with a different peer group.
Students were teaching each other and teaching the teachers how to play different games.
Tons of student to student communication.
Kids were taking turns without any adult interventions.
Kids were challenging each other without any adult interventions.
Kids were creating without any adult interventions.
Teachers reported learning so much more about individual kids by observing them playing.
Kids brought in all different toys and games from home and had no problem sharing with others.
Kids were playing in all areas of the school, including the hallways, pods, stairwells.
Older kids loved playing with play doh!
Kids were able to brainstorm or plan how they hoped the day would go: wanted everyone to be included, wanted to learn new games, wanted to have enough time to do everything they wanted to do
The kids themselves reflected and reported that they learned new games, played with different friends, and many shared that it was "the best day ever!"

With what we learned and observed during our 'playful interlude' last week, how can we replicate this on regular school days and during different lessons? I challenge everyone to take what you learned and figure out how to incorporate play into our daily learning. The benefits of students learning through play are so numerous, it only makes sense to have way more play than just one day a year. Of course, I don't expect it to look the same as Global School Play Day, but seeing what happens when we give kids choice, when we let them choose who to collaborate with, when we give them creative freedom, when we let them do the talking...we have so much we can learn from "just a day of playing."

I think we should plan for another full day of unstructured play in the future. I used to think the day before a vacation would be good, but now I am thinking the day we return from April vacation might be a great day to have some more unstructured play. We saw how excited kids were to get into school last week on play day...what if we could get them that excited to return from vacation week?!

How will you incorporate play in the learning happening in your classroom this week?

Currently reading:
I am currently reading a new memoir called Ordinary Hazards written in verse by Nikki Grimes. I have had the chance to see Nikki present a few times. I love her poetry she creates. She spent time in foster care growing up so her beginning poems in the book tell that story. It's an interesting read after finishing up The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog. Nikki experienced trauma as a child, but is now telling the story of her childhood and doing it through poetry.

This weekend we visited Tatnuck Bookstore in Westborough because a local author was there signing her new picture book. Payson Hendrix is a middle school teacher in Shrewsbury, and she is a friend of mine. Her daughter went to the same home daycare as my daughter. While the two girls played in the store, I got Payson to sign a copy of her new book. And she's working on another one! Fingers Aren't Food is a funny read that has a laugh out loud ending.

And as a leadership team, the district leaders are reading Unconscious Bias in Schools. I have just started this one, but it is definitely pushing me and challenging me to think about unconscious racial bias and how that affects my interactions with students, staff and families.

Events this week:
Monday - Happy 100th Day of School! Mrs. Garden will be a 1st grader for the day, no office day! 100th Day K Parade at 9:15
Tuesday - Grade 5 Committee Meeting @ 5:30 in the library, Grade 5 Boys' and Girls' Night 6:30-7:30
Wednesday - Liz and Laurie Coe at CPI Training all day @ Glenwood, Computer Programming w/Scratch 3:30-5:00 in the green pod, Girls Who Code 3:30-4:30 in the library
Thursday - PTA Bagel Breakfast from 7:45-8:50, Liz at Curriculum Meeting from 7:45-10:00, Holden Grange visiting 3rd Grade from 1:15-2:15
Friday - Happy Valentine's Day!
Enjoy a well-deserved winter break!

Great things I noticed last week:

Our 5th graders did such a great job sharing their writing at our Culmination Folktale Writing Event! I was so impressed with their dedication to folktale writing over the 10 weeks. And listening to and reading the fabulous language, creative voice, and interesting storylines made me so proud of our young authors!
I love talking about writing instruction! Definitely enjoyed listening in to discussions about reading like a writer and what teachers were noticing in different non fiction texts.
I took so many pictures during Global School Play Day and then everyone sent me so many as well! Here's just a random mix of pictures. It was such a wonderful day at Mayo!
Saturday night at the Railers Game was a ton of fun! The 4th and 5th graders did an awesome job singing before the game. Students got to sit on the bench during warm ups. People got pictures with Ricky Duran! And so many families had fun cheering on the Railers!