Playworks helps teach students how to play nice

WOODLAND -- Up until about a month ago, recess at Woodland Primary School had more kids bickering, running around and getting sent to the office, according to Nicole Metteer, recess supervisor at the school for kindergarten and first-grade students. But this week, Woodland finished its fourth week working with Playworks, a national nonprofit that works with schools to improve recess by teaching school staff and students games and different ways to play in a more structured recess, how to be more inclusive and how to solve conflict. "I see a lot more kids playing actual games," said Marilyn Paul, an instructional assistant who is out at recess with students regularly. "Before, they were running around aimlessly. There were a lot more chances to get hurt. It was not structured play. There don't seem to be as many incidents now."

Engaging kids

While it's still early in Woodland, district representatives are pleased with what they've seen since bringing Playworks to the primary and intermediate schools, which serve students through fourth grade. "We're seeing the kids more engaged," said Woodland Intermediate School Principal Steven Carney. "There's less clumping up in random areas of the playground, and it gives more options for kids who might have been bored before." District representatives went to a conference in Eugene, Ore., in March 2015 and attended a presentation by Playworks, which is where they first learned about the nonprofit. After some discussion between the district and two schools that would use the program, the district set out trying to secure funding to bring in Playworks. It took about a year, but the district's Parent Teacher Student Associations rounded up about $9,000 so the primary and intermediate schools could attend two days of training with Playworks staff. The money will also bring some Playworks coaches to the two schools in the coming weeks to observe how things are going and offer up suggestions on what to do differently. Woodland teachers and recess staff trained with Playworks on Feb. 16 and 17, learning about different games to play with students and ways to more smoothly transition from lunch to recess and from recess back into the classroom. They also learned conflict resolution methods to teach students, mainly by having them settle disagreements with a game of rock, paper, scissors. "We've been around almost 20 years after starting in two schools in Berkeley, (Calif.)," said Jonathan Blasher, executive director for Playworks' Pacific Northwest division, which is based in Portland. "Principals and teachers have told us that as goes recess, so goes the school day. We heard that with more chaos, more fights are carrying over into the classroom, making the whole day more challenging."

Offering options

Blasher said Playworks is in about 1,000 schools nationwide and works with almost 750,000 kids a year. The Northwest hub, which opened in 2009, works with about 40,000 kids spread out across approximately 100 schools in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Playworks wants to show students how to play more respectfully at recess, and give them options on how to do so, Blasher said. "It's not about saying 'you have to do this,' " he said. "We're giving them just enough guidance and support." On Friday, kindergarten students at Woodland had two Playworks games to play at recess, both games they learned about in their physical education class. One game, Switch, has been a popular addition to the playground, Metteer said. Students stand on one corner of a four-square court with a student in the middle, who yells, "switch." All the students run to another corner, and the student in the middle tries to run to one of the four corners. The students who make it to a corner first stay, and the student left out goes to the back of the line. If there's a close call at a corner, the students "rock it out," with a game of rock, paper, scissors. During a high-energy game of Switch on Friday, the students knew to "rock it out" before Metteer had to jump in and settle any dispute. "The kids have really taken to rock, paper, scissors," said Woodland Primary School Principal Juliann McCarthy. "We've heard the students are even bringing it into the classroom." And that's what the district representatives were looking for when they decided to work with Playworks. That's what Scott Munro has seen at Evergreen Public Schools, which started working with Playworks in May 2013. Munro, the executive director of elementary education in Evergreen, said about 15 of the district's 21 elementary schools have had some form of Playworks training. "Several years back, quite a high number of referrals were coming from the playground," Munro said. "A number of our principals started looking at that very carefully, and hence Playworks is here and our partnership has grown with them in the past couple of years."

Fewer problems

Four schools -- Burton, Crestline, Hearthwood and Sifton elementary schools -- are in the second year of Playworks' "Team Up" model, in which a full-time Playworks coach travels from school to school every week, showing students different games to play and making sure the students all treat each other respectfully during recess. Munro said the district is thrilled with the results they've seen from Playworks. Since working with the nonprofit, Hearthwood has reported a 50 percent decrease in total office referrals, which the school's staff attributes to Playworks. As much as McCarthy and Carney want to see fewer kids sent to their offices, they also want to see their students having fun at recess, and some more structure looks like one way to do that. "When I was a kid, the teachers would come out at recess and supervise, and making sure everyone was playing correctly," McCarthy said. "Recess should be fun, and sometimes it's not fun for kids because it's so confrontational." Carney thinks nudging students in a certain direction during recess to show them how to play will make recess more fun for students. "You have this vast area and you're bringing the kids there and telling them to go do something," he said. "There's no other area of their lives where they're given that much freedom. This is more structured, but still allows them to play like kids."