• December 13, 2022

     

    Good Morning Everyone,

     

    Thank you for another great week, the warmth I felt from working at Maplewood truly offset the cold I felt shooting hoops in the rain!

     

    I will be continuing to send monthly newsletters highlighting what we worked on from the previous week. As always, you are welcome to check out our if you ever need a quick game idea or new recess option. For an even more extensive resource, you can also download our complete

     

    Feel free to reach out to this email at any time if you need any Playworks assistance, and I look forward to my return on 1/9!

     

     

    Recess Highlights

    I am wowed by how quickly the students have been picking up our positive language initiative! Shout out to all staff, I heard so many “Good job, nice try’s” out there this week, y’all have been doing great reinforcing these updates! I mainly spent my recess time working with the junior coaches as they fit into their leadership roles, with them teaching me better ways to play some games and taking charge organizing some stellar games! 

     

    Class Game Times

    This week we took a multifaceted approach to our game time. We started off our time with an indoor recess game, Rhythm Maker. This game is an old favorite of mine that I loved to pull out in the classroom when my kids needed a brain break, while also being a fun way to challenge their focusing skills! 

    Our other game slot was built on group support and encouragement through a Jump Rope running activity; we either had students jump over the “snake” for K-2, or run through the spinning rope for 3-5. This was a great game to practice bravery and risk taking in a safe setting while also giving kids a chance to boost up their peers with some awesome group cheering!

     

    Junior Coaches

    Shout out to our Junior coaches this week! I had a great time working with them all as they fit into their new roles. I saw them make so many positive interactions, especially with younger students, and they were very eager to take control with group instruction and management techniques! 

    Teachers, let’s try to remind our students to look for the purple shirts if they need any help with starting some group games!

     

    Recess Team

    And of course, shout out to the recess team for keeping up our Playworks plans. Your continued adaptability has been so helpful to our big changes, I wanted to give a giant thank you for jumping in so readily! As we discussed in our meetings, the game posters are ready for lamination, hopefully recess can become even smoother as we set up more clearly defined stations!

     

    That’s all for now, thank you again, 

     

    Alex