Carpenter Courier
January 25, 2018
Principal's Corner
Dear Carpenter Parents,
It's a new year and with a new year comes new excitement, goals, and hopes. Even though it's a new year, we've launched right back into where we left off before holiday break and our students are back in the groove of structured learning activities and engagement. It's amazing how quickly the school year goes by and to see candy hearts on this newsletter (thanks, Mrs. Petrielli) helps to remind me that February is almost here already.
This month, I shared with the students that a great way to start the new year was to set a goal about being responsible. It tied in nicely with our cultural/societal goal-setting that typically accompanies the start of a new year. I'm hoping that you are talking to your children at home about ways they can demonstrate more responsibility at home. This coming month is another great theme: Playing Fair February. Our themes continue to align with our Second Step Lessons. Although the lessons may not directly be taught in Second Step in the month of February, Second Step covers playing fair, fair ways to play, playing fairly on the playground, and solving playground problems throughout the grade levels.
As you can imagine, many of my discipline conversations with students involve something that has occurred at recess. I'm sure our teachers, Mrs. Lech, and I know Mrs. Campbell, our school social worker, would support me when I say that many of their conversations with our students have centered around recess activities. I certainly don't want to feel old, but when I think back to our childhood, we often had to learn to make up games, make the rules on our own, referee ourselves, and come to some type of fair consensus on a disagreement (Rock, paper, scissors anyone)? As we became older and had our own children, seemingly more structured opportunities became available and our children have become more scheduled, more on structured teams and lessons, and typically have adults telling them what to do, how to play, and the rules for the activities. We could have a long discussion about all of the benefits of such opportunities, but one disadvantage that I've seen in my years in schools is that children are having more difficulties when left to their own devices when playing with others without adults guiding them. We get to see how this all plays out at recess. We have our athletes, our rule followers, our less athletic, "I just want to play" students, our imaginative, our "I need a break" students, and our social students. I thought for some humor and some insight into our school recesses, I'd include the Top 10 Statements that I've made to some of our students for perspective:
10. Your soccer game is not for the World Cup, it's for fun; it's recess.
9. He just wanted to play in the game - if he doesn't understand the rules - teach him.
8. She normally plays 4 Square with a different rule twist, maybe today you can play your way and tomorrow you can play her way?
7. Ok, before you start, if I were you, I would bring everyone together and review the four basic rules that you are following for the game.
6. Ok, I didn't really understand any of that game that you just explained to me, but if all of you guys understand and you're having fun, I'm okay with that.
5. Well, did you ask her if she wanted to play? Let me tell you something, if you see a student standing there watching you, it's very likely that she wants to play, maybe she just doesn't know how to ask - so why don't you ask her?
4. Stop stacking teams! How are you guys picking teams? Here's an idea - if you all play basketball for the Park District, why don't you split up the kids who are on a team and then take the kids who aren't on teams and divide them up so the teams are even. It's much more fun for everyone when a game isn't 24-0.
3. Boys, I know you like to socialize and talk, but do you think it's fair to be walking in the middle of the soccer field while you're doing that?
2. This is recess! The goal is that everyone gets to come out here, have fun, and play if they want to. You spend more time disagreeing about rules, if it was a goal, what the teams are going to be, the order of who goes first. If you create a system of doing it, you'll get more time playing!
1. Everyone plays! The rule at Carpenter is that everyone plays!
I just thought I'd welcome you into our world of 476 students, albeit for a brief moment. Although not all of those statements necessarily had to do with playing fair, I wanted to show some of the social challenges that also go along with playing fair at recess. We need to teach our children how to play. We need to teach them how to problem-solve and get along when there aren't adults fully guiding their activities (yes, we have playground supervisors, but they aren't directing the activities). We want them to learn to play fairly and playing fairly requires compromise, understanding, and empathy. It means learning to play for fun and not always only having fun through winning. It is okay to be competitive, but learning to find the right balance. In the month of February, you can help us by discussing these issues at home as well.
Thank you for your continued partnership.
Sincerely,
Mr. Brett Balduf, Principal
Carpenter Elementary School
Inspire every child to discover, learn, achieve, and care.
We Look Forward to Seeing You!
SAVE THE DATES: PARCC Approaching
Stopping for the Bus
Thank you from Cradles to Crayons (from Clothing Drive)
Thank you so much for hosting a collection drive - the outcome was amazing! Carpenter Elementary School’s donations are going to help over 40 Chicagoland children in need. We appreciate everything you did and would love to partner with you for any future initiatives!
-Cradles to Crayons-