Global School Play Day is Coming!
Event Date:
As noted in our weekly newsletter, SGE has elected to participate in Global School Play Day, as a way to help promote our students with independent problem-solving, conflict resolution, and to heighten creativity and imagination. Additional information about why unstructured play is so important for childhood to adulthood development has been noted at the end of this newsletter.
On this same date ( ), our Eagle Rec/Stonegate Drama Club will also be doing two practice performances at 8:30 AM and 1:00 PM. Therefore, our students will do their Global School Play Day for a half-day. Our schedule will be:
MORNING SCHEDULE:
- Kindergarten, Third Grade, Fourth Grade
- Drama club play in the afternoon
AFTERNOON SCHEDULE:
- First Grade, Second Grade
- Drama club play in the morning
Important Details For this Event:
Keep in mind, no electronics or handheld electronic games.
Appropriate (non-violent, school appropriate) items include:
- Legos and other construction/engineering items (Lincoln Logs, K'nex, marble runs, Tinker Toys, Magna-Tiles, Snap Circuits, Zoob toys, etc...)
- Cards and card/dice games (Uno, Tenzi, SET, Shut the Box, Yahtzee, Rummikub, etc...)
- Dominoes
- Board games (Monopoly, Sequence, Operation, Life, Risk, Chutes and Ladders, CandyLand, Trouble, Sorry, etc...)
- Art supplies and other items to build, create, and construct
- Stuffed animals/puppets/paper bags for puppet shows,
- Etc...
***IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER***
Most items brought in are expected to be shared with others, therefore, please do not send in any toys/items of significant meaning or of high value. Staff will help to remind students to keep their materials organized throughout the day.
What is "Global School Play Day?"
Play has significant psychological and cognitive impact on children.
Positively, play...
- develops physical fitness,
- refines physical (gross motor and fine motor) skills,
- provides practice for social and emotion development (requires cooperation, problem-solving, work in close proximity, requires emotional regulation, etc...)
- at times requires high levels of strategic thinking,
- and assists in developing skills to navigate risk and fear.
In other words, play can be considered the "work" of children.
Current research bears out significant negative impact on a child’s cognitive, social, and emotional development when play, especially unstructured play, is absent from children.
Research findings illustrate that a decline in play is closely correlated to
- a decrease in empathy,
- increase in anxiety and depression,
- a decline in creativity,
- and deficits in socialization skills.
Simply put, Global School Play Day started in 2015 with the intent to set aside one day (or portion of the day) for students to engage in unstructured play. It is an opportunity to introduce and inspire us to consider the necessary benefits of play.
After careful consideration, our staff decided that on Thursday, March 28th, 2019 SGE will participate in Global School Play Day. This day will provide us the opportunity to:
- observe and interact with students as they engage in authentic social exchanges,
- use this time to witness how your children navigate peer relationships,
- expand our understanding of your child as a person that has academic, social, and emotional aspects of their well-being,
- witness how they interact, show empathy, assist one another, problem-solve, and create
- glean more insight and information in order to provide more feedback to you (parents/guardians) that we are often unable to provide from our typical school day programming.
"Play is…
- where we afford children the opportunity to practice how to control their own lives.
- where they learn to solve their own problems and learn that the world is not so scary
- where they experience joy and they learn the world is not so depressing after all
- where they learn to get along with peers and see from other points of view and practice empathy and then get over narcissism.
- Play by definition is creative and innovative. Of course if you take play away, these things will decline."
- Dr. Peter Gray