Initiative aims to make playtime safer for students

LYNN – Cobbet School second graders spilled out into the schoolyard, clearly ready for recess, but instead of running willy-nilly into the morning sunshine, they organized.”It’s a new initiative we started this year,” said program director Tim Burt, who stood outside Tuesday watching the students. “It’s organized play, organized recess.”Burt said he estimates that last year 10 to 15 percent of students would spend recess sitting on the sidelines, talking with friends or left out of play.View a photo gallery”They weren’t even walking,” he said. “They were eating lunch first, their bellies were full and they were just sitting.”Jennifer Wu, Wraparound Zone program specialist for the school district, said she learned of the recess initiative from Fall River, which put the program in nine schools.”We were incredibly impressed with the impact on school discipline and the impact on referrals to the nurse’s office” because they were getting hurt, Wu said.The Wraparound Initiative is a grant that in part addresses non-academic and out-of-school learning barriers to allow educators to focus on raising student achievement.What makes the Recess Initiative a little different, however, is that teachers are just as engaged in the program as the kids.Burt said recess last year was a free-for-all: Students pushing, rough housing and getting hurt.”A lot of kids were trying to play but if they’re all playing at the same time they get mixed up and run into each other,” Wu added. “They just really didn’t know how to play.”They needed to be organized, said Deb Sugerman, a trainer with Playworks, a nonprofit California-based company that was brought in to train teachers on how to lead organized play.Wu said many of the games are variations of games the kids were already playing, like tag, but they are safer and more inclusive.”They promote teamwork and sharing,” Wu said. “The games can’t be dominated by one person.”Burt said that with only 15 minutes allowed for recess, organization is the key.At 10:45 a.m., second-grade teacher Joyce MacDonald leads her class “hop, skip, jumping” onto the playground and in minutes has organized a game she calls Gaga Ball.Other second-grade teachers follow suit with games of their own learned from Sugerman, who will be on hand to observe the program on five separate occasions over the year.On the other side of the Franklin Street school fourth graders break into groups, some organizing themselves and others led by teachers, and begin to play games called switch, wall ball and four square.”When we were kids, the athletes would organize the games, like kickball and choose up sides,” Burt said. “Now no one is left out, no one is sitting on the sidelines.”Sugerman said they also have an intricate conflict resolution tool that students have learned.”It’s called ?rock, paper, scissors,’ and it works,” she said with a laugh.Burt said he has seen students use it in the classroom as well.”It all carries over into the classrooms,” he added. “It doesn’t just start and stop here.”The Recess Team is also working together to make the program run smoothly. Burt said 15 staffers meet each Monday to work out recess details and review the prior week.He also said the smooth transition from unstructured recess to organized play never would have occurred had the faculty not so readily embraced the idea.Another important change that Sugerman cited: Students go out to play and then eat lunch, rather than the other way around.She said studies show that playing first allows kids to work up an appetite, they are more likely to finish their lunch and it gives them a cool-down period before heading back to class.When asked if he believes the program has made a difference, Burt reacts without hesitation.”Holy smokes, absolutely!” he said. “It’s huge, and the engagement overflows into the classroom as well ? we’re getting kids moving and participating, and it’s transformative.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].