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10 Reasons Why Kids Need to "Take it Outdoors"

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10 Reasons Why Kids Need to "Take it Outdoors"

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KS SECD Standards - Instructional Examples

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KS SECD Standards - Instructional Examples

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KS SECD Standards - Student Growth Measures

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KS SECD Standards - Student Growth Measures

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KS SECD Standards - Measuring SECD Toolkit

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KS SECD Standards - Measuring SECD Toolkit

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Reopen Schools with a 'Golden Age of Play" (Opinion)

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Reopen Schools with a 'Golden Age of Play" (Opinion)

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CNN 6/10/2020 Opinion by William Doyle and Pasi Sahlberg

When the novel coronavirus is no longer as great a threat and schools finally reopen, we should give children the one thing they will need most after enduring months of isolation, stress, physical restraint and woefully inadequate, screen-based remote learning. We should give them playtime -- and lots of it.

As in-person classes begin, education administrators will presumably follow the safety guidelines of health authorities for smaller classes, staggered schedules, closing or regularly cleaning communal spaces with shared equipment, regular health checks and other precautions. But despite the limitations this may place on the students' physical environment, schools should look for safe ways to supercharge children's learning and well-being.

We propose that schools adopt a 90-day "golden age of play," our term for a transitional period when traditional academic education should be balanced as much as possible with learning through play, physical and creative outlets and mental health counseling to provide support for children who will need it.

Play gives children a wide range of critical cognitive, physical, emotional and social benefits. The American Academy of Pediatrics, representing the nation's 67,000 children's doctors, stated in a 2012 clinical report that "play, in all its forms, needs to be considered as the ideal educational and developmental milieu for children," including for children in poverty, and noted that "the lifelong success of children is based on their ability to be creative and to apply the lessons learned from playing."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also reported "substantial evidence that physical activity can help improve academic achievement," and "can have an impact on cognitive skills and attitudes and academic behavior," including concentration and attention. Regular physical activity like recess and physical education, the CDC researchers noted, also "improves self-esteem, and reduces stress and anxiety."

This is especially relevant for a student population that may face a tidal wave of mental health challenges in the wake of the pandemic. Data from the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report detailed that, as of 2016, 1 in 6 children ages 2 to 8 years of age had a diagnosed mental, behavioral or developmental disorder. And a study in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology revealed that from 2009 to 2017, depression surged 69% among 16- to 17-year-olds.

A 90-day "golden age of play" school re-entry period would help ease children back into the school setting, while providing physical and creative outlets to allow them to calm their stress and thrive with their peers and teachers. But what exactly would this program look like?

It should look like a child's dreams. A time of joy, movement, discovery and experimentation without fear of failure; a time when every student should enjoy comfort, safety, and socialization with peers and warm, caring adults.

Logistically, for elementary and middle school students, this means 90 days of low-stress learning largely through play, outdoor classes, the arts, music, and physical education. We should give each child a total of at least 60 minutes per day of safely supervised recess, divided into two or three periods spread through the day. Whenever possible, recess should be held outdoors and children should be engaged in setting expectations and guidelines for health and safety. Recess time can be added by shortening classes by 10 or 15 minutes. Educators can help children systematically develop the important social-emotional skills they learn at recess from regulating emotions to managing conflict.

For older middle schoolers and high schoolers, recess and free play can take the form of frequent break times, self-determined passion projects and learning to solve real problems in their communities. As the American Academy of Pediatrics has noted, "Cognitive processing and academic performance depend on regular breaks from concentrated classroom work. This applies equally to adolescents and to younger children."

Students would still take part in more traditional academic tasks, but the school atmosphere would be energized and, therefore, more efficient for teaching and learning, discovery and experimentation.

Some politicians and administrators may want to accelerate content learning with extra pressure and rushed academic schedules that align with arbitrary, pre-pandemic benchmarks. But academic benchmarks will have to be re-thought and re-calibrated in the wake of the pandemic, months of cancelled classroom learning and the suspension of the federal requirement for this year's state standardized tests for grades three through eight.

This should not be viewed as a setback to learning. The reality is that learning never stops. Children have kept on learning at home, but they've been learning different things that are just as important and relevant as what they would have learned at school. They likely are now better at managing boredom and ambiguity, taking responsibility, being creative, facing stress and seeing how adults deal with pressure and uncertainty. When schools reopen, we should not ask how much learning time children have lost, but what they have learned while schools have been closed.

Some educators and policy makers may even be tempted to eliminate any vestiges of play from school, including recess, which according to the National Academy of Medicine was already on the chopping block before the pandemic struck.

But this would be a terrible mistake. While the CDC advises that schools consider cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces or even closing school playgrounds with shared playground equipment, regular recess for smaller and staggered groups can still be held in places like indoor gyms and open outdoor play yards. Additional precautions should be taken like the wearing of face coverings by school staff and students as feasible, frequent handwashing and minimizing the sharing of objects, as recommended by the CDC.

"Shutting down school playgrounds is appealing to many for a sense of control, but a closed classroom and shared meals are more likely to spread an airborne pathogen," says military pediatrician Dr. Jeffrey Hutchinson, Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and co-author of 2018 AAP clinical report, "The Power of Play."

He told us, "Play is essential. Unstructured time is vital for development, stress reduction and physical and mental health. The ways forward to keep playgrounds safe align with all of the health measures we have always emphasized: good hand washing, isolating those who are ill and cleaning highly trafficked areas."

His co-author on the AAP play report, Dr. Andrew Garner, also noted that, "The research is clear that children benefit from recess, not only academically but physically, socially and emotionally... After 'social isolating' for a number of weeks -- heaven forbid months -- one could actually argue that re-socializing children through regular recess should be a top priority."

When schools reopen, let's give our children the knowledge, skills and experiences that will last for lifetime and advance their executive function, especially the emotional self-regulation that is at the heart of all learning and well-being, now and later in life.

Let's give our children something they will cherish and thank us for in decades to come -- a 90-day "golden age of play." By doing so, we will enhance their health and well-being, supercharge their learning, and boost their chances of life success.

With any luck, when the 90 days are over, our children and teachers will make play a permanent part of the daily school experience.

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Reopen schools with a 'golden age of play' (opinion)

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As schools re-open, they should adopt a 90-day "golden age of play," a transitional period when traditional academic education should be balanced as much as possible with learning through play, physical and creative outlets and mental health counseling write William Doyle and Pasi Sahlberg

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Over the past decade, the video game industry has grown considerably, with the medium now reaching a third of the world's population. Moreover, the primary consumer demographics for video and board games has shifted from children and teenagers to people in their twenties, thirties and forties (Patterson et al., 2019).

Along with this shift, we have seen the rise of other play experiences for adults, including 'megagames' (games played over a whole day and with up to 300 players); growing interest in roleplaying; record attendance numbers at game conventions worldwide; and the commercial success of 'escape rooms', where teams of adults solve puzzles to escape a locked room within a time limit (there are now over 2000 such rooms in the USA when just five years ago there were none). And, based on rapid industry growth and an exponential increase in the number of new releases, it has been claimed that we are in a golden age for board games. I would go further: we are in a golden age of play for adults.

This is striking because it is at odds with the dominant view in Western culture (and, indeed, many cultures) that play is largely confined to childhood. The natural world appears to reflect this idea, with play behaviour prevalent in the juveniles of many species, but disappearing almost completely by adulthood.

One explanation for the prevalence of play in juveniles is that it is a motivating and engaging context for exploring the world, where failure is permitted and mistakes are learning opportunities. Consequently, reduction in play behaviour across development makes sense in evolutionary terms. The juvenile period is about adaptation and learning, and this learning leads to adult behaviour that is more fixed - optimised for reproductive success. Individuals who haven't learned the most adaptive behaviours for their environment by the time they reach adulthood will be at a significant disadvantage compared to those who have.

To some extent, humans follow this model. However, if we look more closely, we see that humans continue to play into adulthood more than most species. In fact, play in adulthood is embedded in many, and possibly all, of our cultures and throughout our history. This raises the fascinating question of what play in adulthood - apparently maladaptive in other species - is doing for humans. Given the recent rise of play experiences for adults, now is the perfect time to be asking this question.

Definitions
First, we should be clear on what we mean by play in adulthood. There are three key attributes common to most definitions of play: play is enjoyable; voluntary; and done for its own sake (Neale et al., 2018). The fact it is done for its own sake is why, for example, someone kicking a ball around a field can be considered to be playing, while a professional footballer is not (because they are engaging with the game to earn a living, not for its own sake). Play is only play if an individual voluntarily engages with it as a desired activity in and of itself.

With this in mind, there appear to be two main ways adults play:

Adults frequently engage in playful interactions, rather than discrete episodes of play. Children, by contrast, frequently engage in episodes of play - perhaps even daily.

When adults do engage in episodes of play, those episodes tend to be more circumscribed, more structured, and often have more defined rule-sets than children's play. Examples include games, roleplaying, escape rooms, and murder mystery parties.

The first of these ways is grounded in the concept of 'playfulness', which is the proclivity to reframe everyday situations as something more entertaining, stimulating or enjoyable - in other words, to turn those situations into play. This includes joking, teasing, and bringing a light-hearted, imaginative perspective into an interaction. Recent efforts to create and validate questionnaires to assess adult playfulness have seen some success (Proyer et al., 2019).

The second type of play, through circumscribed, structured episodes, has a long history spanning continents and cultures. Games based on swimming and archery are depicted in cave paintings that are at least 7000 years old; archaeological evidence suggests board games may have been present 8000 years ago (Rollefson, 1992). Adult humans were playing games before they invented the wheel and before they invented writing. Games stand with oral storytelling and the visual arts as one of the earliest examples of humanity's creative pursuits.

The apes who never grow up
Play and playfulness are clearly more central to adult lives than is commonly supposed, but why are humans different to other animals in this regard? One potential answer is that as a species our strength is in our capacity to learn and adapt across the lifespan, evolving culturally as well as biologically. Our lifelong predilection for play may be part of what underpins this capacity - an idea consistent with the theories of Lev Vygostky and Johan Huizinga, who both saw deep links between play and human culture.

A key feature differentiating humans from our closest relatives is the persistence of our child-like qualities; humans demonstrate neoteny, the retention of juvenile traits into adulthood. While chimpanzees' faces change dramatically from infancy to adulthood, with the forehead receding and the brow protruding, human faces do not, and as adults we look more similar to a baby chimpanzee than an adult chimpanzee. Our evolutionary trajectory selected for the retention of our juvenile traits, potentially because some of those traits - including curiosity, behavioural plasticity, and a predilection for play - drove our success as a species. We are the apes who never grow up.

Another possible explanation for the presence of play in our adult lives is that it has psychological and emotional benefits similar to those proposed for childhood play (Whitebread et al., 2017). There is indeed now a small body of research indicating play-related benefits in relation to various aspects of adult life, including our work. Because work is often conceived as the opposite of play, the idea of play being beneficial to work may appear as something of an oxymoron. Yet companies such as Google, whose offices include staff play areas, are leading the way in making play part of working life. Games have been used for educating and training adults since the early 19th century, and there's a proliferation of games for training in various professional domains today, including medicine and business management. Games increase adults' engagement, and this can lead to enhanced learning (Hamari et al., 2016). Beyond games, play in general has workplace benefits, with evidence that the introduction of play episodes can reduce negative emotions and stress, increase group cohesion, and improve work quality, commitment and overall performance (Guitard et al., 2005). Play may be of benefit in the workplace through stimulating creative thinking, encouraging exploration, relieving stress, and fostering positive social interaction.

However, introducing play into the workplace needs to be done with care to be effective. For example, games need to be designed to engage and motivate players, and to accurately reflect workplace objectives. Otherwise, it is possible for employees to use games as escapism, or for games to lead to learning outcomes that are not work-relevant, or even detrimental to work. Play can easily become a distraction, or trivialise serious issues, if it is not introduced in the right way (which may be the thinking behind the traditional play-work dichotomy).

Transforming the familiar
The potential for play to be maladaptive is also clear in the debate around video games and mental health. There is evidence that when engaged with obsessively, video games could have negative psychological effects, with the caveat that excessive game-playing may represent an escape from problems, rather than the cause of them (Barlett et al., 2008). However, there is a flip side to this, as studies have found that, when not used to excess, video games can have positive effects on wellbeing. They may help alleviate anxiety and depression, and - along with board games and puzzles - have been linked to better cognitive health in the elderly (Iizuka et al., 2019; O'Shea et al., 2019; Russoniello et al., 2019). The variety, novelty and engagement that play promotes may lead to the adaptive retention of cognitive functioning in later life.

This indicates how some psychological benefits may arise from play's association with novelty. Through exploration, experimentation, and the ability to see things in a different light (for example, through a humorous or fantastical lens) play can transform the familiar into something new and exciting. And this brings us to a third area where research has identified a link to play in adulthood: romantic relationships. A challenge to the maintenance of a romantic relationship is the gradual decrease in novelty, as each partner becomes more and more familiar with the other (Brown & Vaughan, 2010). In the early stages, romance is often playful, as couples engage in banter, teasing, in-jokes, rough-and-tumble play, and create pet names for each other. Maintaining this playfulness could be a factor in determining whether a relationship succeeds. Couples who score higher on play questionnaires, and those who say play is an essential part of their relationship, report higher relationship satisfaction. More broadly, play's ability to introduce novelty, to foster positive emotions and social bonding, and to defuse stressful situations, could all be of benefit in personal relationships (Van Vleet & Feeney, 2015).

The perfect time to play
There is much more to be said about how, when and why we play as adults, and this has been a necessarily brief overview of a diverse and expansive topic. Our species' proclivity for play in adulthood has roots in our evolutionary history, and in various forms, has been a part of human cultures for thousands of years. As adults we play more often than is commonly supposed, and engaging in play and playful interactions may have psychological benefits for our work, mental health, and relationships.

Despite this potential importance, play in adulthood remains under-explored by psychologists. In the modern world, where careers, relationships, and identities are more varied and change more frequently than they have in the past, and companies need to adapt rapidly to technological and societal change, play could be more important than ever as a tool to learn and adapt throughout our lives. This shift in societal norms might explain why we have entered a golden age of play for adults. It also means that now is the perfect time to explore play in our practice, research, and, perhaps most importantly, our private lives.

Play for adults is thriving. When we play, we thrive too.

Box text: Psychology and game design
My entry to board game design was through creating Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Baker Street Irregulars, a mystery-solving game where players explore Victorian London to solve crimes. That was some years ago, and, as a psychologist, seeing how players engage with games, mysteries, and each other, has been a fascinating experience.

Developing a game involves a lot of playtesting - giving it to a group, watching them play, and asking yourself some questions: 'Is it engaging?', 'What kind of experience are they having?', 'Is it appropriately challenging?' Even apparently superficial changes can affect player experience - for example, players respond differently to drawing cards than rolling dice (even if the odds of success are the same) and may use a playing piece differently depending on how it looks and feels.

One way to view engaging gameplay is as a combination of Csikszentmihalyi's theory of flow with group dynamics. Games can create a collective flow state, where players are immersed in the game world. A concept from play theory that is partly analogous to this is that of the magic circle, the bounded play-experience that has its own rules, logic and character. Game design is partly about maintaining this circle - this collective flow - through a combination of visuals, player-interaction, and interesting challenges.

For this to work, the challenges must be pitched at an appropriate level. Vygotsky's concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD), often applied when considering the developmental benefits of play, is applicable to the practice of game design. A game where players operate in their ZPD is likely to be engaging, stimulating, and an opportunity for learning and development - even if only in terms of becoming a better player.
- Dave Neale (pictured above) is an Affiliate of the Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL) at the University of Cambridge, and the designer of two board games aimed at adults: the escape-room game Unlock! Heroic Adventures and the forthcoming Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Baker Street Irregulars. References
In these ways, and many others, the intersection of psychology and game design can generate useful insights for people from both sides of the disciplinary divide. After all, 90 per cent of board game design is about observing and curating people's experiences, thoughts and social interactions - it's hard to get closer to the essence of psychology than that.

Barlett, C.P., Anderson, C. A. & Swing, E.L. (2008). Video game effects - confirmed, suspected, and speculative: A review of the evidence. Simulation & Gaming, 40(3), 377-403.

Brown, S. & Vaughan, C. (2010). Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. New York: Avery.

Guitard, P., Ferland, F. & Dutil, E. (2005). Toward a better understanding of playfulness in adults. OTJR: Occupation, Participation & Health, 25(1), 9-22.

Hamari, J., Shernoff, D.J., Rowe, E. et al. (2016). Challenging games help students learn: An empirical study on engagement, flow and immersion in game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, 170-179.

Iizuka, A., Suzuki, H., Ogawa, S. et al. (2019). Can cognitive leisure activity prevent cognitive decline in older adults? A systematic review of intervention studies. Geriatrics & Gerontology International, 19, 469-482.

Neale, D., Clackson, K., Georgieva, S. et al. (2018). Towards a neuroscientific understanding of play: A dimensional coding framework for analyzing infant-adult play patterns. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 273.

O'Shea, D.M., De Wit, L. & Smith, G.E. (2019). Doctor, should I use computer games to prevent dementia? Clinical Gerontologist, 42(1), 3-16.

Patterson, T. & Barratt, S. (2019). Playing for the Planet - How video games can deliver for people and the environment. UN Environment/GRID-Arendal, Arendal, Norway.

Proyer, R.T., Brauer, K. & Wolf, A. (2019). Assessing other-directed, lighthearted, intellectual, and whimsical playfulness in adults: development and initial validation of the OLIW-S using self- and peer-ratings. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, online advance publication.

Rollefson, G.O. (1992). A neolithic game board from ʿAin Ghazal, Jordan. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 286, 1-5.

Russoniello, C.V., Fish, M.T. & O'Brien, K. (2019). The efficacy of playing videogames compared with antidepressants in reducing treatment-resistant symptoms of depression. Games for Health Journal, 8(5), online advance publication.

Van Vleet, M. & Feeney, B. C. (2015). Play behavior and playfulness in adulthood. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 9(11), 630-643.

Whitebread, D., Neale, D., Jensen, H. et al. (2017). The role of play in children's development: a review of the evidence. The LEGO Foundation, Billund, Denmark.

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Over the past decade, the video game industry has grown considerably, with the medium now reaching a third of the world's population. Moreover, the primary consumer demographics for video and board games has shifted from children and teenagers to people in their twenties, thirties and forties (Patterson et al., 2019).

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How Children Process Grief and Loss Through Play

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How Children Process Grief and Loss Through Play

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Soon after the Oklahoma City bombing, in 1995, children in a nearby kindergarten started playing dead. Over and over, they toppled towers of blocks and lay motionless on the floor. When their teacher asked them to tell her about what was happening in their play, the students informed her that they had all been killed by terrorists.

The play continued in this vein for some time-smashed towers, splayed-out children-until their teacher asked if they might be interested in building a hospital. "She went in with stethoscopes, masks, and bandages, and helped kids move towards a phase that was focused on care and healing," says Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a professor emerita at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and an expert on the ways young children process trauma through play.

That expertly handled transition-recognizing that the children were stuck and might need a nudge-demonstrates a few important principles about play, according to Carlsson-Paige. First, the teacher did not judge the children's play or let her own anxieties about the situation seep through. For young children, she understood, play is the only way to work through everything they wrestle with, from everyday challenges to anxiety, fear, and even loss and death. Second, while the teacher left plenty of room for discovery, she stepped in when the play turned obsessive, redirecting her students in a way that was both well-timed and developmentally appropriate.

As the world confronts the novel coronavirus pandemic, an economic depression, and global protests about racism and systemic inequalities, children are being exposed to painful and often scary ideas-and their play will reflect their efforts to make sense of what they see and hear.

Why Children Play Through Grief and Loss

The late Vivian Gussin Paley, a kindergarten teacher, recipient of the MacArthur "genius" grant, and author of dozens of books on children's play lives, put it this way: "The young child wants to play. He wants to play because intuitively he understands that through play he will understand more about who he is than in any other format."

Seth Aronson, a psychologist and the Director of Curriculum, Training and Supervising Analyst at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology in New York City, extends that line of thinking into play that involves the processing of fear, anxiety, or loss.

"One of the functions that play serves for kids is it allows them to approach something that might be frightening in a way that makes it less frightening and more understandable," he says. Through play, children "control the tempo and the pace and the content" of a situation and gain the ability to anticipate what happens next-all of which can take the sting out of scary situations. "Whenever there's any kind of scary or traumatic situation, play really allows the child the displacement and the space to play out some of those things," he says. "If it's happening to a doll, it's not really happening to me."

In other words, imaginative play not only enables children to better understand reality-by helping them to inhabit the perspectives of, say, both a doll patient and a stuffed animal doctor-but also to quickly change the narrative when the reality becomes too much to bear. (In the past two months, I've seen this with a three-year-old I've spent a lot of time with, who repeatedly declares dolls dead before bringing them back to life.) Psychologists call these processes denial and undoing, and they're essential to maintaining a child's sense of safety and control.

"Play has the power to make something un-happen, to correct something that's overwhelming," Aronson explains. For instance, a child whose grandmother recently died might say that she saw Grandma in her room, or that she played with her. "It's totally normal," Dr. Aronson says. "It's undoing the event in a way that's comforting and soothing and helps the child deal with the loss."

How Grown-ups Can Set the Stage

Erika Christakis, a former faculty member at the Yale Child Study Center and the author of The Importance of Being Little: What Young Children Really Need from Grownups, says that the play impulse is evolutionarily hardwired in humans and "can't be short-circuited." Nevertheless, she says, adults play a key role in setting the groundwork for what psychologists call "productive play"-which actively helps children process their experiences and acquire emotional and cognitive skills-while watching for signs of unproductive play, which represent and amplify feelings of distress.

The P.A.C.E. approach: Christakis says that the acronym P.A.C.E. -which stands for playfulness, acceptance, curiosity, and empathy-is a useful guide for helping adults interact with young children. Adults should recognize that children are navigating a tension within themselves: they want to feel powerful and independent, while also yearning to feel protected and cared for. Given this, adults should empower children with age-appropriate choices: asking them what song to sing, what to have for a snack-or what they want to play.

Generally speaking, adults shouldn't be overly worried that children will lead themselves down roads they aren't prepared to navigate: the very instinct to explore a subject in play likely means that the child is ready-and perhaps needs-to do so. "Children are really good at getting what they need through the tools that they have," she says. She adds, "Kids can tolerate a lot as long as they know that their feelings are not creepy or wrong."

Don't shame: Sometimes children's play can inspire uncomfortable feelings in adults, which is perfectly fine, as long as adults don't convey to children that their play is shameful or wrong. Play is highly personal: Nancy Carlsson-Paige, the professor, says it contains "the whole child: emotions and thoughts and physical being and social self." As such, children tend to interpret criticism or dismissal of their play as criticism or dismissal of themselves.

"The healthiest, most nurturing thing we can do for children is to join them in their feelings," Christakis says. She encourages adults to communicate that "there's nothing you could say to me that would be too weird, too annoying."

Create the conditions for imaginative exploration: To encourage children to play out what's on their minds, experts recommend providing children with "multi-use" toys-generic objects like blocks and wooden dolls, onto which children can project what they need to project. When children have a Superman action figure, they tend to play out Superman storylines; but when they have a faceless figure, they engage with their own thoughts and emotions, what they find exciting, troubling, or confusing. It's these scenarios that are most conducive to productive play, which reflects some aspects of a child's experience or imagination.

Watch for unproductive play: In rare situations, play-or a lack thereof-can be a cause for concern. Generally speaking, adults should not intervene in children's play. However, "if the child's play makes the child anxious, when it's too literal for the child, or when it's obsessive and repetitive-that's a sign that the play isn't serving its purpose," says Aronson, the New York psychologist. In these situations, adults can gently introduce new elements or coax the narrative in a new direction, as the teacher in Oklahoma did when her kindergarteners repeatedly revisited the terrorist attack.

"I always look for some kind of change in play," says Carlsson-Paige. If that change doesn't occur-if the same troubling event is rehashed over and over, with the same outcome each time-intervention, or psychological attention, may be merited.

However, what may be most concerning is the absence of play. When Carlsson-Paige spent time in El Salvador in the early 1990s, during the country's civil war, the children she encountered there were so traumatized they didn't play at all. When she returned the next year, after the war's conclusion, play had returned.

"Children need to have a certain sense of safety to go into an imaginary play zone," she asserts. Adults can provide that safe space at this tumultuous and historic moment-being careful to strike the right balance between the freedom children need to explore difficult subject matter on their own, and the periodic need to step in when kids get stuck.

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How Children Process Grief and Loss Through Play

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Young children will likely process the tumultuous events of 2020 in the only way they know how-through play. Here's how adults can be supportive.

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Is Recess Important for Kids or a Waste of Time?

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Is Recess Important for Kids or a Waste of Time?

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Is Recess Important for Kids or a Waste of Time? Here's What the Research Says

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There's a running debate on whether recess at school is good for kids or a waste of time. Here's what experts have found

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Copyright 2022 by Kansas State Department of Education | 900 SW Jackson St. | Topeka, KS 66612
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Golden Age of Play - Teambuilding Activities

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Golden Age of Play - Outdoor Activities with Integration

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When I Play Outside - I Am Learning About

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When I Play Outside - I Am Learning About

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P.E. Kansas makes it easier for our state's P.E. teachers to positively impact the health and well-being of the thousands of Kansas students they reach.

Welcome to P.E. Kansas! This new web-based curriculum tool is a free and valuable asset for physical educators across Kansas, made possible through funding from the Kansas Health Foundation. Some of the key features include:

Creating lesson plans (warm-ups, activities, national standards, equipment, safety considerations, modifications, and assessments);

Storing lesson plans for future use and record keeping (pdf and Word options);

Sharing valuable educational resources.

The site reflects the best of Physical Essentials, Physical Focus and Physical Dimensions with a modernization for use in today's physical education classes. The site enhances the training of future teachers, helps with plans for days when substitute teachers are needed, and promotes professionalism in physical education.

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Home - Kansas State Department of Education

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P.E. Kansas makes it easier for our state's P.E. teachers to positively impact the health and well-being of the thousands of Kansas students they reach. Welcome to P.E. Kansas! This new web-based curriculum tool is a free and valuable asset for physical educators across Kansas, made possible through funding from the Kansas Health Foundation.

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Tons of additional resources can be found on the and pages. There you can search based on your circumstance: Hybrid, Remote, Synchronous, PEinClassroom, SDinPEgym, SDinPEoutside.

This page is the result of many meetings and much time spent during the summer of '20 by the following people.

Many thanks to Jamie Sparks @JamieSparksWSCC and Kymm Ballard @KymmBallard

Information on Masks in PE

Additional resources will be added to the resource list on the left as they become available.

for their work collecting the above information.

Research on

Social Distancing for Walking and Running

Conclusion:

"The equivalent social distance for walking and running in the slipstream is defined as the distance that should be kept between the leading and trailing walker/runner to avoid substantial exposure to slipstream droplets, similar to the case where two people are standing still at 1.5 m distance. In the absence of head wind, tail wind and cross-wind, for walking fast at 4 km/h this distance is about 5 m and for running at 14.4 km/h this distance is about 10 m. Further work should consider the effect of head
wind, tail wind and cross-wind, and different droplet spectra."

Notes: 5 m ≈ 16.4 ft.

NEA Webinar

"Safely Returning"

Extremely useful information particularly related to your rights as a teacher and for those with various unique circumstances and those who may not receive information due to the lack of an organized union.

10 m ≈ 32.8 ft.

Very compelling graphics on page 10.

Many thanks to Stephanie Klaffke @KlaffkePE for this awesome tool.

Elementary PE Model Lessons/Resources

Secondary PE Model Lessons/Resources

#QualityPE/Advocacy Resources

Click and scroll in any section for additional resources. Click any resource to access.

"File", "Make a copy" for your own editable copy or download if desired.

Click any resource to access.

"File", "Make a copy" for your own editable copy or download (if pdf) if desired.

Click any resource to access.

"File", "Make a copy" for your own editable copy or download (if pdf) if desired.

Social Emotional Learning

plus a large selection of graphics, picture books, and printables can be found on our cbhpe SEL Page

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Additional EDI resources can be found on our cbhpe EDI Page

Interested in learning more about a particular tech topic? Check out the options below!

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Tons of additional resources can be found on the and pages. There you can search based on your circumstance: Hybrid, Remote, Synchronous, PEinClassroom, SDinPEgym, SDinPEoutside. This page is the result of many meetings and much time spent during the summer of '20 by the following people.

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Asphalt Green - REP It Out! From a Distance

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Asphalt Green - REP It Out! From a Distance

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Welcome, Enrichment Center staff! Each of the games below allow for proper distancing and don't require any shared equipment. Games are organized by age group and spaces where they can be played. Each link will take you to online game rules, a downloadable pdf, and a video which explain how to set-up, play, and modify each game.

You will also find general resources on how to organize play spaces, safely transition young people to and from these spaces, and get their attention.

Getting started: Watch this video for tips for running a safe, active, and fun activity. In this video, we will review (1.) our ready, explain, play strategy for organizing recess, (2.) tips on how to lead a game, and (3.) conflict resolution strategies.

View our task tent activities designed for kids to play independently. All task tents are ideal for students in kindergarten through fifth grade and can be played in almost any space including auditoriums, cafeterias, gyms, hallways, and playgrounds.

Looking for more ways to keep kids active all summer long? Join us for virtual camp Monday through Friday. The schedule features a variety of active, creative, and game-based programs that keep campers engaged, learning, and having fun every day. Join the fun.

Kindergarten to Second Grade

Animal Kingdom (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Animal Relay (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Body Bingo (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Bust a Rhyme (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Clap and Move (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Classy Moves (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Detective (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Do as I Say, Not as I Do (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Explorers (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Fitness Relay (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Freeze Dance Party (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Heart Smart (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

High Wire (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Hit Record (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Hungry Wolf (Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

I'm Going to Recess (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Kitty Cat Careers (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Line Math (Gymnasium, Playground)

Lion's Den (Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Memory Making (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Name and Motion (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Pass the Movements (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Red Light, Green Light (Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Riverbank (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library)

Show Me Your Moves (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Simon Says (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Speedway (Gymnasium, Playground)

Steal the Bacon (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Sticks (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Storytellers (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Sun, Moon, Earth (Gymnasium, Playground)

Switch, Change, Rotate (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Temple Runner (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library)

The Maze (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Twizzle (Auditorium, Classroom, Hallway, Gymnasium )

Up, Down, Stomp, Clap (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Third Grade to Fifth Grade

Ah-So-Co (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Alien (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Alien, Tiger, Cow (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

All My Neighbors (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Animal Kingdom (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Animal Relay (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Ba-Boom (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Body Bingo (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Bust a Rhyme (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Classy Moves (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Countdown (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Detective (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Do as I Say, Not as I Do (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Fitness Relay (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Freeze Dance Party (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Heart Smart (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Hit Record (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Hungry Wolf (Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

I'm Going to Recess (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Jedi Mind Trick (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Kitty Cat Careers (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Line Math (Gymnasium, Playground)

Lion's Den (Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Memory Making (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Mirror, Mirror (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Name and Motion (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Pass the Movements (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Pat, Clap, Thump (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Red Light, Green Light (Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Riverbank (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library)

RPS Rumble (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Shipwreck (Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Show Me Your Moves (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Simon Says (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Slow Motions (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Spark (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Speedway (Gymnasium, Playground)

Splat (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Steal the Bacon (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Sticks (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Storytellers (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Sun, Moon, Earth (Gymnasium, Playground)

Switch, Change, Rotate (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Temple Runner (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library)

The Great Debate (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

The Maze (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Twizzle (Auditorium, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway)

Up, Down, Stomp, Clap (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway Library, Playground)

Wait a Minute (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Whoosh! (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Zip, Zap, Zoom (Auditorium, Hallway, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Library, Playground)

Sixth Grade to Eighth Grade

Ah-So-Co (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Alien (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Alien, Tiger, Cow (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

All My Neighbors (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Animal Kingdom (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Ba-Boom (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Body Bingo (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Countdown (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Do as I Say, Not as I Do (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Fitness Relay (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Hungry Wolf (Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

I'm Going to Recess (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Jedi Mind Trick (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Kitty Cat Careers (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Line Math (Gymnasium, Playground)

Lion's Den (Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Mirror, Mirror (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Name and Motion (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Pass the Movements (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Pat, Clap, Thump (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

RPS Rumble (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Shipwreck (Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Slow Motions (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Spark (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Speedway (Gymnasium, Playground)

Splat (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Steal the Bacon (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Sticks (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Gymnasium, Hallway, Playground)

Sun, Moon, Earth (Gymnasium, Playground)

The Great Debate (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

The Maze (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Up, Down, Stomp, Clap (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Wait a Minute (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Whoosh! (Auditorium, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Hallway, Library, Playground)

Zip, Zap, Zoom (Auditorium, Hallway, Cafeteria, Classroom, Gymnasium, Library, Playground)

About Asphalt Green
Asphalt Green is a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting individuals of all ages and backgrounds achieve health through a lifetime of sports and fitness. At Asphalt Green, we believe sports and fitness have the power to change lives.

About REP
Our Recess Enhancement Program (REP) addresses barriers to physical activity by reclaiming the most underutilized part of the school day - recess. Each year, REP serves more than 28,000 students (kindergarten through fifth grade) from 60 elementary schools in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. All the resources here are cornerstones of the program.

To learn more about our training and consultation services, click here or contact communityprograms@asphaltgreen.org.

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Kids' Games for Social Distancing | Asphalt Green

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Welcome, Enrichment Center staff! Each of the games below allow for proper distancing and don't require any shared equipment. Games are organized by age group and spaces where they can be played. Each link will take you to online game rules, a downloadable pdf, and a video which explain how to set-up, play, and modify each game.