Saturday, January 30, 2021

Global School Play Day/Week


 February 3, 2021 is Global School Play Day- the sixth year! This is normally a day kids and staff love as kids engage in unstructured play all day. This is definitely a challenge but no pandemic will get in the way of play at Waggoner! This year, although the official play day is Wednesday the 3rd, we'll be reimagining it as more of week to celebrate play and I encourage you to find ways to play with your students all week whenever you can. A similar message will go out in the family blog here as well. Wednesdays at Waggoner are more offline anyways for WIN, assessment, and support, so I encourage you have fun, play, and even unplug that day. You certainly don't need to feel like you have to stay online all day watching them play. I've created a bingo type board (it's in the blog, too) with activities for families, and you may want to brainstorm some ideas with our students, too! Here is a list of Distance Learning play ideas started by the creators of Global School Play Day! I made this copy so you can add more ideas. This list was brainstormed by students. You can do as much or as little as you like, just find some time for play this week and celebrate it with your kids :) Thanks! 

And here is a slide deck of virtual games you and your students can play on Zoom! It will force a copy. (It says Fun Friday on the first slide- feel free to make it your own! You can also create breakout rooms where kids can play with similar items or games (board games, blocks, dolls, art etc).
GAMES 

Have fun with your kids and I hope you enjoy the day, too. Grownups need play, too! Here's an article about the benefits of play for adults: 

RAISING AWARENESS ABOUT THE NECESSITY OF UNSTRUCTURED PLAY
From https://www.globalschoolplayday.com/  :

February 4, 2015, was the first annual Global School Play Day for students in schools around the world. In year one, over 65,000 students participated! Over 177,000 students took part in 2016. In 2017, over 283,000 kids celebrated Global School Play Day. In 2018, over 385,000 students from 58 nations participated. In 2019, just the 5th year of the event, 535,690 from 72 nations played. In 2020, 563,283 students from 75 Nations. Can we reach 1,000,000 students in 2021? We think so!

In his TEDx lecture, Peter Gray clearly argues the case that today's kids do not grow up playing and this has negatively impacted them in many ways. It's time we return the gift of play to this generation.

2/1 K/TK applications available for 2021-22! Eeek!
2/3 No Professional Learning / Staff Meeting-- In honor of Global School Play Day enjoy this mental health opportunity to play and enjoy some unstructured time for you!
2/3 Global School Play Day!
2/4 WJUSD Board Meeting
2/5 Grade Level
2/6 DBE virtual conference 
2/10 3:00-4:00 SAVE THE DATE EduProtocols with Jon Corippo is coming to Waggoner! This will be on Zoom :) 
2/12 and 2/15 No School - Presidents Weekend
*Virtual Valentines Fun with the Principal coming soon! I'll be doing a Zoom scavenger hunt by grade level :) I still need to finalize the schedule. And I will make the Bitmoji to add your pics!*

Happy Birthday February!

4 Gaby Fernández
9 Connie Balasek
15 Lucy Arellano
20 Hernando Diaz

Add your Gold Stars here!

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