Lindsey- Playworks- Day Four

Thursday, January 17
On Thursday, we went to Hallett Academy and spent the day with Coach Cal. When we arrived, the morning program had just started. From our understanding, the students can start arriving at the school at 8:30 am, but classes do not begin until 9:00. During the morning program, students can eat breakfast in the cafeteria, watch a movie in the auditorium, or visit “The Store” in the gym. The Store consists of prizes that have either been purchased by Cal, or donated to Playworks. Students receive “Cal Bucks” for being respectful at recess, high-fiving their classmates, or showing a positive attitude during recess or class game time. They can then go to The Store to purchase any of the items they choose. There was a very wide selection of items from which students could choose.
Hallett Academy was different from College View in that they had a gym teacher and gym classes every other day. While we were at Hallett, the students were working on jump rope routines that they were going to perform for their teacher. The school also has a competitive jump rope team that competes against other elementary schools in the Denver Public School District, but on Thursday we just helped students choreograph their jump rope routines.
After one gym class, we helped Coach Cal set up outside for lunchtime recess. We played a few of Cal’s favorite games in our free time before the students came outside, and it definitely wore all of us out. My favorite game from this day was Ultimate Ball. Ultimate Ball is exactly like Ultimate Frisbee, but instead of throwing a Frisbee, players throw a four-sqaure ball. Also, instead of having a goal to shoot the ball in, there were four cones set up at the end of the field, and each team had to knock over the opposing side’s cones in order to win the game. If any player dropped the ball, the ball would go to the other team. I thoroughly enjoyed playing this version of the game, because I can’t throw a Frisbee at a specific target. The adaptation makes this game much more fun for a group of people with a wide range of athletic abilities.
When the students came outside for recess time, our group made the observation that students line up at cones before they are released onto the playground. This adds organization to the beginning of recess. During this time, the Playworks coach also tells students what their options are for activities that day. At Hallett, students are only allowed to play on the playground equipment on certain days. The day we visited was not one of these days, which made it more fun for us because there were more kids for us to play with.
Once we were done playing with kids for the day, Collin had a question and answer session with us, where we could ask any questions about Playworks as an organization, or ways to become involved with Playworks. We learned that each school pays $25,000 to establish their Playworks program, and Playworks fundraises the other $25,000, meaning that it costs $50,000 for each school to have a Playworks coach. Collin also told us how coaches and volunteers are selected for the schools. Typically the applicants will meet the hiring staff in a park or open area, and they will have about ten minutes to explain and play a Playworks-type game with the other applicants and the interviewers. This was really interesting to me, because so many of the games we played with both Coach Tim and Coach Cal were games they had come up with on their own.