Lindsey- Playworks- Day Three

Wednesday, January 16
The weather on Wednesday was finally the beautiful, mild winter weather that everyone had been telling us about since we arrived in Denver. Since it was warm enough, we were able to have outdoor recess with Kindergarten through 5th grade students. We played some games that I have come to identify as popular in the Denver Playworks network.
The first game I played with some younger students is called Switch. This game is played on a foursquare-shaped area, with four cones on the outer four corners. In the middle of these four cones, there is a cone of a different color. It’s very similar to musical chairs, but the person at the middle cone yells, “Switch!” and everyone tries to run to a cone that isn’t already taken by someone else. Participants may not run to the center cone. If two players reach the same cone at the same time, they play Ro Sham Bo, or Rock, Paper, Scissors, to decide who will go to the recycle line. In Playworks, there are no “outs” or “losses,” so often times you refer to the line of participants waiting to enter the game as the “recycle line.” The person at the front of the recycle line then enters the game and stands at the center cone. In this game, players may also choose another word besides “switch” to signify the time to run. The word should stay consistent throughout the game, though. The person standing at the middle cone may also choose a different action that everyone must do to reach the target cone. These actions can include jumping on one foot, hopping like a bunny, skipping, or any other action that comes to mind. The game switch is pretty easy to play, and the kids at College View Elementary loved playing it.
Later in the day, Coach Tim had class game time. Class game time is a time where the Playworks coaches introduce the rules of new games that the students can play on the playground. After explaining the rules, the students then get to play the game. In Playworks, volunteers and coaches are supposed to avoid separating groups based on gender. At the end of the class game time, Tim had one girl shoot a basketball. If she made it, the girls in the class could get drinks of water first. If she missed, a boy had a chance to shoot the ball for the boys to get water first.
After class game time, Collin called us all together for a collaboration time. He wanted us to brainstorm some other methods Tim could use for splitting up the class besides dividing them by gender. We decided he could have them put their toes on the line of the circle at the center of the basketball court. Then, he could choose one student from one side of the basketball court to represent that half of the circle in a shooting contest, and another student from the other half of the circle to represent the other half of the circle. During our collaboration and brainstorming session, we also pointed out that many of the students at College View wore their College View T-shirts to school each day. The shirts came in three colors: pink, navy, and gray. Tim also could choose a person to represent their peers based on what color shirt they are wearing that day.
After we brainstormed ideas for splitting the class up, Collin also asked us to brainstorm methods to increase activity on the sidelines during basketball knockout. As it was, Tim instructed the students to sit on the sideline if the person behind them in line made a shot before they did. Playworks wants students to stay active, so sitting on the sidelines was not an ideal activity. Our group came up with the ideas that students could do dribbling drills to help with fundamentals of basketball, or they could do some sort of physical exercise, like jumping jacks or sit-ups. In some games, the students could do a certain number of jumping jacks, then go back in the game. In other instances, students would do dribbling drills and wait for the next person to come over to the sidelines.  
The collaboration time gave us more insight into the administrative side of Playworks, and showed us how they are constantly changing and improving their program to accommodate all students without leaving anyone out.