Playocracy is Breaking the Rules Around Recess!

Providing Schools with the Tools and Strategies to Build a Quality Recess Culture.

 

Why Become a Recess Architect?

It is grossly unfair of adults to expect children to play during a 15-minute recess in a manner believed to be fun and noncontroversial when they have not been given any previous opportunity to practice authentic, unstructured play.  

Research indicates that children have become play deprived over the last 40-50 years and therefore struggle to play cooperatively. There is mounting evidence that shows children who are not given the time for unstructured play:

• lack creativity and problem-solving skills
• demonstrate poor age-appropriate fine and gross motor skill development
• exhibit an increase in mental health issues like depression and anxiety;
• display little or no self-regulation and resiliency when found in a stressful situation.

Authentic Play has been replaced with:

• technological devices of all shapes and sizes
• an overabundance of scheduled activities that are adult-led and leave very little room for creativity and spontaneity
• a social media watchdog ensuring that all 'perfect' parents hover over their children and keep them out of harm's way.  This is not a judgement of parents - this is a global cultural shift.

Playocracy has gathered a decade worth of evidence-based information and research to help schools select the best strategies and opportunities for their school culture.

These have been put in one easy-to-access spot called Recess Architects.

The Recess Architect has reframed recess into three easy-to-manage areas:

Tool Box #1  Designing the Blue Print

We lay the foundation to help Recess Teams build a sustainable and successful recess culture for the whole school. Recess cannot be looked upon as 15 or 20 minutes spent between two bells.  Recess encapsulates the time before and after those bell times. 

Creating and planning strategies that reflect children and youth today establishes that students get back into class ready to learn when the second recess bell rings. 

Tool Box #2  Building the Infrastructure

We've laid the foundation in Tool Box #1, now we build the recess infrastructure by training staff and students to create a quality recess experience that brings their whole school community together.  The training options include:

The L.E.A.D. Recess Program

We have developed the L.E.A.D. Recess Program.  This program focuses on developing strong social/emotional skills through play.  Student leaders go through a comprehensive training program that teaches them to role model positive skills and to build school community through play. 

L.E.A.D. Train the Trainer

Do you have strong staff champions who are confident in taking this on?  Or perhaps your school board/district has a group of staff champions who would like to run this for all the schools.  We can train your team and be there to support them as they work with all the schools.

L.E.A.D. 2.0

The next stage in training your student leaders is to take it up a notch!  Our in-depth training takes a deep dive into inclusivity and how we create our own games.  This session can be done with individual schools or we bring several schools together for a mini summit.  This has been very successful!

E.A.S.Y. – Engaged Active Supervision for the Yard

Engaged Active Supervision leads to positive recess outcomes.  How students come back to class afterward influences their attitude and concentration in the post-recess period.  When adult supervisors are purposeful, active, engaging and observant, they demonstrate a genuine understanding of what active supervision is and how it will positively affect students. 

We look at three specific areas that support recess supervisors in creating a successful recess for all.

Tool Box #3  Tools of the Trade

Playocracy has created some very unique tools that support children’s creativity and imagination.  When these tools are employed appropriately, we practice executive functioning skills, communication and endless social/emotional skills. 

Introducing our latest concept in easy-to-use stencils: