Recess time goes ‘old school’
Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson
DAWSON BEAULIEU, standing, and his classmates were introduced to Duck, Duck, Goose last week at Pine Street Elementary School.
Recognizing that many children are not familiar with such “classic” games as Red Rover, Drop the Handkerchief, Freeze Tag, Four Square, Follow the Leader, Simon Says and Hopscotch, school officials are introducing a “Game of the Week” where the students will learn and play the games at school and hopefully at home with family and friends. Also shown playing are, clockwise from upper right: Thomas Whitmore, Dylan Webb, Angel Willette, Chacity Gendreau, Sean Smith, Skyeanna Rubio, Ali Goodblood, Bryce Dennett, Emma Jordan and Bryan Searles. The children are first-graders in Rhonda Clukey’s class.
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
PRESQUE ISLE — Red Rover, Drop the Handkerchief, Freeze Tag, Four Square, Follow the Leader, Simon Says, Hopscotch and Duck, Duck, Goose are just some of the games that Principal Loretta Clark hopes to reintroduce on the Pine Street Elementary School playground.
“Children of today’s generation — I call them our ‘plugged-in kids’ — are busy playing computer games and are not familiar with those ‘old’ but ‘favorite and priceless’ outdoor games,” she said. “With all of us working together, we hope that we can reintroduce some of those games into our school recess time.
“Our school is going to try a new approach and implement a ‘Game of the Week.’ Each week we will introduce a new playground game, and we hope that the students will learn and play these games at school and also at home with family and friends,” said Clark. “The ‘Game of the Week’ will continue until the winter season dictates that playground balls and other equipment are no longer feasible for outside play.”
Clark said children don’t play organized games like they used to.
“A lot of children at recess are climbing on our existing playground equipment and they like to play chase-tag games, but it’s usually in a non-organized manner where they’re chasing each other, but there’s not really any certain group and others may join in midway. It’s scattered everywhere,” she said. “We have the jump ropes and the balls and some children do not even know how to play hopscotch at this age. We’re hoping to change that.”
Last week the children were introduced to Duck, Duck, Goose.
“We do have some little ones that are familiar with that, so I wanted to have a game that they could say, ‘Oh, I know how to do that one,’ and build up with some success from there,” said Clark. “The next one is Drop the Handkerchief, which is similar to Duck, Duck, Goose. I want to make sure that the games are fun and simple, but engaging.
“We know that physical activity is one of the most important things that we can provide to our students, and hopefully there will be some carryover between school and home,” she said. “It would be nice if the kids could re-teach their parents the rules and procedures for playing some of these games.”
The “Game of the Week” is introduced at the beginning of the week, and if teachers have some extra recess time, they are encouraged to play the game with their class for 10 minutes or so and then the children will have some free choice time.
“Hopefully the children will then start to organize the games during their morning or afternoon recess times,” said Clark. “It may be a smaller number of kids playing, but hopefully it will catch on.”
Clark herself hopes to facilitate some of the games such as four square.
“If I’m out there playing, hopefully other children will join in. Sometimes they’re shy about organizing things themselves, but once someone gets it started, they take over,” she said. “The great thing about these games is that they’re very simple and you don’t need expensive pieces of equipment to play. With budgets what they are, we need to look at what we can provide to students that won’t require a big piece of equipment to give them physical activity.
“You can also substitute game materials with other creative and safe items,” said Clark. “For example, we’re actually going to use a beanbag rather than a handkerchief for Drop the Handkerchief. For kids playing at home, it could be an empty soda bottle or a butter dish. Using recycling items is one of my goals to help teach them how we can use those recycled items in a creative way.”
First-grade teacher Rhonda Clukey said she liked the Game of the Week concept.
“It’s good to have an organized game so they’re not just running and tagging someone. With the games being organized, the kids are less apt to get hurt,” she said. “I’ll introduce the ‘Game of the Week’ to my students hopefully at the beginning of each week and remind them to try to play the game during the week. Hopefully they’ll take up some of these games on their own and play without a teacher telling them to.”
Clark is also thinking ahead to winter.
“I’ve got some old, traditional indoor games, too, that we might look to try at some point … things like Red Light, Green Light and the Dog and Bone,” she said. “It’s important to try to teach children at this age how to take turns, how to play fair and how to have a conversation with someone. These are all conflict skills that they’re just learning. Many have not been with other children or have played in this type of environment. Teaching them those simple things is important so they’ll have skills on how to get along and do it in a fun way.”
