Yesterday, my class participated in Global School Play Day!
Thank you to the Bedley Brothers and Twitter for introducing me to this project! The power of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) triumphs again!
I was heavily influence to participate in #GSPD after listening to this eye opening presentation:
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On Monday, I emailed parents, shared "The Decline of Play" video, and asked for games to be brought in for our #GSPD event.
On Wednesday, we had a few curricular blocks, but we were able to have two solid play sessions.
The sessions were sensational!
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Although I did not play, I contributed a classic play item, the box.
:-)
Students contributed games and toys.
Fuzzy friends join the class for the day!
First, we talked about the rules.
There would only be ☝, the Golden Rule.
Let the play begin!
Rubik's Cube
Al fresco jumbo jacks.
No one had ever played!
Paper folding and pyramid building!
Who doesn't love a box?
Guess Who?
Hilarious Head Bands!
Jenga!
Sorting, categorizing, and creating games
using cards!
Tantalizing Tangrams!
Monopoly Empire was a hit!
Not sure the name of this game, but it looks like you need to slide the starred disk through the small slot and into the goal to win.
Building is always a favorite.
Check out that fancy floor! How many ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands were used to create this mansion?
Snappy, our crocodile friend from Darwin, Australia, learned to play the game of Life!
What is your opinion of Global School Play Day?
Would you recommend it?
Leave a comment explaining the benefits of play.
Convince me!
Posts
Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteI think that Global School Play Day is very beneficial because we learned that we do not need an adult to entertain us, but rather, make up games ourselves and follow rules. It is important to be able to play with each other, take turns, follow directions, and have fun. It is a way of interacting with other kids. Having another Global School Play Day would help us practice all these skills some more and learn by playing. I really hope we have another.
Sincelerely,
Noa
@ Noa,
DeleteWhat a well written response! I like how you took the word benefit and changed it into the word beneficial. Well done!
I especially subscribe to the idea that children do not need adults to entertain them. The best way to develop a brain is to use it. If adults are doing all the thinking and planning, then the students' brains will never grow!
I also was intrigued [in treegd] by the idea that students need to practice taking turns and following directions. I think you are correct! If kids don't learn how to wait their turn and follow the directions, they will have a difficult time as an adult!
You have some very convincing ideas here. Thank you for your thoughtfulness.
Did you make up any games on GSPD?
Do you know what the word intrigued means?
Warmly,
Mrs. Y♥llis
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
DeleteWe did make up a game, and it's called Towering Blocks. We stacked blocks to make a giant tower and castle. It looked like it was as tall as the Eiffel Tower! That is hyperbole [hi per bo lee] which means we are exaggerating to make a point. :-)
We think intrigued means, based on your sentence, that you liked what you saw us doing. Are we correct?
Our favorite game was Jenga because you need to be focused and steady. Otherwise, you will tip it over and lose the game. CRASH!
Your GSPD friends,
Asha, Sam, Ella, Troy, Aryana, Sean, and Noa
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteI think Global Play Day is helpful and a great idea because your parents don't have to plan anything out for you, you have to solve your own problems and use your imagination.
Sincerely,
Ty
@ Ty,
DeleteWhat sorts of things did you plan out on GSPD? What were some of your successes? Did you have any problems to solve? If so, tell us about them. Maybe we can learn from you.
Your friend,
Mrs. Y♥llis
Dear Mrs.Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I think Global School Play Day (GSPD) is a great idea for kids to learn how to deal with problems on their own, not playing with tech, socializing on their own, and following the rules themselves.
Everyone looked liked they love GSPD. We had some problems in the group I was playing with but fortunately, we fixed it.
The best idea was that there is no technology to play with. This will help us with our social skills. When we grow up, we will have social skills. GSPD was very successful on Wednesday and I think it will be like that again IF we do it again. I hope we do!!!!!
Your GSPD friend,
Aryana
@ Aryana,
DeleteI think you have stated your opinion very well! Learning how to be self-reliant is an important skill for life. Your parents and teachers will not always be there in every instance. Knowing how to handle yourself and how to create an independent, fulfilling life will be important.
What sorts of problems did you encounter with your playing? How did it get solved?
Also, remember what Panda said? Only use ONE exclamation point in an exclamation. If you want to show more enthusiasm, use more words...not more exclamation marks! :-)
Your GSPD friend right back at you,
Mrs. Y♥llis
Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteI think we should do more of GSPD because, when you use
technology all the time, you forget that how much fun it is to play with your friends and learn from them. Especially outdoor activities such as bike ridding,playing soccer or basketball that are exercise, fun and good for your body! My most favorite part of Global School Play Day was playing Jinga with Liron and PLAYING for homework.
I hope we could have GSPD again soon.
sincerely,
Kiano
Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteThe reason why I loved GSPD is because it taught us how to play fairly and nicely and it also taught us to solve problems on our own and not with an adult handling it for us. I loved not being bossed around and be told what to do for once. I really enjoyed not being told how to play and what to play. It was a free fun day and I hope we can participate in more fun days like that. As a bonus my mom took me to the park for a picnic lunch and more playing after school!
Sincerely,
Kayla :]
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteGlobal School Play Day taught me the importance of playing games with the other students in the class. We learned how to take turns playing the games, and that helped us enjoy playing together.
I believe our class will benefit by having another Global School Play Day. By playing together, we will improve our social skills.
Sincerely,
Ethan
Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteGlobal School Play Day (GSPD) taught me how to problem solve without the help of a teacher. I also thought that we weren't just playing, we were learning about different ways to play together.
What was your favorite Game?
Sincerely,
Ella
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteI am convincing you to do Global School Play Day again because each student learned to solve problems and did not have to ask teachers, parents, or even aids on the yard to help them solve their problems. If we play together more often, we will learn to socialize and learn how to play fairly in a game. These are important lessons to learn in school.
What was your favorite game? Mine was Monopoly Empire because we took turns and played fairly. We rolled the dice to see who got the highest roll. Who ever got the highest roll would go first.
Sincerely,
Sean
Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Global School Play Day (GSPD) was fantastic. It taught me how to make new friends. For example, I talked to other students that I normally don't talk to. It also taught me that you can have fun without electronics. I had a blast playing games with my friends and played outside longer at home. My brain also grew more because I spent more time reading and thinking while I was playing games.
Sincerely,
Derrick
Dear Mrs. Yollis and Class,
ReplyDeleteGlobal School Play Day is such a wonderful idea! I am so glad that I was able to share in part of it with you.
I observed students engaged in conversations about game strategies and finding solutions to problems cooperatively. What particularly struck me was that every single one of you was consistently participating. No one was ever just sitting idle!
One of the things I enjoyed the most was seeing a couple of games from my past being played. One was the game of Life, a longtime favorite in my family. The other was jacks, a game I played almost daily when I was a third grader!
Each game that you played seemed to present different challenges. To be successful in some games you needed to use critical thinking, and in others eye-hand coordination was required! Of course, some of you used inventiveness and created your own games or ways of playing!
All in all, my opinion is that GSPD is not only entertaining, it is very educational! I can't wait to see you do it again!
Your play-loving buddy,
Mrs. Ranney
Dear Mrs. Ranney,
DeleteWe have read your interesting and amazing comment. Your vocabulary was impressive!
We were surprised to learn that when you were a third grader, you played jacks almost every day!
It was incredible when you walked in the door when we were playing our Global School Play Day games. After that you entertained us with your science experiments.
We loved playing the games. What was your favorite game? What was your favorite game that you saw when you were here? What was your favorite game back then?
Sincerely,
Sean and Nicholas
Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,
DeleteMy opinion is that GSPD was awesome because we got to play games. My favorite game was called Fast Track.
My favorite part of Fast Track is when you pull the string back and the string vibrates and the circle goes to the other side.
I highly recommend GSPD to other schools it is a great idea. The health benefits are great! Kids grow dendrites and are not on video games.
What was your favorite game we played?
Sincerely,
Nicholas
@Sean and Nicholas,
DeleteI'm so glad you enjoyed my comment, especially the challenging vocabulary!
In addition, I'm so happy to hear that you found the science experiments entertaining! Which one was your favorite? What is one thing you each learned about air that day?
As you know, I loved GSPD and really could see its value. I think my favorite games of the day were Monopoly, Life, and jacks. That is probably because I played them all when I was younger. When I was very young, probably in kindergarten, I loved playing Candyland. I used to imagine living there! As I got older I really enjoyed playing chess with my dad. Now, there's a game that really challenges you to think!
I'm looking forward to seeing you and the rest of the class soon! I guess I'd better plan some more science experiments!
Cheers!
Mrs. Ranney
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteI think Global Play Day was a total success. I participated in Monopoly Empire and had a great time. I think the benefit of you giving us no homework that day so we could have free play for GSPD was that I was able to go in my backyard and dig, which I don't always have much time to do on a Wednesday. I excavated sand and a red stone. Well, I am still trying to get the stone out. I have a sample of the red sand I found. Maybe I can bring it in one day. I enjoyed getting to have free time on GSPD.
From,
Troy
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteI think Global School Play Day (GSPD) is an amazing way to teach kids how to solve problems on their own. It is a fun and spectacular way to socialize. It was fun to play with things you have played with, but it was very fun to play with new games. GSPD is an amazing activity. I recommend GSPD at all schools.
Sincerely,
Ruby
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteGSPD was a blast. I think we should do GSPD every other Fun Friday.
REASONS:
First, almost everyone learned how to play something new.
Second, nobody told any of the students what to do. All of the kids were free.
Third, students got to play every game he or she wanted to.
I hope you do GSPD again.
Sincerely,
Tabitha
Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteI think we should have Global School Play Day (GSPD) because it helps us learn to cooperate with others. We also had to solve all our problems ourselves, which also helps us.
Sincerely,
Winston
Dear Mrs. yollis,
ReplyDeleteI think we should do Global School Play Day (GSPD) again because it helps us solve are own problems. Also, we didn't have to play by the rules of the game we could make our own rules.
Hope we have GSPD again
Sincerely,
Nic
Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteGSPD is a great way to entertain people without any electronics!
Here are some reasons why we should have GSPD again.
You get to learn and play games that you never played before. I got to learn a new game called The Game of Life.
It was so much fun! I thought playing wasn't as valuable as I think now. You really do need it as you grow up.
Sincerely,
Asha ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Dear Mrs.Yollis,
ReplyDeleteI loved GSPD. It was very fun. Plus no one was being bossy and we had to learn how to solve our own problems. Its not just fun but GSPD was educational because you have think.
Sincerely,
Leah
Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteI think Global School Play Day was awesome. It was great for you to learn how to solve problems by yourself. It was also good to take a break from electronics, so you can learn new things. I liked playing the jumbo jacks and doing the Rubik's Cubs. It was lots of fun to play those games.
What games did you play? What was your favorite game? My favorite game was both of them. I mastered the Rubik's Cube which I have never done before.
Sincerely,
Sydney
Dear Mrs.Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteI think that it is important to socialize and make new friends. When you play with people, you can see if they treat others the way you want to be treated. You also can see if they are nice, kind, and fair. I think we should do Global School Play Day again because I learned that I should join in with a lot more people instead of three or four.
Sincerely,
Kate
Dear Mrs.Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteWow I cannot agree with this lecture more!!! This is everything I believe in and everything I talk about everyday to everyone! I almost wrote a book about this very same subject! Thankyou for showing this video! It is so important for children to play, have fun with one another, imagine, create, exercise, explore, solve their own problems, and be free to make their own decisions! This all leads to a greater self love! Thankyou Mrs. Yollis!
Kim (Joshua's Mom)
Dear Mrs.Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteI loved the play day at school! My favorite game was Jenga! I loved building with the blocks also! It was fun to be with my friends! I think play day is a good thing and I wish we could do it more often!
From,
Joshua
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteI think we should do another Global School Play Day (GSPD) because it helps kids learn to be social. It also gets kids to think for themselves. It got me to play new games, like Jenga where you have to balance the wooden blocks. If you make the tower fall, you lose the game. I loved playing that game with Noa. I also enjoyed making up a new game with Derrick using football cards. It was like a real football game using a tissue as the ball, and cards as the players.
All in all, I loved GSPD. I think we should do it again!
Your GSPD student,
Sam
Liron has left a new comment on your post "Global School Play Day #GSPD":
ReplyDeleteDear Mrs. Yollis,
At first, I thought students would argue while we were playing the games, but it turned out that we played nicely and had a lot of fun. We learned to problem solve on our own without the teacher. I think all of the classes at our school should participate in Global School Play Day. It helps your brain become smarter to work with other people.
Sincerely,
Liron
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteI think that global school would be really fun. At my school we didn't have global school fun day, but what we had was Black History Month. What we had to do was find a famous African American person and discover what he or she did. I picked Matthew Henson because he was the first black american to reach the North Pole. What I would like to do for global day is go build paper airplanes and have a paper airplane flying contest to see . who could throw a paper airplane and make it fly the farthest.
Sincerely,
Michael
Dear Mrs Yollis and students,
ReplyDeleteWe all loved reading about the variety of games you included in your Global School Play Day, such as Monopoly Empire and The Game of Life. Some of us have the same games at home.
We think Global School Play is a good idea to do at school because you get to work with a team of people and try new games that you might not have played before. It also means less work!
Some of the people in our class have family game nights on Fridays and play Monopoly Empire.
We are going to try and convince Mrs Placek and Miss Crowther that we should get to have a mini belated Global School Play Day. Wish us luck!
From 5/6 Team @ UPPS
Victoria, Australia
I believe play is a social skill to be learned by kids, it will end up helping them to share, Be kind,and enjoy others company.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI love your blog. I also think Global School play is a great idea
Sincerely,
Samuel L