Stories of Play

Educators know that helping new students transition into a school’s  culture is critical to building and sustaining a healthy community. This can be tough, especially when students come from different backgrounds or cultures. We see examples of schools overcoming this challenge on Playworks playgrounds around the country. The key to their success is enabling students…

For over two decades, we’ve been bringing kids and school communities together with play. On Playworks playgrounds, you won’t see kids sidelined. You’ll see high-fives, positive-reinforcement, and different students coming together to achieve a common goal. Use this checklist to make your playground safer and more welcoming for all students. Monday: Girls and Boys Playing…

Alumni Spotlight: Eleanor Alderman Current Role: Principal, International Community School (ICS), Oakland, CA Before Eleanor began her career in teaching and school administration, she was an AmeriCorps coach with Playworks (then called Sports4Kids). We sat down with Eleanor to learn about her journey from coaching to leading school communities. Give us an elevator-pitch-style history about…

Raised in Atlanta, GA, Odiaka Gonzalez graduated from Morehouse College with a BA in Psychology.  Prior  to serving as the executive director of Oakland Leaf, a nonprofit that utilizes creative education to develop young leaders to become agents of change in their community, Odiaka was a program manager at Playworks East Bay. A husband, father,…

After graduating from college, McKenna Griffith was searching for an opportunity where she could make an impact on students’ lives. She was interested in youth development and wanted to hone her skills by earning a master’s in social work, but McKenna knew that she needed more experience to successfully transition into a graduate program. When…

“It was chaos. A lot of kids would get in trouble or get hurt,” said Assistant Principal Peter Wilson, remembering what recess used to be like at Burbank Elementary in Hayward, California. With about 300 kids out on the pavement playground at a time, his school recess had been challenging. “We have this blue game…

Done right, recess improves classtime. "Our teachers get back so many hours of instruction time because they do not have to interrupt the lesson to deal with student behavior.

Last year I had a student, Clinton, who was pretty challenging. He was constantly being put on the fence by his teachers because of something he did in class or at lunch. He could be disrespectful to other kids, didn’t want to participate in games and was hard to get through to. He had some…

Watch Steph Curry play a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors with James Corden on The Late LateShow. Looks like Steph learned a thing or two from the kids at Playworks! Playworks students use Rock, Paper, Scissors to resolve conflict on the playground. Steph Curry visited a Playworks school in Oakland last year as part of the Get Fit…