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Santapogue Students Spend the Day Engaged in Play

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It may have sounded like fun and games throughout the hallways and classrooms at Santapogue Elementary School on Feb. 6 but the students were learning – even if they didn’t realize it – while the school engaged in Global School Play Day.

 
Created by educators, the idea behind Global School Play Day is to bring back unstructured play to students in the age of digital media. It started as a small effort in 2015 and in 2020, more than 500,000 students from 72 nations participated in the event. 

 
Students were instructed to bring in a game, toy, puzzle, basically anything to play with that wasn’t electronic for the event. Throughout the morning, the students engaged in structured activities, playing in groups and buddying up with the older grades, in some cases. During the art and library classes, students worked in small groups playing different games. For those students who didn’t have a physical education class scheduled that day, the school’s small gym was set up for a period of physical activity with jump rope and basketball. 

 
“We are always looking for opportunities to do some social-emotional team building,” said Principal Jennifer Carere. “The day is really about building relationships, collaborating, and learning to take turns and all of the things that creative play really supports. This is our first year participating and we are looking forward to doing it again next year.”