Second graders at Bowdoinham Community School experiment with old truck tires during Play Club earlier this spring. Kids find creative ways to play with standard, natural, and unusual playground items during this unstructured time.
Jonathan Haidt’s book “The Anxious Generation” planted a seed that took hold with Bowdoinham second-grade teacher, Kaleigh Frye. While much of the national conversation surrounding Haidt’s book has focused on phone-free schools, a second concept – “play-full schools” – piqued the interest of Bowdoinham Community School staff during professional conversations in August. Soon after, Frye approached Principal Chris Lajoie with a proposal: “I want to start a Play Club.”
Play Clubs promote a simple concept similar to neighborhoods of the past: They allow space and time for students of mixed ages to free play. Kids can play how they wish, are expected to organize and referee their own games, and find solutions to problems by themselves. Parents who sign their students up must acknowledge that not all kids may be happy all the time at Play Club, and supervising adults will intervene only in the case of an emergency or another big problem.
Utilizing a free implementation framework for schools from Let Grow, an organization dedicated to growing kids’ independence, the fall session of Bowdoinham Play Club started on Mondays after school, rain or shine. Fifty students spanning grades K-5 Participated. Students were allowed to use a wide swath of school property, including playground structures, natural play spaces in the woods, sports fields, and shady sitting spots.
Early on, it took some trial and error for kids to navigate playing with much older or younger students—who, many times, were not their usual friends.
“It didn’t come organically at first,” Frye recalled. “Kids innately want to involve an adult as soon as something goes wrong, so it has taken time and effort to learn how to handle these situations on their own.”
A Bowdoinham parent commends both the multi-age and extended-time aspects of Play Club – one full hour – compared to shorter and more grade-specific recess.
“I get the impression that the longer format on the playground feels more relaxing because they can really engage in whatever they are doing, uninterrupted by regular tasks,” the parent said.
After a winter reset, and as soon as the days became long enough once again, Frye started up a spring session of Play Club. Many students returned to the program, while welcoming a handful of new participants. The rules remained the same: 1. Don’t hurt anyone intentionally, and 2. Stay within the designated boundaries. Other than that, the supervising adults’ only role is just to say, “Go play!”
The impacts of Play Club have filtered into the school day. Teachers have reported hanging back and allowing kids to sort out recess disagreements, when in the past they may have stepped in more quickly.
“We’ve watched as kids encounter trouble and then work with each other to find a fair and just solution,” Frye said.
In many instances, the more time a teacher gave students to work out an issue, the more likely they were to navigate the challenge and resume play. Office referrals for recess conflict have dropped.
“Something changes for kids when they know the adults trust them to handle these things on their own,” Lajoie added.
A parent of a third grader remarked that friendship issues for her son have greatly improved this year because “they are owning the resolution on their own.”
While some of these outcomes may have been predictable, one other result was not expected: Bowdoinham’s rate of chronic absenteeism has been cut nearly in half this year. Surely not all the credit can go to Play Club, but in the words of one young student whose attendance has been spotty, “Dude, I would never miss a Play Club day!”
This story was submitted by Bowdoinham Community School. To submit a good news story to the Maine DOE, please fill out the good news submission form.
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