Last spring, Rayfield, a second grader, was standing by himself against the school wall as other kids played after lunch. They paid him no attention except to occasionally throw a ball or a mean remark at him. Rayfield would grin painfully and pretend not to notice.

That’s when Nae, a trained coach from Playworks, helped to turn things around for Rayfield.

Nae made sure that everyone participated in games together and taught children to respond with “Good job, nice try” instead of a mean word. She worked closely with Rayfield, building his confidence, and soon he was laughing and playing with the other kids on the playground.

Playworks stops the chaos on the playground, shifts behavior and accelerates learning. Students learn to solve their own playground conflicts through games like Rock/Paper/Scissors instead of shunning or bullying one another.

Play is an essentially part of the school day, but the structure of recess often leads to discipline issues and frustration. Playorks is teaming up with GiveCorps to take the frustration out of recess and harness the power of play to positively engage students with each other in ways that are fun and healthy.

There are lots of ways to get involved in the movement for play. You can join Team Playworks at the Baltimore Running Festival on Saturday, October 12, 2013 and Run for Play!

By giving directly or starting a fundraiser to join the team, you will help 10,000 low-income children to reach important social, emotional and cognitive developmental milestones through play – and create a culture of supportive, positive play during recess!

Run for Play! Contact D’ana Downing to claim your spot on Team Playworks then start your fundraising page here!