By

Amy Petersilie,   Alternative Learning Center - Rochester

Play:

Community Playtime – It’s Good for Everyone

Topics:

Community Involvement, Physical Activity Participation,  Student Leadership

Our school started the year out with a fire circle Kickoff. Each year our school works to encourage students to understand the difference between surviving and thriving. This year for our fire circle we asked the students to think about what is holding them down. What are their “anchors” from thriving each day? The students then put those anchors on a piece of paper and went to the fire circle. We have a motivational speaker share some words and then each student threw their papers in the fire symbolizing cutting the rope to their anchors. We then celebrated with ice cream donated from a community partner and played activities. We had games like hackey sack and kick the can. It was a beautiful day to celebrate and enjoy our school garden which students and staff worked so hard on during the summer and thus far in the school year.

How did students and adults work together as a team?

Students were the driving force behind the whole activity. The staff wanted to do our yearly fire circle and the students decided on a date, time and what they event would look like. Students helped set up the area, hand out ice cream, and helped run the activities.