For Immediate Release

Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019

Media Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: [email protected]

Stratham Memorial School Participates in Global School Play Day

STRATHAM — To celebrate Global School Play Day, students and staff at Stratham Memorial School engaged in hours of unstructured play last week.

Global School Play Day launched in 2015 as a grassroots effort to bring awareness to the importance of regular, unstructured playtime for proper child development. The event came at a time when recess was being cut in schools and students were becoming more addicted to their devices.

Now in its fifth year, 535,690 students from 72 nations around the world took a break from their regular activities to play with their peers in a variety of activities.

On Feb. 6, 30 classrooms — 560 students — and 120 staff members at Stratham Memorial School engaged in unstructured play. Students built forts, played board games, hiked through the woods, held a wedding for rubber chickens, constructed small towns out of cardboard boxes, raced Matchbox cars through the halls, crafted intense dominoes courses and more.

The activities required students to think critically and make intentional choices, always asking themselves questions like, “Who will I play with?” “What rules will we play by?” “What will we do if it doesn’t go as planned?” and “How will I treat my classmates?”

“Watching students navigate this freedom while advocating for themselves and considering the feelings of their peers was a pleasure,” Principal Katherine Lucas said. “SMS was filled with laughter, vigorous negotiations and beautiful creativity. Everyone’s already preparing for next year.”

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