October 2007
By Tricia Despres
The Doings LaGrange – La Grange, IL
Ahh, remember those sweet days of your childhood when you spent all day looking forward to recess?
Time to get out of the classroom, run around with your friends and swing on the swings. Sweet memories.
But if you are like me, recess wasn’t always perfect. Recess also served as the setting of my first fight with my best friend in second grade and a nasty bump on the head after a fall from the slide in fourth grade. Not to mention all those boys chasing the girls and calling them names.
Recess is truly what you make of it. And the folks at St. Cletus Catholic School in La Grange have adopted a way to make what was once a rough-and-tumble type of recess into a “peaceful playground.”
The concept of Peaceful Playground is actually a nationwide program that encourages schools and park districts across the country to design an area full of games and peaceful activities. Playground organizers are given an actual blueprint to help with measurements, layouts, spacing and game placement. The program is used by more than 8,000 across the country.
Last spring, the folks at St. Cletus began talking about utilizing the Peaceful Playground idea at their school. Organizers even stopped by St. John’s Lutheran School in La Grange earlier this year to see how the concept worked at their school. In fact, St. John’s has used the Peaceful Playground concept for the past six years.
Previously, recess at St. Cletus was held primarily on the backfield and in the front parking lot, where concrete and energetic football games simply did not mix well. Add the many occasions when balls would find themselves thrown unto Spring Avenue or 55th Street and recess organizers realized they had to come up with some new ideas for the recess time.
This fall, organizers went out to stencil the parameters of the Peaceful Playground games at St. Cletus.
“Our janitors were able to use special stencils to outline different playing areas in the parking lot,” explained Mary Jean Zaino, coordinator of the Peaceful Playground at St. Cletus. “Four square has become so popular with the kids that we are thinking of stenciling some more!”
There are three recess periods during the day when more than 300 students go out to burn off some energy. Longtime volunteers during the lunch period say there was once a time when two kids would often get hurt everyday.
Utilizing the Peaceful Playground concept, children now fill their recess time playing games such as hop-scotch, four square and beanbag games. Students are also encouraged to play jump rope and hula-hoop.
“I still carry a box of Band Aids with me just in case,” laughed Zaino, who also heads up the school’s after care program. “But with these kinds of games laid out for them, the kids seem to be getting along with one another much better.”
At the beginning of the school year, students spent a little time learning the rules to the traditional playground games.
“The kids all learn the same rules at the beginning of the school year to these games,” said Zaino. “The overall philosophy of this is that there won’t be some much bullying and not so many rule changes amongst the kids as the year goes by.”
“Fun and games aside, the new system has really allowed the children to not only get out all of that energy at recess but play together in a nice, team-oriented kind of way,” explained St. Cletus parent Lynn Petrak, who periodically volunteers her time as a lunch mom at the school. “I didn’t notice anyone hanging around by themselves and all of the kids looked like they were having a blast and socializing in a broad group.”
Zaino now spends everyday with the kids out at recess time and enjoys the time she has with them.
“Since I am out there everyday, I can really watch the kids and how they are treating one another,” said Zaino. “I have some who are now saying that there are too many games and things to play with!”
