Four weeks of school and four weeks of the Pivot to Play® LaunchKit and Vicky and Cheryl, the two teachers at Westhampton Day School piloting it, say the same things that keeps coming up in every update: it has stopped being a special thing they do and become just part of how the day runs.
The primes don’t need reminders anymore
The students do their primes at the designated times, and sometimes they don’t even need a reminder to get started. When something new comes up during the day, Cheryl and Vicky add in an extra prime on the spot, the same way they would reach for any other classroom tool.
Games as the transition, not the extra
Cheryl and Vicky have built their whole routine around using the games as the body transition between activities. not an add-on, not a reward a the end of the day, but simply part of how one activity turns into the next.
And here’s the part that surprised even them: the kids haven’t gotten tired of playing the same game for a full week. They love it, and even come up with their own variations without being asked to.
Visible progress, and a little grief when a game retires
By the end of a week, the students can see how much better they’ve gotten at a game compared to where they started. That’s not something a teacher has to explain to them. They notice themselves.
There is a small, honest cost to that: the kids get a little sad when a game gets retired for the week. Cheryl and Vicky have started reassuring them it’ll come back around later. Which, if you think about it, is a pretty good problem to have because nobody gets sad about giving up something they don’t care about.
The logistics didn’t become a burden
Setting up and putting materials away for different games hasn’t added much extra work to the day. The few minutes it takes Cheryl and Vicky, more than pay for themselves in how focused the students are afterward.
What the teachers are noticing
Here’s one Cheryl and Vicky brought up on their own, not something we asked about: during regular work activiites, they have found that most of their students need fewer reminders to stay calm an in control their bodies compared to last year’s class. That’s their read on it, based on what they are seeing day to day, not a formal study. But iti s the kind of thing a teacher notices because it changes how the whole day feels.
What’s next
They’ve already got next week’s games planned, and they are looking forward to it. Four weeks in, and this pilot still has the energy of week one.
This is the latest entry in Pivot to Play’s® ongoing Success Stories series: real classroom moments from schools and teachers using the Pivot to Play® Play Powered Launch Kit. See more success stories here.
