Playborhood Berkeley

Berkeley General

Recess, The Final Frontier

[This post is the third and last in a series by Mark Powell. In the first two posts Mark described the incredible fort play phenomenon he observed while working at Lexington Montessori School in Massachusetts. Read them here and here. All three posts are edited extracts from Mark Powell’s thesis “The Hidden Curriculum of Recess”.]

photo credit: sitemaker.umich.edu

Recess beckons well before it actually arrives. Its allure can be heard in children’s lunchtime conversations as they discuss imaginary roles, plans, alliances and teams with an appetite as hungry for play and its unbounded possibility as for food. For some children, recess provides the most important reason to come to school.

Although watched over by the protective, though generally unobtrusive, gaze of supervising teachers, children at recess interact with their environments and with each other almost completely as they choose—a freedom denied them at all other times while at school—and increasingly also in their homes and neighborhoods.

Berkeley General

Frowning and Fighting: The Laws of Fort Play

[This post is the second in a series on fort play by Mark Powell. In the first part, he describes how the children at Lexington Montessori School in Massachusetts began building and playing in forts at recess. Both posts are edited extracts from Mark Powell’s thesis “The Hidden Curriculum of Recess” in which he writes in detail about the fort play phenomenon he studied while at LMS. A third post in this series will appear shortly.
*All names used are pseudonyms.]

photo credit: Zach Pine

As a lower elementary teacher at Lexington Montessori School in Lexington, Massachusetts from 1994 through 2002, I witnessed for eight years the development of an extraordinary child-centered and spontaneous world of recess play. As children entered the elementary program at LMS, they were initiated into a culture of fort building by their peers. The forts, built entirely from sticks, leaves and found objects from the surrounding woods, were the site of considerable experimentation with different forms and rules of social organization and various styles of construction.

Claremont

Pick-Up Touch Football!

photo credit: nwds.org

Pick-up touch football game isn’t completely gone. At my son’s elementary school (Hillcrest) in Oakland, it’s been a busy year for recess and after school touch football among the fourth graders. The year started with lots of excitement about playing football during recess. Soon I started hearing about some of the issues/problems: they couldn’t agree on the rules, ‘Jimmy’ hogged the ball all the time, ‘Sammy’ was terrible and no one ever picked him. I chuckled a little at these traumatic events, but was inwardly so pleased that the boys had to deal, mostly by themselves, with these issues.

Berkeley General

Neighborhood Reviews

See those house icons on the map above? Each one represents a home for sale in the Berkeley area. By clicking on one, you get a popup that gives you the address plus three links to:

details about the home
a form to submit a review of the neighborhood around the home
Neighborhood Reviews, if any have been submitted

Also, note that the “Neighborhood Reviews” located below the map lists all homes for sale in text.

Since we just launched this site, we need reviews! Once we have many reviews, this site will become a valuable resource for families seeking homes in Playborhoods.

So, why would you submit a Neighborhood Review? Well, you may live close to the home for sale, and you may want another family with kids your kids’ ages to move in there. Or, you may be house hunting and you may want to help out other house hunters. Or, you may be a real estate agent or other person knowledgeable about neighborhoods, and you would like to help families who are seeking a Playborhood.

Whatever your reason, we could really use your help!

by Mike Lanza

Claremont

The Day Mr Grump Decided To Ruin My Personal Playborhood

I had sincerely hoped that when this site publishes its first league table of Top 100 American Playborhoods, my little corner of the world would feature high up in the rankings. But I fear my neighborhood may no longer qualify.

by Tracey Taylor
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Berkeley General

The Freedom and Fun of Forts

For some children recess provides the most important reason to come to school. With its promise of games of chase and tag, clique-bound conversations, solitary wandering and exploration, pretend and war play, recess provides reliable access to a scarce resource of immense value in the lives of children: spontaneous self-direction.

But at one school in Massachusetts, recess meant just one thing for many children: time to work and play on their forts.

Berkeley General

Free Play On A Rainy Day

Children whose homes have backyards or who live near parks or undeveloped land have wonderful opportunities for outdoor free play, but there are many, many children who live in urban neighborhoods or in apartment buildings who don’t have opportunities for outdoor play. And when it’s cold and rainy, children (and parents) everywhere need indoor places that support free and open-ended play.

by Gina Moreland
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