Building blocks, lots of crayons and paper, toy animals, marbles, big cardboard boxes, face painting, gummy worms for treats and making new friends — what could be more fun?
The high school student delegates to the B.C. Student Voice Okanagan Region Forum got down on the floor to play with kindergarten students from BX elementary to help themselves remember how they used to learn.
“We’re getting our play back,” said Mykenzee Ramunno as she and kindergarten student Anissa Maurie laughed while they raced marbles through a structure they had built.
Fulton school principal Malcolm Reid, who organized the forum with student advisors, admits he wasn’t sure what would happen when they invited Kari Reid’s kindergarten class to be the “guest speakers” for the forum.
“We went to talk to the kindergarten students and told them we had some high school students who had forgotten how to play and we needed their help. One little girl stood up and said, ‘We’ll teach them.’ Play is considered so important that it is recognized as on of the specific rights for children.”
The high school students thought about the forum theme, Voice on Success, and questions about what makes a well-rounded, successful, happy person.
“Keeping some play in our lives keeps us from being stiff and boring. I think we lose our sense of play in Grade 8. I think I got duller and more silent then and there’s a lot of me that I miss. I try to keep play in my life by interacting with my younger cousins,” said Dustin Cantryn, a Fulton representative.
Malcolm Reid watched the students playing.
“The younger students have such an unbelievable passion to learn but many kids lose that passion,” he said. “In high school everything is more planned and controlled and we want to think about how we can incorporate a more playful attitude into our studies,” he said.
Kari Reid smiled as she watched students and said she hopes that the older students remember that no matter how old they are, play can still be an essential part of the day.
“I hope they go back to their school and say to their teachers, ‘We need some play in our learning,’” she said. “It was so great to bring the two groups together. I saw some amazing creative thinking going on.”
Everyone helped clean up, then the kindergarten students had to say good-bye. The forum participants, who came from high schools around the Okanagan, discussed what they had learned from their guest speakers/new friends.
Their responses considered the first question, “What are the attributes of a well-rounded, successful, happy person?”
Responses included:
n “Everyone can teach you something. Each person has their own individual balance.”
n “Kids enjoy the little things. They didn’t let things set them back. They are open to new things.”
Malcolm Reid said he was impressed by the depth and creativity of students’ answers and discussions.
“I think we learned a lot from playing with the children,” he said. “Now we need to think about how we can incorporate movement and play into our classes. We don’t have to be playing constantly to be happy. We have responsibilities, but we can learn different ways of doing what we have to do.”
Representatives will take what they have learned back to their schools and selected representatives will attend the BC Student Voice Provincial Forum in Vancouver in the spring. They will send a report to the Minister of Education.
“I didn’t know if this was going to be a disaster or magic. It turned out to be magic,” said Malcolm Reid.
