Stories of Play

Educators know that helping new students transition into a school’s  culture is critical to building and sustaining a healthy community. This can be tough, especially when students come from different…

For over two decades, we’ve been bringing kids and school communities together with play. On Playworks playgrounds, you won’t see kids sidelined. You’ll see high-fives, positive-reinforcement, and different students coming…

Alumni Spotlight: Eleanor Alderman Current Role: Principal, International Community School (ICS), Oakland, CA Before Eleanor began her career in teaching and school administration, she was an AmeriCorps coach with Playworks…

Raised in Atlanta, GA, Odiaka Gonzalez graduated from Morehouse College with a BA in Psychology.  Prior  to serving as the executive director of Oakland Leaf, a nonprofit that utilizes creative…

After graduating from college, McKenna Griffith was searching for an opportunity where she could make an impact on students’ lives. She was interested in youth development and wanted to hone…

“It was chaos. A lot of kids would get in trouble or get hurt,” said Assistant Principal Peter Wilson, remembering what recess used to be like at Burbank Elementary in…

Done right, recess improves classtime. "Our teachers get back so many hours of instruction time because they do not have to interrupt the lesson to deal with student behavior.

Last year I had a student, Clinton, who was pretty challenging. He was constantly being put on the fence by his teachers because of something he did in class or…

Watch Steph Curry play a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors with James Corden on The Late LateShow. Looks like Steph learned a thing or two from the kids at Playworks! Playworks students…