It’s Week 4 of our Re-Thinking Recess series, and Tory is sharing how they’ve reimagined two big playground dynamics: soccer and loose parts. Instead of letting the game default to highly competitive, adversarial teams, they’ve intentionally structured soccer so students are grouped in ways that encourage cooperation, shared responsibility, and actual play—not just winning.

This week, she also shares how loose parts continue to invite imagination, collaboration, and leadership across the playground. When children are given space, materials, and a shared understanding of what respectful play looks like, they rise to it. What emerged wasn’t just “figuring out soccer.” It was a playground culture where more students feel invited in—and where play feels like it belongs to them.

Sadly, this concludes our rethinking recess series for now. We want to send a big thank you to Tory and St. Bernadette (OCSB) for sharing their play journey with us. If you’d like to follow St. Bernadette’s continued play journey, follow them over on X (Twitter).

Bonus: Check out the Conflict Corner poster below this video.