The School of Play Curriculum
Primary School Grade 5 & 6
Week Eight strengthens students’ strategic thinking, physical fitness, and gratitude practice through a dynamic blend of movement, problem-solving, and reflection. Students take part in fast-paced games that require them to think ahead, plan their moves, and stay focused under pressure. Through activities like 21 Reasons to Smile, Dice Cricket, and Tic Tac Toe Ten, they refine their ability to strategise while staying physically active, building endurance, coordination, and confidence in a fun, competitive environment.
Alongside the action, students deepen their emotional awareness and appreciation for the positive aspects of their lives. The Get Detecting activity encourages them to explore how Play, Exercise, Gratitude, and Giving show up across different environments, building self-awareness and nurturing a balanced mindset. Together, this week’s activities help students understand the importance of thinking ahead, staying active, and practising gratitude, supporting not only their physical and cognitive growth but also their emotional well-being and daily resilience.
Courses
21 Reasons to Smile
21 Reasons to Smile is a high-energy movement game that blends strategy, fitness, and fun as students work in pairs to avoid being the player who says “21.” Players perform one, two, or three squats on their turn while continuing the count upward, using quick thinking and clever planning to control the pace of the game. The challenge lies in choosing squat numbers wisely to force your partner into the losing position. While the strategy unfolds, the continuous movement keeps everyone active, energised, and laughing, creating an engaging experience suitable for any group size.
The game promotes physical fitness, positive social interaction, and light-hearted competition while strengthening students’ strategic thinking skills. Each round encourages new partnerships, quick decision-making, and plenty of joyful moments as players cheer, encourage, and outwit one another. With easy setup, no equipment needed, and flexible variations for different ages and abilities, 21 Reasons to Smile is the perfect warm-up, energiser, or end-of-session activity. It boosts mood, builds connection, and leaves everyone, quite literally, with 21 reasons to smile.
Respectful Relationships
1. Emotional Literacy
- Encourages students to recognise and express emotions such as excitement, pride, and amusement during gameplay.
- Builds self-awareness and self-regulation as students manage competitiveness and respond positively to winning or losing.
- Fosters shared laughter and joy, strengthening empathy and connection among peers.
2. Personal Strengths
- Highlights perseverance, focus, and strategy as personal strengths that contribute to success.
- Encourages students to identify and use their individual strengths, such as logic, timing, and composure, to enhance gameplay.
- Builds confidence as students experience growth in both strategic thinking and physical coordination.
3. Positive Coping
- Reinforces resilience when mistakes are made or outcomes don’t go as planned, encouraging students to laugh, reset, and continue.
- Promotes positive self-talk and light-hearted responses to setbacks in a social context.
- Encourages using movement and play as effective ways to manage mood and build positivity.
4. Problem Solving
- Develops critical and strategic thinking as students plan their squat counts to avoid saying “21.”
- Encourages anticipation, reasoning, and quick decision-making within a playful framework.
- Strengthens logical thinking and adaptability as students adjust strategies with each new partner or round.
5. Stress Management
- Provides an energetic, fun outlet that relieves stress through movement and laughter.
- Promotes focus and mindfulness during repetitive, rhythmic actions like squats.
- Encourages staying calm and positive in high-energy, competitive moments.
6. Help-Seeking
- Normalises collaboration and rule clarification through peer discussion and teacher guidance.
- Encourages supportive peer communication when learning or re-explaining the game.
- Reinforces the value of teamwork, encouragement, and sharing strategies in a safe and cooperative environment.
7. Gender and Identity
- Fosters inclusivity by ensuring all students participate equally regardless of strength, speed, or background.
- Breaks down gender stereotypes by valuing cooperation, strategy, and humour over physical dominance.
- Provides space for authentic self-expression and interaction in a non-judgmental, playful setting.
8. Positive Gender Relations
- Builds respect and fairness through positive interactions, turn-taking, and good sportsmanship.
- Reinforces kindness, encouragement, and appreciation for others’ successes.
- Strengthens class and team culture through shared laughter, cooperation, and mutual respect.
Get Detecting
Get Detecting is a reflective well-being activity that guides students to explore four key environments in their lives, Home, School, Friendship Group, and a Free-Choice environment, and identify how Play, Exercise, Gratitude, and Giving (The Daily PEGG) show up in each space. Using a structured worksheet, students examine the habits, moments, and interactions that influence their mental and physical health, building awareness of the positive elements that already support their well-being. This gentle, meaningful activity helps students recognise the role their environments play in shaping happiness, connection, movement, and kindness.
The activity also encourages students to think proactively about how they can strengthen the presence of PEGG in each environment moving forward. After completing their reflections, students can share insights with peers, sparking conversations about well-being practices across different settings. Whether used in a classroom, leadership session, or well-being workshop, Get Detecting empowers students to understand themselves, appreciate their support networks, and take intentional steps to boost playfulness, gratitude, movement, and giving in everyday life.
Respectful Relationships
1. Emotional Literacy
- Encourages self-awareness by helping students recognise emotions linked to different environments in their lives.
- Builds understanding of how Play, Exercise, Gratitude, and Giving (Daily PEGG) influence emotional wellbeing.
- Promotes reflection on how gratitude, kindness, and joy contribute to positive feelings and balanced emotions.
2. Personal Strengths
- Helps students identify personal strengths that support their wellbeing, such as gratitude, creativity, and perseverance.
- Encourages recognition of how individual strengths contribute positively to different environments (home, school, friendships, hobbies).
- Builds confidence and pride as students reflect on their role in maintaining positive, healthy spaces.
3. Positive Coping
- Promotes reflection on healthy coping strategies embedded in the Daily PEGG framework—especially play, gratitude, and physical activity.
- Encourages students to recognise which elements help them recharge emotionally when faced with stress or challenge.
- Reinforces the habit of maintaining balance by using positive daily practices to support mental health.
4. Problem Solving
- Encourages critical thinking as students analyse which environments best support their wellbeing and why.
- Promotes reflection on how to strengthen the presence of Play, Exercise, Gratitude, and Giving in areas that may lack them.
- Develops goal-setting and practical problem-solving as students plan ways to enhance their wellbeing across different settings.
5. Stress Management
- Reinforces the importance of maintaining balance between play, movement, and gratitude to reduce stress.
- Encourages mindfulness through reflective writing and self-assessment.
- Helps students recognise early signs of stress and consider strategies (like exercise or giving) to restore calm and positivity.
6. Help-Seeking
- Normalises discussion of emotional wellbeing by inviting students to reflect on support networks within each environment.
- Encourages students to identify who they can turn to for help or encouragement at home, school, and beyond.
- Reinforces that sharing reflections and seeking guidance are positive, healthy behaviours.
7. Gender and Identity
- Promotes inclusivity by acknowledging that all students experience and express wellbeing differently across environments.
- Encourages appreciation for diversity in how people find joy, gratitude, and connection.
- Supports identity development by helping students reflect on environments that nurture their authentic selves.
8. Positive Gender Relations
- Strengthens respectful communication as students share reflections about gratitude, giving, and support.
- Reinforces kindness, empathy, and fairness as essential to building positive environments.
- Promotes teamwork and respect by encouraging open dialogue and mutual appreciation in group discussions.
Dice Cricket
Dice Cricket is a high-energy, cricket-themed dice game that blends numeracy, strategy, and physical activity into one engaging experience. Played in pairs, students take turns ‘batting’ by rolling a six-sided dice, adding runs to their score for rolls of 1, 2, 3, 4, or 6. Each roll comes with a matching exercise, keeping students active and building fitness as they play. A roll of 5 means the batter is ‘out’, encouraging players to plan their strategy, think about probability, and decide how to maximise their runs before losing their wicket. With ten batters per player, the game keeps the pace high and the excitement real.
The game also promotes teamwork and communication, as partners encourage each other, track scores together, and celebrate big rolls and high totals. Students strengthen their numeracy skills through continuous adding and scorekeeping, while the fitness component keeps the session lively and energised. Highly adaptable for different ages, fitness levels, or learning focuses, Dice Cricket brings together chance, movement, strategy, and social connection, making it a perfect warm-up, maths-linked activity, or active brain break in any learning environment.
Respectful Relationships
1. Emotional Literacy
- Encourages awareness of emotions such as excitement, anticipation, and disappointment through gameplay outcomes.
- Builds self-regulation as students manage competitiveness and respond calmly when “out.”
- Fosters empathy and connection through supportive communication and shared celebration of success.
2. Personal Strengths
- Highlights perseverance, patience, and determination as key strengths during gameplay.
- Encourages students to recognise personal abilities such as focus, numerical reasoning, and physical effort.
- Builds confidence through teamwork, strategy, and the satisfaction of achieving goals.
3. Positive Coping
- Reinforces resilience when faced with setbacks, such as losing runs or getting “out.”
- Promotes positive self-talk and laughter as coping strategies during both success and challenge.
- Encourages maintaining a positive attitude and continuing effort even when results are unpredictable.
4. Problem Solving
- Develops strategic thinking as students decide how to maximise runs and manage risks.
- Enhances numeracy and decision-making through scorekeeping and calculating totals.
- Encourages collaborative problem-solving as pairs discuss tactics and support each other’s strategies.
5. Stress Management
- Provides a fun, active outlet that reduces tension and enhances mood through movement.
- Encourages students to stay calm and focused under pressure, especially during competitive play.
- Promotes mindfulness through balancing focus, physical exertion, and light-hearted fun.
6. Help-Seeking
- Normalises asking questions and seeking clarification about rules or scoring.
- Promotes teamwork and communication, encouraging students to support and guide each other.
- Reinforces that sharing ideas and strategies strengthens understanding and connection.
7. Gender and Identity
- Provides an inclusive, non-gendered game that values participation, strategy, and fun equally for all students.
- Challenges stereotypes by combining numeracy, strategy, and fitness in a cooperative environment.
- Encourages all students to express confidence and leadership, regardless of ability or background.
8. Positive Gender Relations
- Builds respectful interactions through shared teamwork and positive encouragement.
- Reinforces fairness, kindness, and sportsmanship across all pairs and groups.
- Strengthens social connection through playful, cooperative competition that values effort over outcome.
Tic Tac Toe Ten
Tic Tac Toe Ten is a fast-paced mathematical strategy game that blends numeracy, problem-solving, and play. Players take turns rolling a six-sided dice and placing the number anywhere on a 3×3 tic-tac-toe grid, racing to be the first to create a row, column, or diagonal of three numbers that add up to ten. Every placement becomes an exciting blend of prediction, logic, and probability, students must think ahead, block their opponent, and make clever use of each roll. If a move causes the sum to go under or over ten, the opponent wins the round and earns a point, keeping every dice roll high-stakes and engaging. The game is played for ten minutes, encouraging fast decision-making and mental agility.
What sets Tic Tac Toe Ten apart is its playful combination of movement and positive reflection. After each round, the winner rolls the dice to answer a gratitude-based reflection question, encouraging mindfulness and emotional awareness, while the player who didn’t win completes a simple bodyweight exercise linked to their roll. This creates a perfect balance of cognitive challenge, physical activity, and social-emotional learning. The game nurtures strategic thinking, enhances maths skills, boosts fitness, and builds a strong culture of gratitude, all in one fun, repeatable activity that students absolutely love.
Respectful Relationships
1. Emotional Literacy
- Encourages students to recognise and express feelings of gratitude, pride, and positivity through reflection questions.
- Builds emotional awareness by linking gameplay to self-reflection and appreciation of others.
- Promotes empathy and self-understanding as students share personal insights about gratitude, growth, and aspirations.
2. Personal Strengths
- Highlights cognitive strengths such as numeracy, logical reasoning, and strategic thinking.
- Encourages recognition of emotional and interpersonal strengths like gratitude, resilience, and optimism.
- Builds confidence as students succeed through both strategic gameplay and meaningful self-reflection.
3. Positive Coping
- Reinforces gratitude as a tool for managing stress and maintaining a positive outlook.
- Encourages self-reflection and appreciation as coping strategies that promote emotional wellbeing.
- Promotes playful resilience by combining learning, movement, and personal reflection in a positive context.
4. Problem Solving
- Develops mathematical reasoning and strategy through the challenge of forming sums of ten.
- Encourages critical thinking and quick decision-making under game pressure.
- Promotes analysis and reflection as students consider how planning, patience, and balance lead to success.
5. Stress Management
- Combines movement and reflection, helping students release tension through exercise and positive thinking.
- Reinforces calm, focus, and enjoyment in a competitive but supportive environment.
- Encourages mindfulness through reflection on gratitude, wellbeing, and future goals.
6. Help-Seeking
- Normalises asking questions or seeking clarification when learning gameplay rules or strategies.
- Promotes supportive communication between peers through sharing reflection responses.
- Reinforces the importance of open discussion and mutual encouragement as part of a respectful learning community.
7. Gender and Identity
- Provides an inclusive space where all students can express gratitude, reflect on strengths, and share aspirations equally.
- Encourages individuality and authentic self-expression through personal reflection.
- Challenges stereotypes by valuing empathy, strategy, and gratitude over competition or dominance.
8. Positive Gender Relations
- Builds positive social interactions through teamwork, fairness, and encouragement during gameplay.
- Reinforces respect, kindness, and listening as key components of shared reflection and conversation.
- Strengthens group unity by creating an atmosphere of appreciation, laughter, and mutual respect.
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