The School of Play Curriculum
Primary School Grade 5 & 6
Week Twenty Four invites students to celebrate the joyful life skill of play, drawing inspiration from Mars's adventurous spirit. Through a range of imaginative, energetic, and creative activities, students are encouraged to explore movement, express ideas freely, and connect with their peers. Space Explorer Obstacle Course transforms physical activity into a playful Mars mission, while Draw Your Imagination gives students complete freedom to create without rules. Each activity supports the idea that creativity, curiosity, and fun are essential ingredients for learning, confidence, and self-expression.
This week also strengthens social connection and emotional well-being through shared play, gratitude, and positive interaction. Planet Bop blends physical energy with listening and focus, creating a lively group experience full of laughter and movement. Play Pal Pass deepens friendships and promotes kindness, giving students opportunities to acknowledge what they appreciate in one another. Together, these activities highlight that play is powerful, building confidence, strengthening relationships, and reminding students that joyful moments not only enrich learning but help them feel connected, included, and ready to embrace new adventures.
Courses
Space Explorer Obstacle Course
Space Explorer Obstacle Course launches students straight into a high-energy Mars adventure where movement and imagination work hand in hand. As they jump over “lava cracks,” crawl through “Mars caves,” balance across rocky ridges, and zip past swirling space dust, students use their bodies in playful, expressive ways that build confidence and coordination. Pretending to be astronauts on the Red Planet encourages storytelling, creativity, and a sense of adventure, turning every movement into part of a bigger mission. The activity celebrates the joy of play, helping students feel brave, energetic, and excited to explore.
The shared experience of cheering each other on and taking turns strengthens social bonds and encourages teamwork. Students discover that playing together, imagining, laughing, and moving, brings the whole group closer. After completing the course, reflecting on their favourite Mars moments helps them recognise how powerful imagination can be in making movement fun and meaningful. Linked to the Playful Astronauts’ lessons from Mars, this activity reminds students that play isn’t just enjoyable, it’s an important way to learn, connect, and express themselves. Space Explorer Obstacle Course leaves students glowing with energy, creativity, and the thrill of exploration.
Respectful Relationships
1. Emotional Literacy
- Students explore and recognise feelings associated with energetic play, excitement, confidence, nervousness, pride.
- Imaginative role-play allows students to express emotions safely through movement and character actions.
- Reflection questions help students identify how play impacts their mood and emotional well-being.
2. Personal Strengths
- Students discover strengths like bravery, creativity, persistence, coordination, and teamwork.
- Navigating challenges in the obstacle course builds resilience and confidence in their physical abilities.
- Encouraging peers highlights character strengths such as kindness, leadership, and cooperation.
3. Positive Coping
- Physical play releases energy and supports emotional regulation, helping students manage frustration or stress.
- Pretend play offers a safe outlet for expressing big feelings through adventure and imagination.
- Cheering for others and being cheered for reinforces positive coping through social support.
4. Problem-Solving
- Students use decision-making and problem-solving skills as they navigate physical obstacles.
- They practise turn-taking, waiting patiently, and adapting to challenges or new instructions.
- Imaginary scenarios require creative thinking (“How would an astronaut get through this?”), strengthening flexible problem-solving.
5. Stress Management
- Movement and active play reduce stress and increase positive energy and engagement.
- Balancing, crawling, jumping, and climbing help students regulate their bodies and release tension.
- The imaginative Mars theme supports healthy escapism, offering a joyful emotional reset.
6. Gender and Identity
- The activity allows all students, regardless of gender, to express adventurous, creative, and playful identities.
- Role-play as astronauts encourages inclusive participation, free from stereotypes.
- The open-ended nature of the course supports individual preferences in movement style and imagination.
7. Positive Relationships
- Students practise taking turns, cheering for others, and celebrating each other's successes.
- Cooperation during the course, assisting peers, waiting respectfully, sharing equipment, strengthens social bonds.
- The shared adventure builds group belonging and connection through shared experiences and laughter.
8. Help-Seeking
- Students learn to ask for help if they feel unsure, stuck, or need guidance on the course.
- Peers often naturally offer support or encouragement, reinforcing safe help-seeking behaviours.
- The teacher’s role-modelling of supportive language helps students recognise when and how to seek assistance.
Draw Your Imagination
Draw Your Imagination opens the door to pure, open-ended creativity, giving students the freedom to bring anything in their minds to life on the page. With no rules or specific instructions, children are encouraged to explore whatever ideas, stories, or characters appear in their imagination, magical creatures, faraway planets, colourful machines, or playful moments from their dreams. This kind of uninhibited art-making celebrates autonomy and helps students develop confidence in their creative choices. As they draw, paint, or collage, they learn that play isn’t just something they do with their bodies, it’s also something they can express through colours, shapes, and ideas.
Sharing their creations, whether by describing them or simply holding them up proudly, builds connection and encourages students to appreciate the unique perspectives of others. The activity beautifully reflects the spirit of Mars in The Playful Astronauts journey, where boldness, energy, and imagination are at the heart of exploration. Draw Your Imagination reminds students that creativity flourishes when they’re given space to dream freely. The result is a joyful art experience that leaves the room buzzing with wonder, originality, and the magic of playful expression.
Respectful Relationships
1. Emotional Literacy
- Students express feelings, ideas, and internal worlds through shapes, colours, and imagery.
- The open-ended nature of the task allows students to explore emotions creatively without pressure.
- Sharing their artwork helps students articulate emotional meaning behind their choices.
2. Personal Strengths
- Students demonstrate creativity, originality, curiosity, and confidence, key personal strengths.
- Making autonomous choices encourages students to trust their ideas and value their individuality.
- Celebrating each student’s unique creation reinforces the importance of self-belief and authenticity.
3. Positive Coping
- Art provides a calming, mindful experience where students can process feelings through creativity.
- Open-ended play gives students a safe outlet for expressing emotions non-verbally.
- Engaging imagination supports well-being by fostering joy, exploration, and emotional release.
4. Problem-Solving
- Students practise making decisions about what to draw, how to compose it, and what materials to use.
- When ideas shift or don’t go as planned, they learn to adapt, improvise, and adjust.
- The storytelling element invites students to find meaning in their ideas and explain them to peers.
5. Stress Management
- Freedom to create with no rules or expectations reduces performance pressure and supports relaxation.
- Art-making encourages mindfulness, focus, and emotional grounding.
- Students experience the stress-relieving benefits of play, connection, laughter, creativity, and curiosity.
6. Gender and Identity
- The activity supports full freedom of expression, allowing students to explore identity through colour, shape, and imagination.
- There are no gendered expectations, every idea is valued, valid, and celebrated.
- Students learn that creativity comes from personal experience and identity, reinforcing inclusivity.
7. Positive Relationships
- Sharing artwork fosters empathy, curiosity, and respectful listening.
- Students connect through imaginative storytelling, discovering similarities and appreciating differences.
- Encouraging each other builds confidence and strengthens the classroom community.
8. Help-Seeking
- Students may ask peers or teachers for ideas, materials, or reassurance during the creative process.
- The optional sharing circle models emotional openness, making it easier for students to seek support in other situations.
- The activity reminds students that imagination and expression are supported by a caring environment.
Planet Bop
Planet Bop turns the solar system into a playful dance floor where students listen carefully, move creatively, and explore each planet through fun physical actions. As music plays, children jump like they’re on Mars, spin slowly like Earth, blow kisses for Venus, stretch tall for Jupiter, and curl up tiny for Pluto. Each planet becomes a cue for a new movement, helping students build coordination, memory, and active listening skills while feeling free to play with energy and imagination. The game celebrates the spirit of adventure, inviting students to picture themselves zooming through space and responding quickly to each new planetary challenge.
Sharing the experience with the whole group creates laughter, excitement, and a sense of connection as students move, respond, and freeze together. When the music stops and everyone becomes a “space statue,” the room fills with giggles and anticipation for the next round. Reflecting afterwards helps students recognise how movement and imagination work hand in hand to make learning joyful. Inspired by the playful boldness of Mars, Planet Bop reminds students that play is powerful, it sparks creativity, boosts happiness, and brings people together. The activity leaves everyone energised, smiling, and ready for more cosmic fun.
Respectful Relationships
1. Emotional Literacy
- Students notice and express feelings connected to energetic play, excitement, joy, anticipation, pride.
- Free movement provides an outlet for emotional release and helps students recognise how physical activity influences mood.
- Reflection questions help students connect movement with emotional well-being.
2. Personal Strengths
- Students demonstrate strengths such as listening, coordination, memory, creativity, and confidence.
- Successfully remembering actions boosts self-belief and highlights persistence and focus.
- Students who take turns calling out planets practise leadership and communication skills.
3. Positive Coping
- Energetic movement helps reduce stress, release tension, and improve mood, natural positive coping mechanisms.
- Students learn that fun, play, and physical activity are healthy ways to manage emotions.
- Freezing and restarting during the game teaches students how to reset their bodies and minds during transitions.
4. Problem-Solving
- Students practise listening carefully, responding quickly, and adapting to new instructions, key problem-solving skills.
- When actions are called rapidly, students engage in flexible thinking and quick decision-making.
- Inventing new actions encourages creative problem-solving and divergent thinking.
5. Stress Management
- The high-energy, joyful nature of the game provides immediate emotional regulation through movement.
- Students experience how combining body and brain activity can create a sense of calm, happiness, and release.
- Cool-down reflection supports students in transitioning from active play to mindful awareness.
6. Gender and Identity
- The activity is inclusive and allows all students, regardless of gender or identity, to express themselves through movement.
- Actions are imaginative, non-stereotyped, and open to interpretation, reinforcing individuality.
- Students experience safety and acceptance in being playful, silly, or energetic in their own way.
7. Positive Relationships
- Students practise taking turns, encouraging peers, and celebrating one another’s efforts.
- Group play strengthens bonds, fosters laughter, and builds shared experiences.
- Collaborative invention of new actions nurtures teamwork, creativity, and mutual respect.
8. Help-Seeking
- Students may ask peers or teachers for reminders of movement actions, normalising seeking help when unsure.
- The supportive environment reinforces that it’s safe to ask questions, make mistakes, and learn together.
- Leadership roles like “Mission Commander” invite students to support classmates through guidance and modelling.
Play Pal Pass
Play Pal Pass gives students a joyful opportunity to appreciate the friends they play with every day. By pairing up and sharing something they enjoy about playing together, whether it’s building, running, laughing, or simply taking turns, students learn to express gratitude in a simple, meaningful way. The activity encourages them to notice the small moments that make play feel fun and special, building emotional awareness and strengthening social bonds. Even students who feel shy can join in by drawing their ideas or offering a gentle thank you, making the experience inclusive and confidence-building for everyone.
As students rotate through new partners, the room fills with kind words, smiles, and shared memories of play. These exchanges help children understand not just what they enjoy, but why friendships matter and how appreciation makes relationships grow. Gathering together at the end to reflect on how it felt to hear something kind reinforces the power of gratitude. Inspired by the adventurous, social energy of Mars, Play Pal Pass reminds students that play is at its best when it connects people. The activity leaves the class feeling valued, supported, and full of warm, playful energy.
Respectful Relationships
1. Emotional Literacy
- Students reflect on how they feel during play and identify emotions such as joy, excitement, comfort, or belonging.
- Sharing what they enjoy about playing with others helps students express positive emotions clearly and confidently.
- Hearing appreciation from peers builds emotional awareness and helps students understand how their actions make others feel.
2. Personal Strengths
- Students recognise strengths in themselves and their peers, including kindness, humour, patience, and creativity.
- Giving compliments strengthens self-esteem and helps students see the value they bring to social interactions.
- Receiving compliments helps students acknowledge their own strengths, boosting confidence and self-worth.
3. Positive Coping
- Positive social interactions and gratitude increase well-being and provide emotional regulation through connection.
- The activity models how reflecting on positive moments can lift mood and reduce stress.
- Students learn that appreciating others helps strengthen relationships during and after challenging moments.
4. Problem-Solving
- Students practise clear, kind communication, skills essential for resolving misunderstandings during play.
- Understanding what makes someone a good play partner helps students navigate conflict more easily in the future.
- Asking and sharing encourages cooperation and active listening, key elements of social problem-solving.
5. Stress Management
- Positive peer interactions and kind words release tension and boost emotional resilience.
- Rotating partners provides gentle exposure to social situations, helping students grow comfortable connecting with different peers.
- Reflection time supports students in recognising how gratitude and positive relationships reduce stress.
6. Gender and Identity
- Students choose and appreciate play partners based on shared experiences, not gender stereotypes.
- The activity reinforces that everyone can be a fun, valued play partner regardless of identity.
- Expressing appreciation and receiving it supports each student’s sense of belonging and individuality.
7. Positive Relationships
- The activity strengthens friendships and fosters new connections through shared appreciation.
- Students practise giving and receiving compliments, turn-taking, and encouraging one another, all core skills for healthy relationships.
- Repeated partner rotations broaden social networks, reducing exclusivity and encouraging inclusion.
8. Help-Seeking
- The act of expressing gratitude reinforces the idea that peers can be supportive allies during play.
- Students learn that being appreciated by others makes it easier to seek help when needed.
- Discussing what makes someone a good play partner highlights help-seeking qualities such as trust, kindness, and reliability.
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