Foothill Elementary PTA is pleased to announce a program called Playground Pals Bus Stop which takes place during lunch recess 3 times a week, on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. This program was implemented 2 years back and has been very successful during recess. See our students enjoying the PPBS!
The purpose of Playground Pals is to provide a wide variety of games and activities for the students to participate in with a focus on health, fitness, and positive socialization.4th and 5th grade students get the opportunity to apply and be an up stander on campus. They also act as role models for students throughout the school day encouraging positive behavior – Be respectful, Be safe, Be accountable. The idea is to expand their role of a Playground pal to the whole day so that they can be available to help students and not limited to just recess/lunch time.The PPBS program encourages all children to participate in activities regardless of their gender, size, or ability.There are four objectives of the program:
- To provide a safe place for students to go if they feel alone and cannot find anyone to play with.
- Increase physical activity
- Provide a leadership opportunity for students.
- Decrease conflict and reduce the incidence of playground bullying.
Playground Pals Bus monitors are children from grades 4 and 5 who volunteer, and are trained to encourage a happy and positive playground experience for other kids.Two parent volunteers or staff members are stationed at the bus stop along with the monitors to help facilitate their responsibilities. These students plan and lead fun and safe activities on the playground, encourage friendships and use their project cornerstone skills to act as peer mediators to help the students deal with minor playground conflicts. They promote an environment of kindness, friendship and respect for everyone.We will be having two sessions of PPBS. Each will be 4 months; 1st session will be from Oct-Jan and the second session is from Feb-May.Applications have already been distributed to 4th and 5th grade students and last day of submission for these applications is 5th September 2014. No child will be turned away and every child interested will get a chance to be Playground Pal monitor either in the first or second session. The week of 8-12th Sep, the monitors for the first session will be finalized and they will get two one hour training sessions during the week of 15th Sep. Once the session of PPBS starts from 1st week of October, the kids will be meeting their mentor every fortnight to discuss the common playground problems they are facing and discuss the best solutions for them.This effort has been successful due to active participation and interest of Mr.Bosco and Ms.Smyrl. Foothill is a great school due to these amazing programs supported by Foothill teachers and staff and our amazing PTA.