Engaging Lunchtime Activities: Nurturing Student Well-Being and Social Skills in the School Yard

At St Peter’s Woodlands we are committed to ensuring we offer a range of inclusive options for academic education, extra and co-curricular activities and social and wellbeing programs. We embrace every child having the opportunity to explore their interests and passions in their free time and offer a range of activities for children to access throughout the week in their lunchtimes. These options are also beneficial for socialising and building friendships as we know some children prefer to play alongside their friends, or work towards a common goal as a team or play a structured competitive or non-competitive game.

This year the following activities are available for our students during lunchtimes; Gardening Club, Drawing Club, Strategic Games, Nature Guardians and activities in the Library. These are open to all children, but with different activities available for certain year levels.

For those children who enjoy sport and physical activity, we are blessed to have three large ovals, 2 outdoor basketball courts, 2 tennis/netball courts, several playgrounds, Nature Play and a range of sporting equipment available for use. For those children who need extra support socially, children may be referred by the Inclusive Education team to enjoy lunchtimes at the Hub where they are supported in their activities to help promote healthy friendships.

Nature Guardians – Monday or Friday Lunchtime – Open to Reception to Year 6
Nature Guardians meet once a week with Sarah Noell (Deputy Principal and Head of Early Years) on a Monday or Friday. Every child pops on a hi vis vest, grabs a bucket and tongs and sets off wandering the school collecting any rubbish. The children find all the little nooks and crannies where rubbish gets stuck and delight in clearing them out. The Nature Guardians finish up in the chook house filling up their feed and water, raking up the left over food and putting in fresh hay. With any time remaining, they take their buckets to the big bins and sort their collected rubbish into the correct bins – organics, recyclable or general waste. This activity is a wonderful for children who are passionate about caring for our environment and for animals.

Strategic Games – Wednesday Lunchtime – open to Reception to Year 6
During lunchtimes in the Multimedia room with Lisa Harris (Head of Teaching, Learning and Innovation), students are invited to play a range of strategic board games and test their critical thinking in luck and strategy. This is a great option for students who enjoy something academically competitive rather than sport. This is open to all students on Friday lunchtimes. In Term 2 puzzles and rubrics cubes have be added to the options of board games available as suggested by a student.

Drawing  – Tuesday Lunchtime – Year 2 & Year 3 students
Drawing is an initiative which was sparked by a student with a keen interest for drawing. After coming up with the idea of an all-welcome drawing group, many other students championed the activity and Reception teacher Josh Pearce, who has also taught visual art, suggested a meet up once a week in the Library. All students from Year 2 and Year 3 are welcome and can choose what they draw. The group sometimes enjoy drawing to a theme, so far this term they have explored comic strip characters, dragons and dinosaurs. Mr Pearce leads them through different drawing techniques including shading, blending and perspective.

Gardening  – Tuesday Lunchtime – Open to Reception to Year 6
This Tuesday lunchtime activity is open to all students from Reception to Year 6 and is led by Year 5 Teacher, Cathy Kowalick. Students are given the opportunity to tend to and maintain the garden beds situated in Nature Play. During Clean Up Australia day the SPW community worked together to clean up the beds ready for the students to plant seasonal vegetables. Across the term students are welcome to come and go as they please to help keep the beds healthy by weeding, planting, watering and picking the fruits of their labour. This is a wonderful activity for those interested in learning more about how things grow, including what months vegetables grow best.

Library Activities
The Library is available to all students across the week with a range of activities to engage in, including; reading books independently, with a friend or with a ‘reading buddy’ (soft toy), browsing the wide selection of books, return previously borrowed books, colouring in with pencils, board games such as chess, Guess Who?, Headbandz, dominoes and jigsaws and of course, imaginative play with activities such as the dollhouse, the dinosaur box, magnet construction and marble run. The Library offers a calm and comfortable environment for students to play with their friends or independently.

 Article shared by the coordinators of each activity