Before recess: Have a playground strategy

• Have a plan about what you want to do before you go to recess
• Look around and decide what to do
• Go up to a person, smile and say, “Do you want to play…?”
• If you need to sit on the Buddy Bench, rest for a minute and think of what you would like to do

During recess: How to use the Buddy Bench

• After you’ve taken a minute to rest and think of what you would like to do, look around to see if you can still join in somewhere
• If you see something you want to play, get off the bench and go play!
• If you see a friend you want to invite to play, get off the bench, go up to the person and ask them to play
• Sit and wait for a friend to ask you to play and then go with the friend who offers
• If you choose to sit on the bench, you MUST say YES to the friend who invites you
• If two friends are sitting on the Buddy Bench, one can invite the other to play
• Playground friends who are not on the Buddy Bench: Look around to see if you can invite someone who is on the bench to play
• When you invite someone to play, show you care and show empathy
• If no one approaches a friend on the Buddy Bench, an adult will help find a “Buddy” or help create a plan for what to play
• If you use the Buddy Bench, you can make a new friend that you can play with more than once
• The Buddy Bench should not be used by the same person every day. Once you make a friend on the bench, keep that friend by inviting them to play!