The First Ever Work to Play Cup
We couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate the 10th year of the Work to Play program than to bring over 700 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders together for a day of soccer, fun and friendship.
Daley Gets Dunked at Field Day!
To celebrate their inaugural year with Urban Initiatives' Play with Potential partnership, Daley Academy hosted a field day in Cornell Square Park. For two hours during the school day, the entire school participated in jumping rope, musical chairs, and playing in the beautiful weather. Every student enjoyed some time out in the perfect weather, snacked on healthy veggies, and also had the chance to win tickets to the Brookfield Zoo at the relay race station! Students loved racing each other and Mr. Rios (pictured, running backwards!), and continued running even after the tickets had been given away.
Hands down, though, the highlight of Daley’s field day was a dunk tank! Students had a blast seeing their teachers and staff get soaked! Everyone gathered around the tank to cheer each other on. CJ, a second-grader, even got to dunk his dad, PE teacher Mr. Hernandez. All of the proceeds from dunk tank tickets went towards Daley’s end of the year awards ceremonies.
Sixth grader Joshua exclaimed, “This is the best day ever!” It goes without saying that most Daley students would agree.
If You Paint It, They Will Play
On Friday, May 24th students at
Greene Takes a New Spin on Field Day
To wrap up the end of the school year, each Play with Potential school created a variation on the theme of "Field Day." At Otis, students raced around the school, trying to beat their teacher, a marathon runner. At Tarkington, a classic field day will give kids a lot of time outside playing games of all kinds. At Daley, a carnival atmosphere will dominate the scene, complete with a dunk tank for the principal. But at Greene, students who had worked on their leadership skills all year would participate in Leadership Day.
Greene's Play with Potential recess supervisors had been using a positive behavior incentive program called Links for Leadership, in which classes would earn links for playing hard and respectfully at recess. School-wide, the classes at Greene earned over 1500 links, earning the opportunity for a final challenge in Leadership Day.
LISTEN: CDC Interviews UI on School-based Health Education
Listen to UI's April Lillstrom discuss health education in Chicago Public Schools on this podcast from the Centers for Disease Control.
April has two years of work under her belt with the CDC's grantee Healthy Places program, and it's great to see another UI expert sharing knowledge with the national community of educators and health experts.
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PWC: Kickin' It At The Indoor Sports Center
Urban Initiatives shouts out a huge THANK YOU to Team PWC for volunteering at the Indoor Center last week. PWC volunteers spent their Friday afternoon brushing up on rusty soccer moves and cheering on their teams. Players from PECS, Marquette and Greene were proud to show off the soccer skills that they have been practicing all season.
After the games, teams engaged the volunteers in a discussion about the theme of the week: Self Esteem. Together, everyone shared their ideas for how they can help their peers have high self esteem, in order to make the soccer more fun for the whole team! We hope to welcome PWC again in the future!
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Junior Board Drives the Extra Mile for Bus Campaign
Throughout the month of May, Urban Initiatives' Junior Board conducted a Bus Campaign. The goal of the campaign was to raise $15,000 to offset Urban Initiatives’ massive costs to transport students to and from practices, games, field trips and other events. Urban Initiatives spends thousands of dollars each year on over 200 bus rides for all of its schools and programs. We are proud to announce that the Junior Board exceeded their goal and raised $17,714 to fund 100 bus rides for Urban Initiatives kids! We are incredibly grateful for the work of our Junior Board to reach out to their networks to fundraise for our kids! Thank you to every person who donated to the campaign!
In the end, Team Jahn, lead by Caitlin and Ashley, was victorious with a grand total of $2,330 raised for their school. "Soccer and the other activities that I was involved in helped shape the person I am today," Ashley said after her victory, "and it's really rewarding to be a part of UI and be able to pay it forward."
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Week 7: Self-Esteem With Jenner
The Jenner team has always been a fiercely competitive team; with other teams and amongst themselves. Come to a regular practice and you will notice how in every drill they give it 110% The numbers game done at the end of most practices can have a feeling of a Game 7 in the United Center. After practice the kids can be so fired up that shaking hands with each other is the last thing they want to do.
All 24 UI Schools Sponsored For The Work To Play Cup
The Work to Play Cup is almost here and we officially have all 24 of our Work to Play schools sponsored by some very generous and supportive sponsors. Thank you to each and every one of them!
This day of soccer, fun and friendship will bring over 700 of Urban Initiatives’ Work to Play 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders together at Midway Plaisance. We hope to see you out on the field Saturday, June 8th beginning at 10am!
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Glenbrook North Girls' Varsity Soccer Team Hosts Friday Game Day
The Glenbrook North Varsity Girls’ Soccer Team recently paired up with 60 soccer players from Jahn and Goethe to run through a variety of skill based soccer stations. Goethe and Jahn soccer players all had the opportunity to polish up their dribbling, shooting and passing skills with the help of the Glenbrook North soccer players.
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