Play means many things to people. For some it is a concept wholly separate from work, something we actually work on or aspire toward. For others, work and play are woven together, nestled in the production of new ideas, collaboration or design.

Play brings up memories of childhood, of essential things we hope not to lose in our daily lives. We all know someone who just “won’t grow-up” and admire or resent them for it. We go to plays or perform them, or see the roles we play with each other in the dramas or relationships in our lives. Play responds to  toys or without limits in solitary or shared imagination.

Play is a human right, called out in the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights for Children. How do we learn to play? Or to be good at playing? Can we go to school to play? What does it mean for a Community to play together?

While the 7th Grade spent a week hiking the Olympic Coast, teams of 6th and 8th graders joined together together to explore these questions and the meaning of PLAY through a variety of projects investigations. We work together as a community, within our teams and individually as we seek to unearth the many meaninggs of PLAY in our lives.