Written by Joel Alexander
During the second half of 2022, Play for Peace in partnership with Kikori worked on developing age appropriate variations for the activities that were on the Kikori platform. This phase of the project which began in July was actually a continuation of a process that began in early 2022 with uploading over 250 activities to the Kikori platform. This was a significant step forward as it gave educators and students greater accessibility to social emotional learning activities which were adapted to the developmental needs of each age group.
After some advertising, we quickly received several applications from people who were interested in volunteering to be a part of our project which meant that we had to shut our forms very soon due to an overwhelming response. We were both thrilled and yet looking forward in anticipation at what was to come. We selected the volunteers who were a good fit for the project and got started. After a slow start, things began picking up pace as the volunteers became familiar with their tasks and fell into a comfortable rhythm. Each month we created and edited over 150 age variations of activities which was quite a feat.
Every Thursday, we held open office hours inviting volunteers working on the project to check-in, network with each other, ask questions about their work and to discuss problems and possibilities within the experiential education sphere.
On October 27th, we hosted a Halloween/Edtech Networking party for our volunteers by using the Spatial Chat platform to give us special effects and virtual costumes that we could add to our videos. We played games and connected with each other which was a lot of fun!
By the month of December, we brought this phase of our project to a close having successfully created over 600 age appropriate variations of SEL activities. To celebrate the great work done we invited volunteers to a Certificate Ceremony in which we handed out project completion certificates, connected through play and shared appreciation for what we were able to accomplish together.
This is what some of our volunteers had to say about their experience working with us-
“I have enjoyed editing the games. Most are ones I know or have seen before so that helps as I try to edit them for clarity and for my assigned age group. It has been fun to play a small part in a big project. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with everyone at Play for Peace.”
~ Tanya Hershberger
“It was very nice to see you all live a few days ago! Thank you for hosting this little ceremony; sharing space with other volunteers felt very inspiring! I enjoyed being part of this community. Hopefully, further opportunities will come up.”
~Monika Piasecka
Having successfully completed this phase of the project, we are eagerly looking forward to what’s in store for us in the coming new year.
