Head Coach Heather Bowers leads children in a tip-it-over, pick-it-up cone game during a Playworks session at Kalmiopsis Elementary School. The Pilot/Lorna Rodriguez

Two teams: the Tip-it-Uppers versus the Tip-it-Overs.

One minute of elementary students frantically running around and squealing with delight.

Goal: to either knock down the orange cones or pick them up, depending on which team one is on.

At the end of one minute, the cones are counted.

The Tip-It-Overs win if more cones are lying down. The Tip-It-Uppers win if more cones remain upright.

Tip It Over, Pick It Up is one of the students’ games from Playworks, a nationwide nonprofit program that promotes organized play and physical activity for students.

“It provides structure in an unstructured setting,” Kalmiopsis Elementary School Principal Helena Chirinian said.

Playworks teaches students how to play appropriately, and it also engages students.

One head coach, Heather Bowers, and two assistant coaches, Maggalene Harrell and Tuija Gordon, lead the K-school program. 

“Generally, I think it’s going pretty well,” said David Lee, Kalmiopsis Elementary School dean of students. “The whole point is, the more kids that are engaged, the less idle time they have to get in trouble. It’s good to learn how to play games with other people.”

Students, separated by grade level, partake in Playworks every school day for 30 minutes.  

Some days the students learn games. Others days they have free play.

The games focus on sportsmanship, friendly competition and playing fair, Bowers said. 

“The main thing is to teach good play skills,” she said.

Students first learn games  in small groups, and then play on a large scale with the entire grade level.

So far this year, students have learned 23 games. 

“Generally, I think most of the kids are pretty excited about it,” Lee said.

This is the first year that the program has been implemented at K-school.

Chirinian found the program online, at the website www.playworks.org.

She was  frustrated with how the current recess system worked; too many students were being referred to her office for her liking. 

Today, students tend to participate in so many individual activities, they “don’t know how to play with each other in an age-appropriate way,” Chirinian said. 

After she enrolled in the program, a trainer came to teach K-school staff about it.

Staff were taught games, and how to handle conflict in games. For example, if a game ends in a tie, students can play “rock, paper, scissors” to determine a winner.

The program has made a difference in behavior and raised playground expectations, Bowers said. 

“I think the consistency really helps,” she said. “I’ve seen an improvement in sportsmanship as well.”

When asked if the program will continue after winter break, Chirinian said “I don’t think it’s going anywhere.”