Remake Learning Includes 2 Trying Together Initiatives on List of Projects That Influenced Pittsburgh Education

Two Trying Together initiatives made Remake Learning’s new report, The 57, which includes a collection of projects that have shaped Pittsburgh’s learning landscape.

Remake Learning Report

The report was part of Remake Learning’s 20th anniversary. Some of the projects on the list were one-time events, while others are permanent fixtures. They were created in classrooms, libraries, museums, maker spaces, parks, community centers, and other locations. Projects include everything from TV shows and toys to weather balloons and video games.

Remake Learning highlighted the following Trying Together initiatives: 

• Message from Me: A child-led digital tool created with Carnegie Mellon University that lets young children share their daily school activities with families using photos and recorded audio

• Ultimate Play Day: An event that transforms parks and public spaces into giant intergenerational playgrounds for all ages

Message From Me

Message from Me is a digital tool that helps children to communicate with their families about their daily activities and learning experiences by recording and sending photo and audio messages throughout the day.

Trying Together partnered with Carnegie Mellon’s CREATE lab to solve two challenges: children struggling to articulate their learning and families feeling disconnected. Early childhood advisory groups played a key role in shaping and strengthening the model over time.

The team developed and tested a prototype housed in a fiberglass kiosk equipped with a microphone and camera that children could use to photograph their work and record messages to family members. When iPads emerged, the program evolved into an app and improved accessibility. 

“When children were picked up from school, a parent would say, ‘I got your photo today! I saw you built a magnet-tile tower and counted 20 blocks,’” said Sue Polojac, the project’s co-lead. “Moments like these sparked conversations between children and their grown-ups about what the child had done at school that day.”

Ultimate Play Day

Ultimate Play Day is a celebration hosted by Trying Together’s Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative. The event brought families, educators, and community groups together for free play activities across Pittsburgh’s parks and public spaces, raising awareness of play as essential for learning, health, and human connection.

The collaborative worked with leaders from museums, parks, community groups, and early childhood organizations to plan the event. 

Ultimate Play Day helped communities to experience the benefits of play directly, rather than discussing them abstractly, Remake Learning explained in the report. It also reinforced that play supports learning, health, and connection throughout life, not just in early childhood.

To learn more about the two Trying Together projects and read more about the 55 others included in the report, check out Remake Learning’s The 57.

Neighborhood North Museum of Play Offers Weekly Art, Crafts, and Sensory Programs

The Neighborhood North Museum of Play in Beaver County holds events for children of all ages that include everything from recreational programming to artistic experiences.

The museum offers exhibits year-round and camps in the summer as well as ongoing weekly programming.

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Currently, the museum offers four recurring programs for children - Sensory Saturdays, Crafternoons, Tinker Time, and Maker Mondays. 

Sensory Saturdays are held from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on the first Saturday of every month. The events are intended for children with special needs and their parents to be able to enjoy the museum’s exhibits without a busy crowd. Sensory Saturdays cost $3 to attend.

Crafternoons will start back up in September and take place from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on the second, third, and fourth Tuesday of every month. The event costs $3 per child and is free for members. This is a drop-off event for children in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Tinker Time enables attendees to let their inner inventor run wild. The museum’s digital maker space has a variety of tools and technology that attendees can explore. Tinker Time, which will begin again in September,  is held on the third Saturday of every month during open play. The cost is included with admission to the museum.

Maker Mondays is a free after-school drop-in program for children in fifth through eighth grade. Children are able to engage in self-guided exploration of art in all its forms, from textiles and sculpture to painting, video game design, cartooning, and more. The event is open for drop-ins from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Monday afternoons (during the summer, it will run from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and on days when Beaver Falls Middle School is scheduled to be closed). All attendees will need a waiver and permission slip signed by a parent or guardian. 

For more information on exhibits and programming, visit Neighborhood North Museum of Play’s website.

Kidsburgh List from Mother’s Group Includes Pittsburgh Region’s Best 19 Parks and Playgrounds

Kidsburgh has put together a list of 19 parks and playgrounds that a Pittsburgh group of mothers cited as being the region’s best.

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Recently, Kidsburgh posted on the Facebook page Pittsburgh Moms Connect to ask local mothers which local parks and playgrounds were the best.

The 19 parks and playgrounds that the mothers listed include:

• Avonworth Community Park (Avonworth)

• Wightman Park (Squirrel Hill)

• Blueberry Hill Park (Franklin Park/Sewickley)

• War Memorial Park (Sewickley)

• O’Hara Township Community Park (Fox Chapel)

• Allegheny RiverTrail Park (Aspinwall)

• Adams Township Park (Mars)

• Northmoreland Park (Westmoreland County)

• Boyce Park (Plum/Monroeville)

• New Stanton Park (Westmoreland County)

• Founders Park (Greensburgh)

• Chippewa Park (Beaver County)

• Anderson Playground (Schenley Park)

• Moon Park (Moon Township)

• Highland Park (Pittsburgh)

• Casey’s Clubhouse and Wiltshire Park (Upper St. Clair)

• Foster Park (Ingram)

• Cranberry Community Park (Cranberry Township)

• Annie’s Field of Dreams (Fox Chapel)

Mothers who took part in the survey cited different reasons for their choices. One picked Avonworth Community Park because it was one of the only wooden parks left in the area, while another chose O’Hara Township Community Park because it is a disability-inclusive park.

Adams Township Park was cited because it includes a mini-water park for children and a playground, while Boyce Park was chosen by one mother because it includes winter activities during that season and a rock climbing playground during the summer.

To view the entire list and the descriptions for why they were chosen, check out Kidsburgh’s article.

School Code Recently Signed Into Law Includes Recess Mandate

The School Code (HB 1505) recently passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Josh Shapiro on July 12 included a 2026 Recess Mandate, making Pennsylvania one of 12 states that mandate recess at varying lengths during the school day for kindergarten through fifth grade.

“The passage of a Recess Mandate for Pennsylvania is an exciting step forward towards ensuring that early childhood education in Pennsylvania is rooted in developmentally appropriate practice,” said Valerie Williams, Trying Together’s kindergarten transition program director. “Play is the primary modality through which children learn and recess is critical for children to have unstructured active play time, which supports their mental and physical health. When children have daily active recess, they are healthier, they internalize all learning concepts more deeply, and we even see classroom behavioral challenges improve.”

The Importance of Recess

Defining recess explicitly as unstructured play, physical activity, and social interaction supports developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood education. Recess should be a device-free period that includes play and social interaction.

Policymakers also rightfully ensured that the bill addressed preserving lunch time – and not requiring children to choose between rushed nourishment or play – and that it included a minimum time mandate of 15 minutes for half-day kindergarten programs as well as the minimum 30-minute recess mandate for full-day programs.

While this progress should be celebrated, the current school code still allows for the removal of recess for disciplinary reasons. School districts should choose other options for discipline.

“Removing a child’s access to play not only conflicts with the United Nations’ ‘Rights of the Child,’ but will also not improve behaviors,” Williams said. “On the contrary, regular access to recess and playful learning all across the early childhood day has been shown to improve behavioral outcomes. I hope this important policy update spurs many positive conversations and system-level changes across the state in service of young children’s joy in learning.”

The World Health Organization recommends one hour of moderate-to-vigorous activity for children, ages 3 to 6, during the day. It also recommends three hours of active learning for children ages 3 to 5. Additionally, the American Academy of Pediatrics revised and published its policy statement, The Crucial Rule of Recess in School, in May 2026 that reaffirms that recess is a necessary break in the day with benefits for social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development. AAP also recommends that recess not be withheld for academic or punitive reasons.

Regular access to aerobic exercise, team-based activities, and physical activity through movement-based activities across curriculum has been shown to increase children’s executive functioning, which is the cognitive process responsible for organizing and controlling goal-directed behavior.

The Benefits of Play

Research demonstrates the cognitive, social, emotional, and physical benefits from play and physical activity:

• Cognitive/Academic Benefits: Several studies show that recess increases children’s attention spans and productivity in the classroom. Physically active students tend to have better attendance, classroom behaviors, cognitive performance, and grades.

• Social and Emotional Benefits: Recess promotes social and emotional skills that become fundamental lifelong tools and serves as a developmentally appropriate way to reduce stress. Through recess children learn to develop self-discipline, plan strategies, respect rules, and solve problems.

• Physical Benefits: Dedicated time for recess during the school day helps children achieve some of the recommended sixty minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per day. 

More Resources

Trying Together offers resources on the importance of play being integrated throughout the school day and for people of all ages - including its Playful Resource Series. The second part of the series – which will focus on play equity and advocating for play – will be coming soon.

For more information on recess advocacy and other resources, check out Trying Together’s Recess Advocacy Toolkit. 

Looking to Support Play?

As of July 1, 2025, the Playful Pittsburgh initiative is shifting gears while we explore future opportunities and funding. During this transition, we’ve paused updates via the website, social media, and email, as well as event support and game borrowing.

You can still access play resources:

• Visit tryingtogether.org for our Playful Resource Series.

• Explore our Recess Advocacy Toolkit, developed in collaboration with Trying Together, and stay tuned for the forthcoming Play Advocacy Toolkit.

If you are interested in supporting the future of Playful Pittsburgh, please reach out:

• For sponsorships, contact Kerry Chapman, assistant director of development at kerry@tryingtogether.org or 412.206.1053.

• For general inquiries, email playfulpgh@tryingtogether.org.

We remain deeply grateful to the many individuals and organizations who have championed play for more than a decade—and look forward to continuing to work together.

PA Promise for Children Resource Emphasizes the Importance of Play

PA Promise for Children has put together resources on the importance of play for children’s well-being and brain development.

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In The Importance of Play, PA Promise for Children notes that play is as important to a child’s well-being as work is for an adult. Play is important for brain development by teaching children new skills and how to share with others. It helps them to make decisions and learn about the world as well as work through scary and confusing experiences.

But, PA Promise for Children writes, nearly 40 percent of elementary schools have eliminated recess or are considering it, and many kindergartners in full-day programs have no break for recess. 

Real Play

Play workers in the United Kingdom consider real play to be “socially interactive, first-hand, and loosely supervised.” The American Academy of Pediatrics argues that play should be child-driven - not adult-directed - and that it is important that children have independent time away from TV, tablets, and video games for the purpose of producing “healthy, fit young bodies.”

Encouraging play, PA Promise for Children notes, can help children who have time for free, open-ended play to score higher in reading and math tests. A lack of real play, on the other hand, can lead to childhood obesity, higher levels of frustration, stress, and aggression as well as a lack of creativity and imagination.

Some of the types of play encouraged are:

• Large and small-motor play

• Language play (telling stories, making up silly songs)

• Construction play (building things)

• Sensory play (playing in mud or water)

• Make-believe play

• Rough-and-tumble and risk-taking play

• Symbolic play (turning a stick into a magic wand, for example)

• Mastery play (learning how to do new things)

To learn more, read PA Promise for Children’s The Importance of Play.