Staff photo / Allie Vugrincic From left, Lakeview Elementary first-graders Kenley Jerina, Lauren Stowell and Calliope Bush play Wednesday morning at the school during Global School Play Day, a grassroots movement to teach the value of free time.

CORTLAND — Cardboard boxes, board games, cards and crafts covered floors and tables at Lakeview Elementary School Wednesday as students let loose and spent the day playing.

While it may have been all fun and games, school Principal Scott Taylor said Lakeview Elementary’s participation in Global School Play Day was meant to highlight the importance of unstructured play.

“We’ve become a society where everything has to be structured,” Taylor said. “You want to give kids a chance to figure it out themselves.”

Students were asked to bring in a toy or game to share — no electronic devices were permitted — and were given time to play freely under the supervision of teachers.

All teachers in grades kindergarten through fourth grade decided to participate for at least part of the day, with some classes playing all day and others for a few hours in the afternoon, Taylor said.

“Everyone needs play,” he said.

Referring to a TED Talk by researcher Peter Gray, Taylor said there has been a decline in play since the 1950s — school days are longer, more homework is assigned and extracurricular activities often are arranged by adults.

In his talk “The Decline of Play,” Gray links the decrease in free play time to a documented increase in mental-health disorders among children in the past decades. Some five to eight times as many children suffer from major depression or a clinically significant anxiety disorder now compared to the 1950s, Gray said.

On Wednesday, Taylor posed the question: “In our quest for academic excellence, are we doing what is best for social and emotional health?”

Second-grade teacher Dana Petrunia said in the wake of the isolation of COVID-19 shutdowns, play is more important than ever.

“Normally, without the pandemic, socialization is so important. Kids learn so many skills playing,” Petrunia said, pointing to problem-solving, socialization and conflict resolution as a few examples.

She said Wednesday she also saw students playing with classmates outside their usual friend groups.

“It’s cool to see the kiddos interact like that. Everybody is just one group.”

As for the kids, they confirmed they were having fun, especially first-grader Jewelia Figueroa, who was building a “school for pets” out of a cardboard box and other materials; and Lane Cottrill, whose plushy monkey was attending said school. Figueroa said pets need a school to learn how to do tricks.

Global School Play Day, a grassroots movement by educators, began in 2015. More than 1 million students from 75 nations have participated in the day in the past, according to the event’s news release.

While kids can’t play all day every day in school, Taylor said dedicating a day to play brings awareness to its importance and hopefully will inspire children to play more at home.