Squads
Your Recess home base.
Hosted by 3 expert guides
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Age ranges are just suggestions! You can register for any cohort.
Build lasting friendships and practice social skills through the power of play. Social Squads use interactive games to foster communication, teamwork, and emotional intelligence. Scroll to the bottom of this page to see details for each specific Squad
What You'll Do:
- Make new friends
- Broaden friendships with current friends
- Play collaborative games like Jackbox, Garticphone, hexanaut, board games and various roleplaying games
- Practice winning, losing, and sportsmanship
- Share experiences and form bonds with a community of like-minded peers
- Receive personalized guidance to enhance communication and emotional regulation skills
What you'll learn:
- Social Confidence: Built through positive interactions and shared experiences.
- Collaboration Skills: Every kid discovers their unique way to contribute to a team.
- Improved Communication: Enhanced through practice, feedback, and social interaction.
- Emotional Intelligence: Learn to navigate feelings and responses in a supportive, accepting setting.
- Creative Problem-Solving: Encouraged by diverse games and activities.
- Community Connection: Form meaningful relationships with peers from different backgrounds. Attend the Recess Social hour with a group of friends!
What you'll need:
- Ability to join sessions on gather.town (The Recess Virtual Universe)
- A working camera and microphone
- Access to the games that your group is playing
Breakdown of Each Squad
(all times listed in Pacific Standard Time)
- Monday 10:45am PT - "Teen Squad" - Currently playing a collaborative space based game called "Void Crew" Taking on Mindustry challenges together. Teens only. Focus on: communication, collaboration and comradery
- Monday 2:00pm PT - "Squad 103" - Has not started yet. Focus: You'll help decide what you and your new friends will take on-- shape your own Squad experience!
- Tuesday 10:45am PT - "G.U.R.Ns Squad" - Change games each week: Mindustry, Minecraft, Overcooked2, PicoPark, Betrayal, Jackbox and more! Focus: social skills, communication, group decision making, exploring new games
- Wednesday 2:00pm PT - "Frogs Squad" Girls only, currently playing RPG games, like to switch games every few sessions - drawing/creative games. Focus: confidence building, comradery, creativity, self exploration
- Thursday 6am PT - "Nate's Squad" Playing Civilization XI and Mindustry Challenges created by our own Nate 😁. Focus: Strategy, collaboration, group decision making, Encouraging excellence through friendly rivalry and intellectual exchange
- Thursday 10:00am PT - "Pizza Slices" - Is currently on pause until we have enough kids to make the class work - feel free to register - you will not be charged until the squad starts back up!
- Thursday 1:30pm PT - "Nova Squad" - Playing Honey Heist - a fantasy role playing game Focus: social connections, collaboration, problem solving and trying new things
- Friday 10:45 PT - Girls Squad - Girls only, ages 9-12 - aiming to start October 18th
Meet the guides
Expert guides leading this course
Course updates
Updates from guides of this course
Oct 1 @ 11:49 PM
Back to Our Roots and Conquering Sectors!
We kicked off today’s session with a game of Random Objects, a fun callback to our early days as a group. Then, we reopened the discussion of “what should we play today?” After careful deliberation, we decided to stick with our originally agreed game—Mindustry.
As a group, we ju...
Oct 3 @ 11:38 PM
To everyone in Nova Squad
The Mystery Deepens in Honey Heist!
In our last session, the bears ventured deeper into a cave, only to find themselves surrounded by giant, territorial crabs! After an epic battle, thanks to *****’s quick thinking, *****’s brute strength, and *****’s cleverness, they managed to defeat the crabs. With the path clea...
Sep 17 @ 2:13 AM
To everyone in Teens Squad - Void Crew
Teen Squad Update - Welcome Jad!🎉
Today, we welcomed our newest member to the squad. We explored a new virtual office space that Recess is considering and let the Teen Squad test it out and give feedback. After playing a few minigames, we decided to change our course of action for the next few weeks.
One of our ...
Sep 27 @ 12:06 AM
To everyone in Nova Squad
Crab Nest Chaos: *****’s Epic Entrance!
We kicked off today by introducing our newest member—welcome to the team, *****! 🎉 After making some character modifications and crafting amazing backstories for our BEARachters, we jumped back into the heist!
As the bears ventured deeper into the cave, the faint scuttling of l...
Sep 25 @ 12:13 AM
To everyone in G.U.R.Ns Squad
Decision Paralysis Conquered!
We started off today by trying something new—creating our own card deck in a game called Rankio. In this game, we create questions, provide a series of possible answers, and one player ranks 5 answers from least to most favorite. We played two rounds to test it out, and I had so ...
3 days ago
To everyone in Recess Squad 103
Fair Play and Strategy in Risk!
We stuck to our plan today and jumped into Risk! We agreed on a game mode where the player with control of 70% of the map wins. This allowed us to play almost three full games in just one hour!
While we’re quickly picking up on game strategies, today’s session centered around th...
Sep 19 @ 11:44 PM
To everyone in Nova Squad
Nova Squad is on a Honey Heist: Introducing *** **********
We picked things up where we left off in our Honey Heist adventure. The mysterious man in purple knocked ***** ********** unconscious! He then introduced the group to a new ally—*** **********, a hulking retired grizzly bear. *** brings some much-needed muscle to the crew! And lu...
Sep 26 @ 10:07 PM
To everyone in Nate's Squad
Honey Heist is Back!: The Descent Begins...
Today's Honey Heist adventure kicked off with the bears picking up where they left off—facing the mysterious old man reeking of old honey. *** , still shrouded in invisibility, briefly considered using his newly acquired cattle prod to take out the strange fellow, but ultimately,...
Sep 18 @ 11:53 PM
To everyone in Frogs Squad (Girls only)
Frogs Squad Update: Game Creation Day!
With our ***** ***** extraordinaire out today, we decided to extend the break and do something completely different—we created our own game! Introducing *****—a game that tests how well we know each other.
Today, we built the foundation by coming up with six questions and answer...
1 day ago
To everyone in Nate's Squad
🐻🪢 From Bear Rope to Battle Stance ⚔️🏹
Today's Honey Heist session was packed with excitement and teamwork! The ***** brewed another feather potion, this time for *****. Confidently, ***** stepped onto the rope bridge, but midway across, disaster struck—a rock fell from the ceiling, knocking one of the securing pegs l...
3 hours ago
To everyone in Frogs Squad (Girls only)
🎨 Creative Vibes and Halloween Hype 🎃
This squad has seriously been awesome to be a part of, and it's starting to feel like an organic group of friends. We've been chatting and getting to know each other more, and it's made every session so much fun! A special shout-out to ******, who shared a couple of videos she ma...
Oct 3 @ 11:44 PM
To everyone in Pizza Slices of Destiny
Pizza Slices Squad Update: Pausing for Now
Today, it was just *** and **********, but we had an incredible session! We spent the hour talking all things ***** *****, dove into discussions about sprite sheets, and even tried out making custom pets in Recess. To top it off, we designed ***’s very own Room (image included)!
...
Oct 4 @ 4:27 PM
To everyone in Nate's Squad
Across the Abyss: The Bears' Bold Journey Continues
The bears resumed their adventure, standing before the ominous chasm, precarious rope bridge, and the ancient door beyond. ******** took the lead, discovering an old adventurer’s pack hidden in the shadows. Inside, he found a rusty grappling hook, 20 feet of fraying rope, and a b...
3 days ago
To everyone in Teens Squad - Void Crew
Victory in Void Crew!
We finally beat our first mission in Void Crew! 🎉 A big welcome to ****, who joined us today—we troubleshot some tech issues, and despite the rocky start, we survived the mission together. Success!
We’re slowly learning the ins and outs of the game, and how essential each of ou...
3 days ago
To everyone in G.U.R.Ns Squad
5 team PvP Madness
We kicked off today’s session by deciding which version of Mindustry to play and settled on an epic 5-team, 1v1v1v1v1 PvP match on a map with 50 cores! Before we started, we took time to agree on the rules of combat, and then the battle began!
The attached images show the map at...
Sep 19 @ 6:19 PM
To everyone in Pizza Slices of Destiny
Kid-created games, strategic play, and how to trick an AI
Today, we played a few different games. First, ****** showed us his awesome game that he built in Scratch.
****** was hesitant to let us play because the game wasn't finished yet, but *** and I played for 20min and had a great time. *** was hyped to try to get the "World Record...
Sep 18 @ 1:23 AM
To everyone in G.U.R.Ns Squad
G.U.R.Ns Squad Update: Splitting Up or Sticking Together?
Today, we decided to try something different. Some of our members were really excited to continue playing Overcooked 2, while others were not as keen. So, we split into two groups, and here’s how it went:
The Overcooked 2 group absolutely dominated! They practiced the iterative ...