Last year, Montgomery County elementary school students had about 20 minutes for recess.
Play Unstructured play and physical activity benefit student development. Montgomery County is doubling its recess and teachers in the City of Radford decide when children need to move around.
Twenty minutes for swinging really high and jumping out, hanging upside down on the jungle gym, walking in the grass with friends or sitting on the picnic table and drawing a tree.
That kind of unstructured play is a valuable way that children learn to manage time, make decisions and pay attention during a school day that’s full of structure and lasts more than seven hours.
Now, unstructured playtime has doubled to closer to 45 minutes, half in the morning and half in the afternoon, for Montgomery County elementary students.
A two-paragraph bill passed in the Virginia legislature this spring giving local school districts throughout the state the flexibility to offer unstructured time, like recess, in instructional time.
“We’re just a week in, but already we are seeing a difference in how students view the school day and their ability to concentrate in class,” Superintendent Dr. Mark Miear said. “I believe that, long-term, we’ll also see higher test scores and happier students.”
The grass-roots campaign behind the effort to increase recess time was launched in Northern Virginia by a parents’ group called More Recess for Virginians and supported by diverse special interest groups including The American Heart Association Action for Healthy Kids, Virginia PTA, SHAPE America, and the Fairfax County Republican Committee, according to the More Recess for Virginians web site.
The group met with little resistance and the Virginia legislature voted 93 to 3 ushering the statewide change.
“I don’t think anyone thought it was a bad idea,” Barbara Larrimore, who spearheaded the effort, said. “School systems had a few challenges to work through, especially the mentality that “butt in seat” learning is the best way to learn.”
Thinking of recess as part of the instructional day means the school day doesn’t need to be longer.
Schools find the extra 10-15 minutes for play by taking a few minutes from each class.
“Research says that unstructured play promotes communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creative thinking,” Miear said. “It is what is best for our students and their brain development.”
In the City of Radford, elementary schools don’t have two set recesses like Montgomery County, but those schools also work physical activity into the school day in 30-minutes-a-day recess and 30-minute PE three times a week. The three Radford elementary schools approach recess with teacher-determined “brain breaks.”
At McHarg Elementary, which serves pre-K through second grade, Principal Dr. Mike Brown says teachers value physical activity throughout the day and schedule time when they see the need.
At Belle Heth Elementary School, Principal Tara Grant reiterates that outdoor and physical activity at her school occurs at the teacher’s discretion.
“We have teachers doing brain breaks to get the wiggles out and to really just get their bodies energized again, re-focused, and their neurons firing,” Grant said.
There the teachers go outside or walk the track, basically whenever they want to do it Grant said.
“We have teachers who periodically walk down to Wildwood Park and measure water quality they get a lot of exercise that way,” she said. “We’re lucky we have trails around the school they are welcome to do that.”
