Recess Before Lunch

Tara Parker-Pope’s column in the New York Times this week provides such a smart, sensible idea that it’s a wonder it’s a story at all. Her piece focuses on elementary schools that have shifted their daily routines to enable most children to go outside to play earlier, rather than later, in the day.

An excerpt: “Kids are calmer after they’ve had recess first,” said Janet Sinkewicz, principal of Sharon Elementary School in Robbinsville, N.J., which made the change last fall. “They feel like they have more time to eat and they don’t have to rush.”

An Arizona elementary school and a state-wide approach in Montana are highlighted in the story. Parker-Pope writes:

In Montana, state school officials were looking for ways to improve children’s eating habits and physical activity, and conducted a four-school pilot study of “recess before lunch” in 2002. According to a report from the Montana Team Nutrition program, children who played before lunch wasted less food, drank more milk and asked for more water. And as in Arizona, students were calmer when they returned to classrooms, resulting in about 10 minutes of extra teaching time.

Here at Early Ed Watch, we’ve written before about the importance of recess and play for children’s health and development — not to mention their ability to focus and show good behavior when they are back in the classroom.  Given the snow storms swirling around the country this week, you might be interested in our post from last year: “Snow Days, Recess and the Application of Some ‘Flinty Chicago Toughness.”