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The effects of recess in school
The effects of recess in school
The effects of recess in school
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Are teachers enforcing discipline mechanisms in a healthy way for children? Researchers would answer no to this question because of one major factor: removing recess from a child’s school day. In Jessica Lahey’s article, “Students Who Lose Recess Are the Ones Who Need It Most”, she states that “schools continue to take away recess privileges as a penalty for academic or behavioral transgressions”. Many teachers follow this procedure because they assume that they are teaching the child how to act with appropriate behaviors. However, it is a proven fact that eliminating a student’s recess results in a negative outcome. Therefore, recess should not be removed from a child’s school day because this recreation plays a role in their physical health, …show more content…
Children can burn off bottled up energy at recess that they have accumulated while sitting through their teacher’s lessons. Lahey mentions that “studies have found that students who enjoy the benefit of recess are more attentive once they return to class”. This is helpful because the child will be focused on what they are learning instead of fidgeting in their chair. Also, providing breaks to students while they are learning can result in longer attention spans. Recess is a break that recharges the brain and allows elementary students to control their desire to adventure. Young children are easily distracted, so recess regulates this by providing them with their own free time. Students become more self-contained after they return from recess due to their tiredness. This is useful in class because children will be less hyperactive. The absence of recess would not permit students to learn self-control …show more content…
Lahey states that “young children develop social skills, such as negotiation, social dynamics, and the use of subtle verbal and nonverbal communication cues” through recess. Students should be familiar with all of these qualities, so that they can apply them to the real world. Negotiating comes into play when there are oppositions, group projects, or team sports. Children learn how to negotiate with each other by reaching an agreement. This is seen when children first begin to play games or sports with one another at recess. Negotiation is a significant quality that teaches students that they do not always get their way. Social skills can be formed through interactions with people. Recess provides students with the opportunity to interact with other children in order for them to learn different behaviors. This time that is set aside for recess teachers children about acceptable and non-acceptable behaviors. Students utilize their social skills to create special bonds with others at recess time. These bonds are friendships that teach children how to improve upon their social skills. Friends are the people who bring out the best in people. Misbehaving children will miss out on learning proper socializing skills if their recess is
With an increasing demand for higher standardized testing scores, schools are finding themselves in a tough position. The huge question being asked is how do we create more time for students to learn common core. The simple answer is, we don’t! Incorporating more time for recess is the key to success for students everywhere. Many researchers and educators alike agree that participating in recess increases students’ cognitive, academic, and social skills. The amount of time allotted for recess should be increased for students of all ages. A child’s well-being encompasses more than just academia. Children spend almost eight hours a day at school, sometimes more. The school system and
Some people might say that middle schoolers shouldn’t have recess, but, middle schooler don’t always have gym, and they don’t get enough exercise, so recess would be beneficial to middle schoolers.
Council on School Health (2012). The Crucial Role of Recess in School. Pediatrics, 131, 182-189. doi: 10.1542/peds.2012-2993
For example, play such as climbing, skipping, running, and hopping assist in the development of the child’s gross motor skills. Similarly, cutting with scissors, and drawing assist in the further development of the child’s fine motor skills (Davies, 2011). In addition, play is instrumental in social development. Preschool children learn values of prosocial behavior such as comforting, helping, controlling aggression, and sharing via cooperative play. For example, turn taking is an important aspect of play that fosters sharing, moral reasoning, control of aggression, and conflict resolution because it is an essential aspect to the child’s establishment friendships and maintenance of relationships (Davies, 2011). Consequently, because friends spend more time playing together, they have more conflicts but are more likely to negotiate a solution. Ultimately, because of the child’s desire to be accepted and valued by peers, conflicts become opportunities for the child to learn how to, control aggression, share, and resolve
The recess project has become a well renowned program. The recess project's goal is to advocate structured play among today’s children. “Recess leaders help the older children on the playground become leaders themselves, guiding younger children as they learn how to juggle or make crafts or do Zumba, the dance like exercise regimen set to fast-paced music”(Paul Par 5) . This is important because recess leaders from the recess project felt the need to help the older children on the playground. Recess leaders proved that with guidance and structure the older children gain the responsibility to guide the younger children in complex activities. Structured play drives strategy and following directions because with structured play children are given a specific set of guidelines and rules. After receiving rules and guidelines it is then up to the child to go from there and play(Nelson Par 1). There are numerous activities involved with structured play. The varying activities teach children how to follow and understand directions. This also helps children complete tasks. Various structured activities include board games, puzzles, and arts and crafts(Nelson Par 3). Anyone who has ever dealt with a child or children know things may become very messy, what if there was a way children can be taught life skills such as cleaning? In fact that is what structured play can do. As children are
wouldn't student get tired and not pay attention. and doesn't recess hinder growth and maternity and i'm here to say NO! If students have recess during connect they could choose to go to recess or stay and work on due or late assignments or if a student doesn't have all there due work turned in they don't get recess. This way it won't affect learning. Did you know that recess could actually make kids less tired? If kids get recess they get less tired because they get more tolerant to tiredness which will help them in class. And you might say recess hinders growth and maturity it actually helps growth a quote from the icpa states that Everyone benefits from a break. Research dating back to the late 1800s indicates that people learn better and faster when their efforts are distributed, rather than concentrated. That is, work that includes breaks and down time proves more effective than working in long stretches. Because young children don’t tend to process information as effectively as older children (due to the immaturity of their nervous systems and their lack of experience), they benefit the most from taking a break for unstructured
Sindelar, R. (2004). Recess: Is it needed in the 21st Century? Clearinghouse on Early Education and Parenting, Vol. 18, Issue 1, 1-6.
Ah recess, the highlight of the elementary school days, no work to do, just running around outside, but did it really benefit us? Many people across the world are against recess because they believe it takes time away from learning. In addition, some parents value the education more than letting their kids have a break during school, which leads them to believe that recess is no good. What they don’t know is that recess actually benefits their kids. Kids should have recess because it helps them build social skills, reset their brains for future information to be learned in the day, and improve their mental function through regular fitness.
White, Tanika. "Student Conduct Policy Studied; City Schools to Review Discipline Code, List of Possible Punishments; Use of suspensions criticized; Some Say Removing Child from Class Fails to Address Problem, May Be Harmful." Sun [Baltimore, MD.] 18 Aug. 2003, final ed., sec. local: 1.B. ProQuest Education Journals. ProQuest Information and Learning. Coll. of Southern Maryland Lib., La Plata, MD. 3 Dec. 2004 http://proquest.umi.com/login.
Recess has been one of the biggest debates of all time. Some wonder if their children are getting enough time on the playground, and others may think they are getting just enough. However, recess is crucial to a child’s development. Allowing for more time at recess in the schools is beneficial for the student’s well being. Students are more likely to have increased social skills, wellness, and focus. Not only is recess cognitively beneficial, but also physically beneficial. Exercise is healthy, and recess is the best time to go out and move around.
Schools all over the country are considering, if not already applying, the removal of recess for elementary school students. Receipts have been scientifically proven to play a substantial part in the social development of a child, their physical health, and the amount of attention they pay in the classroom. For example, the Tennessee Board of Education says, "It is the position of the NASPE that all elementary school children should be provided with at least one daily period of recess of at least 20 minutes in length" (National Association for Sports and Physical Education). Keeping recess in schools could help lower the childhood obesity rate, help children to be more attentive in class, and assist in the development of their much needed social skills. These aspects are essential to academic health and to your child succeeding academically.
... Away Recess May Not Be Good for Your Child’s Health…Or Learning." N.p., 30 Nov. 2010. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
However, despite the unquestionable link to a brighter future for the children who engage in it, less and less time is being allotted for play in the classrooms. As standards for what children are expected to know at younger and younger ages continues to rise along with the demand for standardized testing from the state, time for play is being sacrificed. Adults are choosing to get rid of time for unstructured play and recess to make time for this new testing interfering with the time allotted for children to learn independently through play. Cutting play and recess is a mistake, and here is why: “recess gives students time for social interactions: for students must be able to initiate, negotiate, cooperate, share, and build relationships with one another--skills that are highly valued in the adult world but that often are quite different from work or play under adult supervision and control” (Chang). Those skills learned through play, are often not the sole purpose of a classroom lesson and could potentially be the only place they learn those needed skills. Play is an affective measurement in the classroom as well as outside of the classroom and children can learn so much from it if only given the chance
Recess may be one of many different ways that children develop meaningful social interaction. Through playful participation with their peers, children learn how to talk, interact with others, and in turn, begin to form their social world. This observation looks at “Playtime Peer Relations” and how children participate in, and form, their own everyday social worlds. Piaget and Vygotsky assert that, through interaction with their environment, a child will construct meaning, and, as a result, development will occur. Children can express their ideas, and feelings through play, and in turn, they gain knowledge and continue the development of their language.
Pelegrini, A. D. (1995) School recess and playground behavior: Educational and developmental roles, New York City: SUNY Press.