Behavior

Is it important to you that children behave appropriately? It is important to parents and teachers and it is a proven fact that recess increases appropriate behavior. Children are more likely to miss behave or act-out if they are stuck in a classroom all day with no time for outside play and social interactions. When children misbehave in a classroom it distracts the class and ends up wasting time. The time wasted is often long enough for recess. So rather than wasting time dealing with inappropriate behavior in our classroom, why not allow children to go outside for recess and the inappropriate behavior and disruptions will significantly decrease.

A research was done in an urban school district with a policy against recess. Permission was received to administer recess one day a week in two fourth-grade classes to determine the impact on the children’s behavior on recess and non-recess days. The result was that the 43 children became more on-task and less fidgety on days when they had recess. Sixty percent of the children, including the five suffering from attention deficit disorder, worked more and fidgeted less on recess days. The research demonstrated that a 15-minute recess resulted in the children being 5 percent more on-task and 9 percent less fidgety, which translated into 20 minutes saved during the day.