Educators

Bring Play To Your City

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Recent News

Forbes Magazine
New York Times

School Recess and Group Classroom Behavior

Children in urban, low-income schools are less likely to have recess than students in other schools. Teachers cite improved behavior in the classroom when students have recess.

Assessing Recess

Growing Concerns about Shrinking Playtime in Schools

Over three-quarters of Americans believe that children aren’t getting enough physical playtime on a daily basis, and 91 percent agree that recess helps children stay focused and learn in the classroom.

Recess Rules!

Why the undervalued playtime may be America’s best investment for healthy kids and healthy schools

Recess is the single biggest opportunity to raise the level of physical activity for all children, yet those who come from minority or low-income families are being shortchanged when it comes to recess time.

Playworks: Maximizing the Return on Recess

Playworks and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation are supporting education by making play a valuable part of the school day.

November 18, 2010

First-of-its-kind Gallup Poll Links Recess to Academic Achievement

02/04/2010

WASHINGTON — When most people talk about how to improve education, they tend to focus only on what happens in the classroom.

Play Matters

A Study of Best Practices to Inform Local Policy and Process in Support of Children’s Play

In municipalities across America, engaged citizens and civic leaders are actively seeking innovative ways to improve the accessibility, quality, and quantity of play and play spaces for children. To help cities build awareness and develop a policy on play, KaBOOM! identified 12 relevant and innovative best practices in play. Playworks Baltimore is cited as one example.

Read the full Play Matters report.

Less recess? Parents say no

Dawn Hadlock started meeting her third-grade son for lunch at Courtland Elementary two or three times a week this school year after learning that daily recess had been cut to 15 minutes.

"We have a picnic outside and kick a soccer ball," she said. "We do our own little parent recess."

09/26/2009

Revamped Recess Puts Focus on the Physical

They would ignore the brightly colored balls left for them on the playground and the hopscotch lines painted on the pavement. Instead, in past years many students at Conservatory Lab Charter School, in Brighton, would spend the half-hour recess sitting idly beneath a leafy tree, chatting away.

Not anymore.

Does Recess Before Lunch Make Sense for Your School?

Elementary schools across the country have implemented a new lunch schedule where recess comes before lunch. These schools have seen many benefits of the new lunch schedule, including a reduction in lunch waste, increased healthy food consumption and reduced behavioral problems in the classroom directly after recess. 

Playworks is in my city, but it is not in my school? How can I get Playworks in my school?

Playworks coaches work on-site exclusively in low-income schools. To bring Playworks to your school, at least 50 percent of enrollment must be eligible for free and reduced lunches. To learn more, contact the executive director listed on our web site for your city. S/he will be able to provide the information you need to bring Playworks to your school.

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