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Bring Play To Your City

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The Forbes Impact 30
Forbes Magazine
Hard Times for Recess
New York Times

School Recess and Group Classroom Behavior

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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

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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!

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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.

Play Matters

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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.

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?

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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. 

The Elephant on the Playground

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Ask any elementary school principal what the toughest part of the day is, and most will answer with one word: recess. That’s because recess is when most trouble starts.

Crisis in the Kindergarten

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Why Children Need to Play in School

Kindergarteners are under intense pressure to meet testing standards while also being denied play time, leading to a rise in aggression and behavioral problems.