We were right. Monday nights are just better with recess games, outdoor happy hours, and Playworks.
About 50 people came out to eat...
Play in the Press
The Power of Play
Bring Play To Your City
From The Field
Monday, 8/9. Five pm. That's four weeks away. And we know where you'll be.
You'll be leaving work, thinking to yourself: self, what I ...
Playworks gathers news on the latest play trends and research from experts across the country.
Please note that Sports4Kids has changed its name to Playworks. Media coverage prior to June, 2009 will list the organization as Sports4Kids. If you are a member of the media and would like more information about Playworks, please visit our media center.
HealthDay and The Washington Post
January 26, 2009
As a pediatric resident in a hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., Dr. Romina M. Barros sat in on a regular first-grade class at a local elementary school. Classes started at 8:30 in the morning, lasting till noon, with one 10-minute break during which children were not allowed to talk or move from their chairs.
Principal Magazine
November 12, 2008
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.
The New York Times Magazine
February 17, 2008
On a drizzly Tuesday night in late January, 200 people came out to hear a psychiatrist talk rhapsodically about play — not just the intense, joyous play of children, but play for all people, at all ages, at all times.
Washington Post
November 21, 2009
A debate over the value of make-believe and other games in preschool classes is deepening as more states fund programs
USA Today
April 14, 2010
Going to PE class and recess can be a win-win situation for students.
Physical activity improves kids' fitness and lowers their risk of obesity. And now a government review of research shows that kids who take breaks from their class work to be physically active during the school day are often better able to concentrate on their school work and may do better on standardized tests.
ABC News Nightline
May 10, 2010
Elementary School in Tough Arkansas Neighborhood Brings in 'Coach Coop' to Give Structure to Playtime
In the orderly halls of Stephens Elementary in Little Rock, Ark., principal Sharon Brooks steers a tight ship: Students dressed in khaki-and-blue uniforms quietly weave between classrooms in single file.
Meet the man who rehabilitated children at recess through 'rock-paper-scissors'.But every day at 12:30 p.m., when recess rolls around, all of that well-defined order goes out the window.
"When they hit the playground, their behavior just goes in reverse, and we have some trouble controlling things out there," said Brooks.
For many of its 460 students, Stephens Elementary is a sanctuary -- an oasis of calm in the middle of Little Rock's gang-ridden 12th Street neighborhood
Arizona Daily Star
May 12, 2010
Thanks to Tucson resident and exercise proponent Steve Gall, school districts in Arizona will now hold public hearings on whether schools should have 30 minutes of organized, mandatory recess per day.
The Legislature last week passed the Education Omnibus Bill, which included Gall's "recess amendment" and will take effect on Jan. 1, 2011. The governor signed the bill into law Tuesday.
Alarmed by the childhood obesity epidemic, Gall, a 66-year-old retired physical education teacher and volunteer with the Tucson Unified School District, has been working for the past two years to get Arizona schoolchildren moving.
Ideally, he would have liked legislators to mandate physical education in all of Arizona's schools. But at the suggestion of his wife, Mariana Spier, he decided on pushing for 30 minutes per day of organized recess.
Forbes.com
June 22, 2010
They might be better off putting down their books and heading outside.
There is a paradox when it comes to improving education in America: The system is failing to prepare many kids for success, but we have so much invested in the system that starting over isn't practical, let alone in a time frame that works for today's kids.
We need to put a premium on simple, practical changes that have a big impact on teaching and learning within our existing schools. And one of the single best opportunities to do just that happens to be where we would least expect it: on the playground during recess.
