The Importance Of Recess In School

The first three articles that were read for this review discuss the great importance of recess in a student’s life. There are many benefits of recess for students, but there are even more added benefits to a structures recess for students. The Crucial Role of Recess in School an article from the American Academy of Pediatrics states that recess serves as a necessary break from the rigors of concentrated, academic challenges in the classroom (2012). Equally important is the fact that safe and well-supervised recess offer cognitive, social, emotional, and physical benefits. “After recess, for children or after a corresponding break time for adolescents, students are more attentive and better able to perform cognitively” (The Crucial Role

Even with these benefits school must be careful to not turn recess into an extension of physical education. Physical education is an academic discipline. There are ways to encourage a physically active recess without necessarily adding structure. Schools can achieve this adding attractive safe playground equipment to stimulate free play, establish games and boundaries by painting the playground, or instructing children in games such as four square or

With this decrease students are losing the chance to develop positive social and emotional skills that are important to cognitive performance. These researchers state that “recess is the fourth R that needs to be taught in schools” (Pellegrini, A., & Bohn, C., 2005, p. 16). The ability to interact cooperatively with peers, inhibits antisocial behavior, and form close relationships are important developmental tasks for children as they first enter primary school. Mastery of these tasks constitutes social competence for that period and this provides the foundation for subsequent skills for success in school. They come to the conclusion recess is very important to a child’s well-being. They even go as far to state that extending the school day and school year, with more frequent recess periods, might positively affect children’s cognitive performance and social competence, while simultaneously providing parents with the badly needed child care for more extended periods (2005, p.