Notes

Recess is a daily scheduled break in your child’s school day for unstructured physical activity and play, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. It’s a break from the constant learning, thinking, and working your child has to do in the classroom. After this break, your child will be able to think better, remember better, focus on classwork and be less fidgety in the classroom. Recess provides your child the opportunity to rest, play, imagine, think, move, and socialize. It’s an opportunity for your child to develop social skills that they are not able to develop in the structured classroom.
Gym classes in school are being dramatically cut. The National Youth Risk Behavior Survey found in 2011 that only 52 percent of 9-12 grade students attended one or more gym classes in a week at school, and only 32 percent of students attended a daily gym class at school. Gym class is important for a variety of reasons: children who attend gym and are more physically fit have been shown to perform better on tests and were able to remember and recall facts better then students with a lower fitness.
It has also been shown that children who attend a regular gym class have fewer behavior problems at school. Gym class is a great place for children to learn sport skills, try new sports, and discover that physical activity is fun. Physically active children are more likely to be physically active adults. The more sport skills a child has, the more likely they are to participate in physical activity. This is very important with the current obesity epidemic, one in three children are overweight. Gym class plays an important role in decreasing rates of overweight and obesity.
Does your child have both recess and gym class in their school day? Both are important. It can help children:
focus better in school
perform better on tests
develop more social skills
behave better during class
acquire more sport skills
build the foundation to be physically active as adults
decrease their risk of being overweight
With all of these great reasons to have both recess and gym at school, it is a real shame that schools are cutting backing. You should contact your school if your child does not have both recess and gym.