Activity Breaks and Their Purposeful Use in the Classroom
Remember your days of childhood and what your favorite time of the day was during the school year? Many people might say, "Recess - hand's down!" We spent hours each week chasing each other around playing tag and games that only the kids knew the rules to, swinging on swings and climbing old metal jungle gyms that heated up to a wicked high temp in the fall and spring on sunny days. It was our time to get out excess energy, breathe fresh air and bond with our fellow classmates. Yes... those were the days my friend. Recess was a wonderful break in the day.
Today, across the nation, recess periods now average 20 minutes per day and some schools, if you can even believe it, have completely eliminated recess. Since 2001 the amount of recess minutes have decreased by approximately 60 minutes per week.
Physical Education classes have also been reduced or completely eliminated from school programming.
Did you know that experts recommend 60 minutes of physical activity every single day for school aged children? Kid's need physical activity for good physical and mental health. Keeping our kids moving can decrease their risk for diabetes, heart disease and obesity, and increase their strength and elevate moods.
The recommended 60 minutes of activity can happen in a variety of ways:
- Walking or biking to school
- Quality Physical Education programs in schools
- Recess
- After school sports and activities
But what if kids are unable to get the prescribed amount of activity time each day? What if they live in a neighborhood that is unsafe and are not allowed to walk or bike to school, or to even play outside at their home after school? What if P.E. has been cut and recess shortened to accommodate for academic pressures or because of budget cuts? And, what about inclement weather such as rain and snow?
Enter - a supplement to your child's day - the activity break! More and more teachers are using activity, or brain, breaks throughout the day. Sometimes they may use them because they can see that their student's minds are beginning to wander or are that they are starting to fidget. Activity breaks are also a wonderful way to give kid's brains a break from the content that they were just given in class. They can look away for a moment, process the information, and then come back to learn new content with a refreshed and re-energized mind.
Teachers may also use them at the top of every hour to keep students alert and focused. They can use them after lunch to wake up their brains. They can also use them intermittently throughout the day as needed because they know that their students simply aren't moving enough. Activity breaks are a wonderful way to add more minutes of movement to children's day.
Since I began my Active School Day work at Minneapolis Public Schools four years ago I have heard from teachers, and seen through my extensive research, that there is a need for more physical activity options. The current trends in online resources for activity breaks are mainly dance videos, lightly sprinkled with yoga and strength training moves more recently, mainly for the K-5 general education population.
My goal is to offer more options and choices for staff, AND for families at home, to increase the levels of activity for their students and children. I want to impact the lives of all students: elementary, middle, high school and students with physical limitations by creating Activity Break videos that can be easily accessed in school or at home. These videos will have martial arts based movement, strength training, yoga and more.
To actualize my goal, I have launched a Kickstarter to help finance the production costs of creating these videos. I invite you to please visit my project page and consider donating to this effort. Let's get more kids moving!