BHC Orientation

Recess is an excellent opportunity for children to be physically active at school. In fact, students who are active during recess can accumulate up to 40% of their recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity just during recess! Providing quality active recess time for students is not only good for their physical health, it is also shown to improve classroom behavior, social skills, emotional health and learning readiness.

There are a many effective ways to increase children’s physical activity during recess and having an “active recess” may look different for each student. The main thing you want to see is your students physically moving either by walking, running, playing on playground equipment, or participating in active gameplay.

At Building Healthy Communities, we aim to provide your school with all of the resources you need to make the most of your recess time, including equipment and play guidance. Below, you will find links to equipment information, recess planning resources, indoor and outdoor recess ideas, active discipline ideas, and movement challenges.

During this year with Building Healthy Communities, Schools will:

Provide at least 20 minutes of recess for every student, every day. Students who are actively engaged during recess are less likely to need discipline during recess and in class. Consider asking students who need help behaving well to help lead an activity or to help with equipment.
Ensure that all students have access to equipment. Sometimes the logistics of school schedules or available recess facilities require some creative thinking to ensure that all children have access to the equipment. You may consider splitting up equipment for multiple playgrounds, recruiting helpers to provide activity ideas in multiple locations, or providing teachers with indoor and outdoor recess ideas. If you need support to facilitate this or things like bags to make your equipment more mobile, please let your BHC School Coordinator know.
Promote activity! Help facilitate group games as an option to actively engage kids and help build social skills. Students love to help, so consider asking for ideas and promoting student leadership of activities. From time to time you may want to incorporate a mileage or activity challenge to add to the fun and provide structure.
Engage positively with students. When students are engaged in activity during recess they are less likely to need behavioral corrections, but when they do, aim to quickly resolve problems and redirect children to positive behavior as much as possible. Best-practice research suggests that in a play-based setting, staff should aim to have four positive interactions for every corrective action with students. Aim to focus your interventions on more activity, not less – consider an active challenge instead of requiring the student to sit out or miss recess. Peaceful Playgrounds offers 60 Alternatives to Withholding Recess ideas for promoting positive behavior.

Recess Equipment

AHS Playground Recess Cart

Gopher Sport Customer Care Gopher Sport, (855-899-9560) to replace broken or damaged items. Please have your order number ready and tell Gopher that you are part of Building Healthy Communities. If you have any issues, contact your School Coordinator for assistance.

Recess Planning