We are a handful of parents in the Beacon City School District who have children in all four of the elementary schools in Beacon. Each of us individually had become concerned with the number of days our children spent inside a classroom rather than going outside for recess. When we saw each other at various social events over the holidays we began to discover a couple of things. One, that we had each called our school's principal and had been told that the principal shared our concerns and that they too wanted our children to have outdoor recess but there were certain 'hurdles' that prevented them from sending the children outside (one of which was the district guideline of 32 degrees being the indoor/outdoor recess cutoff temperature.) Secondly, that children in other schools in our area had been going out and playing in the snow for most of the winter.
We began to wonder what the difference was between those schools and ours. We also began to compile a list of concerns the individual principals at each school had and to look at ways that we could help. What became apparent after speaking again with the administrators was that the temperature of 32 degrees seemed to be an issue. Through our research when we were looking at how other schools handle winter recess we discovered that 32 degrees is not a universally accepted cutoff point for keeping students inside.
And so our work and this blog began. This is blog seemed to be the best place to gather information and ideas on how to support outdoor recess all year long. We hope you find it informative. If you have helpful information to share about how other schools deal with outdoor recess all year we would love for you to comment.
Thanks for stopping by Recess is Fundamental. We hope you find something here that you like.
