Like quality, I Love Lucy, and clean drinking water, kickball never loses its popularity. As a teacher, I managed to field several all-star quality homeroom teams that either won school-wide championships or played in the finals. It was a group effort that culminated in daily post-lunch recess games that united my students in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Today, my own sons play kickball at school even as they have moved on to organized Little League baseball and summer swimming competitions.
I can still remember back to kickball games I participated in and the one time I got caught in a rundown between second and third base. It seems that school gym classes are getting caught in a rundown now too. Due to budget cuts, time constraints, and other factors, physical education classes are falling by the wayside—and this at a time when childhood obesity is becoming an ever-greater concern among doctors and other health-care professionals, as well as school administrators.
That’s not to mention the studies that have shown that even 20 minutes of physical activity during a school day do wonders to refresh students mentally and physically. Who doesn’t want to get out and stretch their legs after time spent in the classroom?
What’s it like at your school? Tell us if you have weekly scheduled gym classes and recess. And if not, why not?
Share your ideas and opinions with us and your fellow teachers!
I too have great memories of kickball as a kid. It was always the one sport I could be somewhat successful at as it didn’t take too much hand eye coordination! Every spring I make sure that my 6th grade class gets some extra outside time for rousing games of kickball and the kids love it when I chide them for having “dandelion tea parties” in the outfield instead of keeping their minds on the game! The kids at my school are required to take a gym class every other day for 50 minutes and I feel fortunate to teach in a district that still considers gym, music and art as important classes.
I teach fourth grade at a school in Missouri. My students have one, 50 minute gym period a week. They also get a 15 minute recess in the morning and a 20 minute recess at lunch time.
My only issue with our schedule is that their specials time (gym, music, art, library, counselor) is in the morning, as are both their recesses. By 11:40, all of the kids’ recreational time is done–and we still expect them to stay focused until 2:50. I’d prefer to either have a third recess in the afternoon or move the fifteen minute recess to the afternoon, but my principal works under the assumption that the teachers would prefer to have an uninterrupted block of teaching time (which isn’t the case at all).