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Sports Backers Blog

A New Way to Play at Recess

Recess Coaching program helps area schools create an all-inclusive environment at recess and encourages children to spend their time playing and being physically active.


How many hours do your children spend outside at recess? What are some of the activities that they participate in? Is it just a social hour where kids sit on the sidewalk and talk, getting little to no physical activity? Over the past few years, recess time has lessened and confrontation and bullying has increased on the playground. 

To help alleviate this issue in local schools, Greater Richmond Fit4Kids implemented a program known as 'Recess Coaching' at four local elementary schools in September 2012 – one in Chesterfield County and three in the City of Richmond. This program was adopted after the Playworks model, which is an organization that has been working on-site with schools for more than 15 years. At each Fit4Kids Recess Coaching site, there is a recess coach who underwent training from Playworks to learn how to lead recess games and create an inclusive environment that encourages all children to play.

Teachers quickly noticed a difference and are praising the benefits of Recess Coaching. “Without your program, recess time would have been taken away from us,” said one local teacher, referring to the endless conflicts, bullying, and injuries often seen on a playground in which the students were having recess in an unstructured environment.

The recess coaches use basic supplies such as balls, jump ropes, hula hoops, and cones to lead play activities that foster physical, social, and emotional development of children. Improved play time has the wellness benefit of increased physical activity, and studies have shown that attendance, classroom behavior, and problems with bullying have also improved. The recess coaches have shown the students a safe and fun way to play at recess, which has garnered positive feedback from the teachers, administrators and students.

For more information on Fit4Kids and the Recess Coaching Program, please visit http://www.grfit4kids.org/.

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