Kids & Physical Activity: Children Need 60 Minutes of Play a Day: Parents, Let's Save Recess! by Mike Prochaska

Only one in four kids in the U.S. is getting the recommended daily amount of physical activity. That means, in a class of 20 students, only five are truly able to be a kid for just one hour each day. Children are not playing at home, they are not playing in schools and they are not playing in their communities. Children should play outside at least 60 minutes a day. And this is why recess matters – so that children have time to play outside at school.

A school in Texas did an experiment and gave children four 15-minute recesses. And guess what? They found that the children learned more when they broke up the day instead of having kids just sit in classrooms. Kids need recess to have time to process and to learn. Children learn while they play more than you can ever image.