Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 27, 1993 TAG: 9309280214
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: NF-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WENDI GIBSON RICHERT NEWSFUN WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Now you feel tired. Your eyes are sleepy and you don't want to sit at your desk for a minute more.
Just when you think you'll fall asleep during the social studies lesson, it's over. And your teacher announces it's time to go outside and play.
"All right!" you think. "Could the teacher have read my mind?"
That's probably not what happened. But teachers know kids can't sit still and pay attention all day.
That's why Virginia requires that pupils get 30 minutes of physical activity a day in elementary school. Some schools have recess where you have free time outdoors to do whatever you like. Other schools have physical education ("P.E.") or "gym," where a teacher leads you in structured activity or games. Some schools may have both.
No matter how your school does it, that time outside or in the gym is a time to stretch your legs, grow stronger and unwind after studying your brains out. Most importantly, it's a time for you to have some fun!
That's what Leasa Cooper's first-grade class at Monterey Elementary School in Roanoke does. On pretty days, Cooper's class goes outside after lunch. They call it "going down the hill" because their playground is at the base of a grassy hillside behind their school.
Kids playing on Monterey's hillside playground like to play on the monkey bars, play tag and pick flowers growing in the grass.
First-grader Robyn Mitchell especially likes the monkey bars. "I climb up in the middle and jump down," she said before showing how she did it.
Classmate Steven McCormack said, "I hate the monkey bars," though. He fell off them and broke his arm last year, he said.
At Glen Cove Elementary School in Roanoke, Tracy Jones writes, "Sometimes I like to play with a ball by myself. I like to do it because it releases my fingers."
Tracy also likes to talk to friends, "because I don't get to do it in class."
Karen McClung, a guidance counselor at Roanoke's Forest Park New American School and Fishburn Park Elementary School, knows what Tracy's talking about.
"I think [P.E] is an excellent opportunity to enhance social skills," she said. She also thinks it's a great time to release bundled energy in active kids, or give energy to children who feel tired.
"Finally," she said, "it can also be a stress releaser to leave the classroom setting and academics for a period of time."
Kids do all sorts of things during their P.E. or recess time. Kids at Forest Park New American School like to jump rope, run relays and play dodge ball, said McClung. Others of you wrote to Mini Forum to say you liked to play soccer, kickball, basketball and football. Some liked the monkey bars, slides and swings. Others liked playing games like hopscotch, tag or hide-and-go-seek.
And some kids like to be alone during their outdoor time. McClung would say to these kids, "I personally feel like one of the best skills all of us can develop is to entertain ourselves. It's something they can look at as a positive, that they can entertain themselves and be alone."
But, McClung warned, "they also need to be more comfortable in a group, too."
There are ways you can learn to get along in a group, she says. Many schools offer friendship groups that teach kids how to get along with each other and be friends. These are especially helpful to shy kids or pupils new to a school.
Other schools have conflict-management groups. In these, fifth-graders are trained to help kids get along with each other better. Kids who get in fights with other kids, for instance, can ask the conflict manager for help. The conflict manager could then suggest ways to get along instead of fight.
by CNB