Why RECESS?
Locally,
A program evaluation of RECESS performed by University of Oklahoma Principle Investigator, Carissa Cummins during the 2010/11 school year tested students physical strength and balance, as well as self regulation abilities at Kendall Whittier Pre-K and K. Overall strength in students increased 106% by the year end, while balance increased 41% overall. At the end of the year 81% of students could identify that movement and breathing make your heart healthy and strong compared to only 44% at the beginning of the year. Two specific questions were asked concerning self-regulation; the first one being “what do you do when you are mad or angry?” In the pre-test, 38% said they did not know, by year end this number changed to 0%. By the end of the year, every child was able to identify the emotion of anger. The second question was “what do you do to feel calm and happy,” with 62% responding with some type of internal regulation by year end, up 44% from the pre-test. Some children used RECESS specific language like breath, cat, or mouse pose.
Statewide,
The Oklahoma Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (OAHPERD) has compiled some facts based on current research:
RECESS addresses these problems with a curriculum that:
A program evaluation of RECESS performed by University of Oklahoma Principle Investigator, Carissa Cummins during the 2010/11 school year tested students physical strength and balance, as well as self regulation abilities at Kendall Whittier Pre-K and K. Overall strength in students increased 106% by the year end, while balance increased 41% overall. At the end of the year 81% of students could identify that movement and breathing make your heart healthy and strong compared to only 44% at the beginning of the year. Two specific questions were asked concerning self-regulation; the first one being “what do you do when you are mad or angry?” In the pre-test, 38% said they did not know, by year end this number changed to 0%. By the end of the year, every child was able to identify the emotion of anger. The second question was “what do you do to feel calm and happy,” with 62% responding with some type of internal regulation by year end, up 44% from the pre-test. Some children used RECESS specific language like breath, cat, or mouse pose.
Statewide,
The Oklahoma Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (OAHPERD) has compiled some facts based on current research:
- Oklahoma schools do not have daily physical education mandated, yet the Surgeon General and many other leaders in the health field repeatedly state that children need at least 60 minutes of physical activity on most days of the week.
- Oklahoma ranks 3rd in percentage of adults who do not engage in any leisure-time physical activity (43%).
- Oklahoma ranks 12th in proportion of adults eating fewer than 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day (80%).
- Oklahoma has the 5th highest rate of death due to cardiovascular disease.
- In the last 20 years, the percentage of overweight children between the ages of 6 and 11 has doubled. For young people between the ages of 12 and 19, the number has nearly tripled.
- The CDC estimates that over the past 10 years the number of students involved in daily physical education has fallen by more than a third.
- There has been a huge (10-fold) increase in the number of children with Type II diabetes during the past 5 years.
RECESS addresses these problems with a curriculum that:
- Meets Oklahoma State Education Standards for health and wellness, using the curriculum to fill in where there are gaps in standards
- Offers professional development to classroom teachers, counselors and administration
- Allows students to gain tools to manage their inner state and take responsibility for their behavior, thereby easing burdens on administrators, teachers and schools
- Teaches focus and relieves stress, allowing students to learn more effectively and improve high-stakes test scores
- Offers classes that are taught directly to the student in the classroom by RECESS certified teachers
- Is easily adaptable to the individual school's needs
- Features lesson plans that teach children how to take personal responsibility for choices
- Uses play, movement and "time-in" to teach children how to shift their internal state, replacing anxiety and fear with a more balanced state
- Works well in all schools, targeting under-served schools with high risk for violence, obesity and other at-risk behaviors.