Grab a Ball, Mommy, It's Time For Recess

Donna O'Connor watches her son Ciaran, 5, play hopscotch during a recess rally at Woodlin Elementary School. (By James A. Parcell -- The Washington Post)

Robert McCluskey, who spends his days fitting casts for patients, recently found himself twirling a long jump-rope as third-graders hopped on the playground at Woodlin Elementary School in Silver Spring.

He had taken time off from his job as a cast technician at an orthopedic office to attend the school's Fun Friday recess rally, during which about 100 parents blew bubbles, skipped rope, colored with chalk and played with their children during the lunch recess period.

"This is a nice break," said McCluskey as his son Ryan, a third-grader, took his turn jumping.

"This is fun," Ryan said as he ran back to the line of children waiting to jump.

All around him, children were laughing and yelling as they raced around the playground, swung along monkey bars strewn with balloons, played soccer, twirled hula hoops and blew bubbles.

Kindergartner Meghan Plumart paused while painting a flower onto the pavement with soapy water to explain why recess was her favorite part of the day.

"Because you get to play outside," she said. "I like to go on the slide and play with my friends, and I like to go on the monkey bars."

The Woodlin recess rally Sept. 22 was one of thousands at schools across the country as part of the inaugural National Recess Week, launched by the Cartoon Network and 13 child advocacy groups, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Education Association and the National Parent Teacher Association.

According to the network, National Recess Week is part of its Rescuing Recess campaign to promote the importance of daily recess in helping students focus in class and reduce discipline problems. The goal of the rallies was to kick off the school year with fun and interactive activities that inspire parents to become recess monitors.

More than 4,500 cities across the country were scheduled to hold rallies, and more than 10,000 free Rescuing Recess kits -- with balls, jump-ropes, chalk, games and activity aids -- were distributed to schools.

At Woodlin, the rally was organized by the PTA's Woodlin Moves Committee, a group of parents who have been working on ways to add physical activity to the school day, improve recess and redesign the school's playgrounds.

The committee, which received one of the recess kits, hoped that demonstrating recess activities at the rally would motivate parents to volunteer as monitors and help students become more active.