I was just reading in the New York Times that having recess before lunch improves health and behavior in schoolchildren. It makes sense to me. If a kid expends all that energy that is pent up from spending the morning sitting down, then he will eat more and be able to pay attention better in later classes.

Turns out that a new study has found exactly that. Scheduling recess before lunch gets “the wiggles out” says the principal of Sharon Elementary School, the New Jersey school that has tested out the theory.

Less food is wasted because kids are hungrier and won’t rush through lunch to get outside. Visits to the school nurse were also down and, because the kids could pay attention better after lunch then after recess, teachers noticed roughly 15 minutes of additional class time that could be spent on teaching instead of calming down after playing.

Oddly, the school also noticed that the kids lost fewer things – lost and found shrunk. Now how do you get your local school to implement this?

photo credit: Irish Typepad