62 Alternatives to Withholding Recess

  Given the value of recess in a student’s physical and
social development, and the need for periodic breaks from
   classroom instruction, using recess as punishment is
  inappropriate.  Listed below are some alternatives to
                   withholding recess.

ZERO-COST ALTERNATIVES

1. Sit by friends
2. Watch a video
3. Read outdoors
4. Teach the class
5. Have extra art time
6. Extra music and reading time
7. Homework coupon
8. Coupon for prizes and
9. privileges
10. Enjoy class outdoors
11. Play a computer game
12. Read to a younger class
13. Get a no homework pass
14. Make deliveries to the office
15. Listen to music while working
16. Play a favorite game or puzzle
17. Earn play money for privileges
18. Walk with a teacher during lunch
19. Be a helper in another classroom
20. Eat lunch with a teacher or principal
21. Dance to favorite music in the classroom
22. Get “free choice” time at the end of the day
23. Listen with a headset to a book on audiotape
24. Have a teacher perform special skills: cartwheel, guitar playing, sing
25. Have a teacher read a special book to the class
26. Recognition with morning announcements
27. Chat break at the end of class
28. Taking care of the class pet
29. Extra recess
30. Small playground equipment to check out
31. Leading the class to lunch, recess, library or other adventure
32. Music concert at school
33. Walk break from class
34. Have lunch or breakfast in the classroom
35. Private lunch in classroom with a friend
36. Show-and-tell
37. Play favorite game
38. First to line up
39. Teacher’s helper
40. Select a paperback book
41. Enter a drawing for donated prizes
42. Take a trip to the treasure box
43. Get stickers, pencils, and other school supplies
44. Receive a video store or movie theatre coupon
45. Get a set of flash cards printed from a computer
46. Receive a “mystery pack” (notepad, folder, sports cards, etc.)
47. Stars or smiley faces
48. GAME DAY: Students earn letters to spell game day…after the letters have been earned, we play reading or phonics-type board games. Kids love Game Day!”
49. FRIDAY FREE TIME: Students have thirty minutes at the beginning of the week and they can earn or lose free time according to their behavior. Use a timer and turn it on (they can hear it) if they are too loud working, lining up, etc. Add time when their behavior is good. Adding time is the most effective. You will save time by not waiting for them to settle down so their free time is really reclaiming time that would have been lost.
50. Certificate/trophy/ribbon/ plaque
51. Gift certificate to local food merchants
52. Free pass to sporting event play
53. Pencil Toppers
54. Stickers
55. Pencils

LOW-COST ALTERNATIVES

Discipline Alternatives

56. Write a letter of apology to the person who has been wronged and Discuss with teaching the importance of apologies

57. Write a letter to parents/guardians explaining why behavior is inappropriate or disruptive and stating what student will try to do to change behavior

58. Take away privilege of choice for class or individual activity when choice is built into activity

59. Do make up work during free choice time

60. Have students sit away from the group to do class work and have them “earn” their way back into the group activities

61. Have student work with teacher to develop a plan for behavior change tied to incremental privileges

62. Create a behavior charts with students that identifies a target behavior and agreed upon reinforcements and rewards for chronic behavior issue

Positive Alternatives to Withholding Recess

Part II

Positive Alternatives to Withholding Recess

In 2011 the Centers for Disease Control published a paper entitled, The Association Between School Based Physical Activity including Physical Education and Academic Performance.

The findings speak to the importance of recess in respect to academic performance. “Eight studies looked at the impact of physical activity during recess on academic performance. 59% of the outcomes for recess were positive.“In addition, all eight studies found one or more positive findings suggesting that recess was associated with improvements in attention, concentration, and/or on task behavior. “

Given the many documented benefits of recess it seem counter productive to withhold recess for discipline reasons. The child who has difficulty sitting still is most likely a child that needs recess to decompress and burn off energy.

Thi is the second article in a set of three articles that focus on alternatives to withholding recess. Positive alternatives are listed below

1. Sit by a friend
2. Watch a video
3. Read outdoors
4. Teach the class
5. Get extra time for art music etc.
6. Homework coupon
7. Coupon for prizes
8. Enjoy class outdoors
9. Play a computer game
10. Read to a younger class
11. Get a no homework free pass
12. Make deliveries to the office
13. Listen to music while working
14. Play a favorite game
15. Do a puzzle
16. Earn privileges
17. Walk with the teacher during lunch
18. Be a classroom helper
19. Eat lunch with the teacher
20. Dance to your favorite music
21. Get a free choice activity
22. Listen with a head set
23. Have the teacher perform a special skill (like sing)
24. Be a helper in another classroom
25. Recognition on morning announcements
26. Chat break at the end of class
27. Taking care of class pet.
28. Extra recess
29. Check out small playground equipment
30. Leading the class to lunch, library or recess.
31. Attend a music concert of older students
32. Walking break from classwork
33. Have lunch in the classroom
34. Private lunch in classroom with friend
35. Opportunity for show and tell
36. Play a favorite game
37. Teacher performs a special skill (cartwheel)
38. You are the first to line up.
39. You are the teacher’s helper

[1] Playworks. The State of Play: Gallup survey of principals on school recess, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2010.

[2] CDC. The association between school-based physical activity, including physical education and academic performance.

Tips for Disciplining Students on the Playground.

Given the value of recess in a student’s physical and social development, coupled with the need for periodic breaks from classroom instruction, using recess as a punishment is inappropriate.

Yet, in a national survey of principals, commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, more than 75% of principals state that their schools use recess as a discipline technique.[1]

A growing body of research supports the many benefits of physical activity and provides further support for the importance of physical activity in schools that is most often gained in either physical education or recess.[2] This report found, “Time spent in recess had a positive relationship or no relationship with, children’s attention, concentration, and/or on-task classroom behavior. All eight studies found one or more positive associations between recess and indicators of cognitive skills, attitudes, and academic behavior, none of the studies found negative associations.”

Further, in 2009 the National Association of Sport and Physical Education put out a position statement on “Physical Activity Used as Punishment and/or Behavior Management”, was inappropriate.[3] The position statement was written to address the inappropriate use of or withdrawal from physical activity as a disciplinary consequence, both within and outside the school environment.

Alternative Discipline Options: Misbehavior on the playground

1. Restricting play area

Most discipline issues on the playground can be solved by restricting the play area of the child having problems.

1. Rather than asking a child who is having difficulties in 4 square to “sit out for the rest of the recess period”, instead ask the student to select another game saying, “since you are having trouble in 4 square please select another 4 square game that you can be successful at.”
2. 2. If this difficulty continues, ask student to find another game area to play in and make the 4 square courts off limits for a specified length of time.
3. Step 3. Continue to decrease the freedom to roam the playground by asking a student to play on the grass or the blacktop based on the area of difficulty. I’ve found that most playground problems can be solved by restricting the area of play space or restricting the playmates.

2.   Restricting Playtime with preferred playmates. It might be appropriate to say:

1.  “I see you are having difficulty with (child’s name), so today pick another friend to play with at recess”. This too solves a lot of problems that arise.

2.  “If you show me that the two of you can play without any difficulty then you can play together again”. Monitor the kids at play.

3. “Unfortunately, the two of you seem to have problems getting along outside. Pick different activities and you may not play together for the rest of the week”.

4. Restrict play between the two students for an appropriate amount of time depending on the grade level.

3.   Restricting Game Choices

Most students have a preferred game or activity. Yet some students have difficulty playing successfully with their preferred choice of game. Sometimes it is caused by difficulty with a playmate but often it is an over zealousness for the game itself.

1. Ask the student to pick an alternative game court. This is often enough to solve the problem as a first step.

2. If difficulty continues for the same child, then asking the child to select a different game choice is appropriate and seems to solve most problems.

3 might be to say, “you’ve lost the privilege of playing 4 square for the rest of the week”.

4. Or, you may say, “You’ve lost the opportunity to play 4 square for the rest of the month”.

[1] Playworks. The State of Play: Gallup survey of principals on school recess, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2010.

[2] CDC. The association between school-based physical activity, including physical education and academic performance.

[3] NASPE. Physical Activity used as Punishment and/or Behavior Management. 2009 National Association for Sport and Physical Education, a division of AAHPERD, Reston, VA

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