SANTA BARBARA - Recess is not all fun and games! It may make children more healthy, but timing is everything.
The School Food Initiative is helping to serve made from scratch food in schools and now it hopes to inspire a scheduling change.
There's a new push to move recess in the school day. Many new studies show giving students recess time right before lunch time may have many benefits.
We followed the kindergarten class from Adams Elementary in Santa Barbara to see if recess before lunch works!
Our camera captured children running and playing outside and then we found a surprise. We saw the calmest group of children we've ever seen in the cafeteria.
We only heard the crunch of carrots and the slurping of milk!
"Before when they would eat first and then play they would rush through their lunch and quickly try to throw lunch into the trash can so they can line up and go to recess and now we have eliminated that problem," says Teacher Sela Viscarra. "It's an easy solution."
A change they see in the trash cans with less food thrown away.
Teachers at Adams Elementary also report kids drink more milk. They also see less problems on the playground and less visits to the school nurse. Students return to class calmer and ready to concentrate.
The schedule change is one way schools can boost health and it doesn't cost a thing.
A few Central Coast schools are testing the shift in schedule to see how it plays out!
