Physical activity the FUN way: How recess is a key strategy for improving children's health

Since 1996 Sports4Kids has been transforming urban playgrounds from chaos to organized fun resulting in wholesale transformation of the school experience for thousands of children.

This unique full-day, in-school model leverages the power of play throughout the school day to get kids moving and build life-long healthy habits. Principals find that fights and discipline referrals decline, the number of kids playing at recess increases, and teachers are able to get their students focused quickly on learning activities when they return to class. Sports4Kids started in the San Francisco Bay Area and now operates in 170 schools playing with 65,000 children every day in Baltimore, Boston, Washington D.C., St. Louis, Silicon Valley, and New Orleans. Principals increasingly request Sports4Kids based on positive word-of-mouth about its value for school climate.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently invested $18.7 million supporting expansion into 22 additional cities by 2012. They made this investment because Sports4Kids effectively changes the school culture so that play and physical activity become an integral part of the school day, for all students, creating a systems change where other anti-obesity efforts have failed.

This session will identify effective components of a successful play-based strategy for increasing physical activity during the school day, such as inclusive and active games, conflict resolution tools, and group management strategies. Speakers will discuss research linking play to positive outcomes. Speakers will define the basic building blocks of a school-based physical activity program and list resources to support participants who