Creativity required to get kids exercise at school

By Maanvi Singh, NPR

Avery Stackhouse, age 7, of Lafayette, says he wishes he had more time for phys ed.

“We just have it one day a week — on Monday.” There’s always lunch and recess, he says. “We play a couple of games, like football and soccer,” he tells Shots.

But at Happy Valley Elementary, where he goes to school, recess last only 15 minutes and lunch is 45. Between eating and mingling, he says, “there’s only a few minutes left where we play games and all that.”

In a poll conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health, parents reported that their kids aren’t getting nearly as much time in phys ed classes as is recommended.

In a poll conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health, parents reported that their kids aren’t getting nearly as much time in phys ed classes as is recommended.

NPR

Fifty-six percent of parents say their elementary school kids are getting just one or two days of physical education a week, according to NPR poll conducted in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Fewer than 1 in 5 parents with children in kindergarten through fifth grade said their kids were getting physical education daily.

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