Should Schools For Younger Kids Have a Break Just For Eating?
Schools are called upon to give the younger generation deep and solid knowledge of the fundamentals of science, to develop the necessary skills, to form a worldview, to ensure the all-round development of an individual. At the same time, school must fulfill its health-promoting role. Society is not indifferent to the price which should be paid for knowledge, since health is the main human value.
Why breaks are needed and how should they pass?
In a moral and physical sense, it is difficult for younger children to sit 4-5 lessons in the classroom without taking their eyes off a textbook. Constant concentration on new knowledge is fraught with overloads. In order to avoid them, pedagogues introduced breaks to a school schedule. There are different opinions about their duration and purpose.
One of the most popular questions: should the limited period of free time be allocated solely for eating? Many students of pedagogical universities consider this issue in their essays. The topic is more complicated than it seems, so sometimes, it is necessary to contact experienced authors from organizations like Pro-Papers paper writing service.
On the one hand, short and rare breaks will let the pupils go home earlier. At the first glance, this perspective seems attractive for both kids and teachers. But there are other important aspects besides time-saving. Doctors believe that a short snack is not enough to meet all the needs of a growing organism.
Physical activity is an integral part of human life which is absolutely necessary for maintaining health. One of the characteristic features of a modern lifestyle, which has a progressive tendency, is a reduction in the motor activity and muscular work in combination with neuropsychic overloads.
Adults know how difficult it is to spend 4 hours at a working table in one pose. There is no need in depriving kids of childhood, forcing them to adhere to a rigid regime of their moms and dads. School schedule should be based on the peculiarities of the young age.
The junior schoolchildren were carefully monitored in order to reveal the features of the behavior, as well as the impact of breaks on academic performance during the lesson. The collection and processing of the received information showed that not all pupils spend their free time in the same way. But the most common activity is a game. In a noisy fuss, kids create themselves, build their own characters. The game teaches to distinguish good from bad, to discover kindness and friendship, to develop physical abilities.
Therefore, in addition to eating, breaks should also be designed for playing activity. It helps to maintain the good health, to refresh the mind with vivid emotions that contrast with the dry educational material.
Which games interest children during the breaks?
Observations show that this, first of all, depends on a number of factors:
- Firstly, the psychological characteristics of children are of great importance. If the pupil is mobile and emotional, he likes venturesome activities. A quiet child prefers games related to the mental activity.
- Secondly, the characteristics of gender.
- Thirdly, the surrounding reality influences the choice of games.
Children like to play “free games” – to imitate someone or something. Currently, the source of these games is television, computer. Receiving visual examples of actions, children interpret them in their own way, not always positively. During the observation of the peculiarities of the behavior of children of primary school age, 3 groups of students were singled out:
- Mobile, emotional pupils who spend most of the break on active games: spontaneous running of competitive character, revealing the strongest participant, flirting between boys and girls turning into catch-up pursuit.
- Children who prefer medium mobility games. They are more serious about learning, like to play games related to a mental activity.
- Kids not engaged in active games. In practice, this group includes only girls. They are very calm, spend almost all of the break sitting in front of the desk.
In addition, a poll was conducted, which included the following questions:
- Are you satisfied with the duration of the breaks? 92% responded positively. There were also negative answers – 8%. For example, with such an argument: “No, because after running, I have no time to catch my breath.”
- What do you like to do during the break? All 100% of the children answered: “to play”.
- What activities do you prefer? 62% said: “I would like to play mobile games”, and 24% voted for board games. There were other answers: for example, “to sit and talk”, “to read magazines”, “to listen to the music”, “to play Barbie”, “to dance”, “to lie on a couch”, “to solve crosswords, puzzles, riddles”, “to walk outside”. 14% answered in this way.
Based on the results of observations and statements in the questionnaires, the following conclusions were drawn:
- Children are eager to play. Games are the meaning of their life. They cannot live without activity, experience a lack of bright emotions while spending several hours in class and doing routine work.
- During the spare time, preference is given to the game, but the children know not many games.
- Depending on the peculiarities of behavior, students are divided into groups for joint pastime. The division depends on psychological features and characteristics of the gender.
- Standard school breaks are built monotonously. Kids are often left alone with themselves and do not know how to organize their free time (there are 49% of such pupils).
Therefore, it is important for the pedagogues to properly organize both the educational activities and the rest of the students. At the beginning of each lesson, kids should not only have a full stomach after visiting a canteen. Their emotional needs also should be met. Then the school will become an attractive place where children will go with pleasure in the morning.