Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son played super rough in K-1. He came home with skinned knees and elbows more often than not. He was happy about it, so I thought it was great. There was an occasional kid who went too far, but I think the group handled it pretty well (at least as far as my kid reported).

But your question implies that you are asking about one kid being rough with kids who aren't playing rough? That hasn't been my son's experience too often, and as I said, the group tended to put a stop to it.

Came home with skinned knees and elbows doing what? Mine would fall during chase games, or slip on the playground and get hurt. But nobody was pushing him over or hitting him regularly, at least not to the extent he was getting visibly injured very often.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much rough play at recess is happening in early elementary at your school?

Is it daily? Weekly?
Is it the same kid always or does it vary?

How would you know any of this? Kids are unreliable narrators. I assume teachers aren’t reporting this level of detail. How would you know what happens at recess and by whom?

I say this as a teachers aide who is at recess with 1st graders twice every day. I can’t imagine the kids could report recess activity accurately hours later.

If you are at recess twice a day, what are you seeing?

I was a recess monitor recently helping teachers and I've gotta say kids aren't allowed to do ANYTHING. I follow the lead of teachers and admin, but these are some of the prohibitions:

-Only go down the slide. No climbing up.
-No kicking mulch or picking it up.
-Stay out of the mud.
-Balls only on the blacktop.
-No balls in the mud.
-No swinging on your stomach. You must sit in the swing on your bottom and hold the chains with both hands.
-No screaming.

I mean, what is the point of going to the playground and having recess? Might as well have the kids just sit around outside.

I’m the teacher outside twice a day and this all seems normal and not a high bar to me. We need 20-40 kids to go back inside ready to learn, not covered in mud (and cold later) or with a chipped tooth from the slide. It’s not home where they can go onto their room and change clothes.
I see boys in kindergarten and 1st who start off playing two-finger tag and it devolves to full pushes. I think that’s developmentally normal but need to keep them safe and get them back to two finger tag. They don’t get in trouble, just redirected. I see some boys (and rarely girls) who have their hands all over each other. Full bear hugs, picking each other up. Same thing. It’s normal so they don’t get in trouble but it’s not safe so we say “keep your hands to yourself” type messages a lot.
It’s a constant struggle to let them play but not be too rough. Be physical but not too physical. Some aides let less slide than me. We try our best! We want them to get their wiggles out, too, or we pay for it later. But safety and good habits matter a lot.