Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has been posted before. The overall consensus was that adding time that additional time for lunch and recess would be greatly beneficial for elementary school aged kids, including Kindergartners. Mine has 20 minutes for lunch, which includes waiting for food, etc. And then only 20 minutes for recess.

I am not OP and did not follow that thread but what makes people think that recess and lunch would be extended? I thought it was for instructional time only.

This was the consensus of the posters on this site. Not sure what the MCPS Board or whoever makes these decisions will allocate additional time.

I went to the Bell Times meeting in December and asked essentially what the extra time for ES would be used for. The person (not Starr, but the chair of the committee) said "I don't know yet." It was only described as Instructional time in Starr's video. To me, Instructional time means "learning" or possibly "time to start HW with teacher supervision" (one suggestion). I don't think Instructional time is lunch.

My school has 60 minutes total for lunch and recess, but in reality, since the kids must get in line, wait for all classes / students to be in line, march down hall, etc. it's probably 20 minutes lunch, 20 minutes recess, 20 minutes waiting in line.

Anonymous wrote:Why does everyone keep mentioning sports? Elementary school kids don't do after school sports, do they?

My son started baseball in 2nd grade, which had practice one school night a week, plus batting practice on the weekend. Some games are on weeknights. Same true for soccer, basketball, and football. We don't do all these sports, but I know families who do. Football has practice 3 times a week.

Anonymous wrote:Is there a way to comment on bell times other than by attending one of the public forums?

Go to the Bell Times page at the MCPS website. They list an email address.

PP re STEM and science is interesting -- yesterday my 2d grade daughter was complaining that all they do is math. She loves math, and plays math games all the time at home, but hates it at school. She says they are not having any science instruction now -- just math. This is really a separate discussion topic, though.

I see a huge consensus on these boards that parents want more recess for kids. There is so much data out there about the importance of movement and physical activity for brain and academic development. I think parents should organize and push hard for this now, since this change will likely happen. This emphasis on STEM is ridiculous. All you have to do is look at how science and math are taught in MCPS and realize that more of the same is a joke. We have aged out of elementary and I have other fish to fry so I probably won't organize something like this but someone really should! We used to live somewhere where kids had one hour of recess daily (broken into two parts) from grades K-7 and kids were happy and healthy! MCPS has so much emphasis on *stillness.* So wrong for kids.

Agree 100% If you've aged out, you haven't experienced the joy of 2.0. STEM is basically writing or language assignments using science topics, no real science is being taught. Math is horrendous. Its a huge waste of time not because is STEM is a waste of time but because the people in MCPS have no clue how to teach STEM.

Aren't sports practices only 1.5 - 3 hours or so? Even if they didn't start until 3:45 the kids would still get out before 7 at the latest.

22:19 sports are mentioned because the change in bell times for MS and esp. HS would affect when sports practices end.

Anonymous wrote:Why does everyone keep mentioning sports? Elementary school kids don't do after school sports, do they?

Bell times would change for ES, MS and HS

Why does everyone keep mentioning sports? Elementary school kids don't do after school sports, do they?

When I grew up school got out at 3:15 and we were home from sports by 6 or earlier. I don't see what the big deal is. And not everybody does sports.

I see a huge consensus on these boards that parents want more recess for kids. There is so much data out there about the importance of movement and physical activity for brain and academic development. I think parents should organize and push hard for this now, since this change will likely happen. This emphasis on STEM is ridiculous. All you have to do is look at how science and math are taught in MCPS and realize that more of the same is a joke. We have aged out of elementary and I have other fish to fry so I probably won't organize something like this but someone really should! We used to live somewhere where kids had one hour of recess daily (broken into two parts) from grades K-7 and kids were happy and healthy! MCPS has so much emphasis on *stillness.* So wrong for kids.