During the typical recess session, kids will be running about, playing games and even engaging in impromptu sports matches. In other words, they're taking part in both moderate-to-vigorous and vigorous physical activity, as Nicola D. Ridgers, et al. described in the essay "Children's Physical Activity Levels During School Recess: A Quasi-Experimental Intervention Study." The longer the recess, the more opportunity each child has to be physically active. Physical activity is good for kids, raising their fitness levels and helping to combat childhood obesity. It's recommend that kids engage in an hour or more of physical activity per day, as Ridgers, et al. point out, so longer recess periods help children achieve this goal.
Recess is a suitable way to give kids a needed break during the school day. While in recess, kids can get rid of all the built-up energy that accumulates in the classroom. The result is that they come back to lessons ready to work. According to the American Association for the Child's Right to Play, kids who don't get long in recess are more likely to fidget during lessons, while the Scholastic website reports that recess periods help kids to focus better.
Recess has an emotional effect on kids. Since it's an enjoyable part of the school day, kids can concentrate in lessons safe in the knowledge that there's something to look forward to and a time to relax. Cutting recess periods too short reduces the fun of recess, since kids can't lose themselves in play. More seriously, kids who don't get a recess period of the length they require may find school difficult to cope with. According to the American Association for the Child's Right to Play, recess represents a key coping strategy for school, especially for young kids. Longer recess periods maintain this necessary coping method.
Not all of a child's development while at school takes place in the classroom. It's during recess that kids learn some of the skills, such as social abilities, that will form a part of their teenage and adult lives. While in recess kids learn about social groups and who they're going to interact with, as child development academic Anthony Pellegrini suggests on the Family Education website. Essentially, it's during recess that kids develop their relationships with other students.