Warm Weather Draws Students Outside

The warm spell that gripped Newtown at the beginning of the week gave Newtown students the rare treat of not having to deal with the cold during recess in winter. 

As temperatures climbed into the 60s, students at both Head O’ Meadow and Sandy Hook schools shed bulky winter parkas, gloves and stocking caps, and resumed old football and tag rivalries.

“It’s like spring!” exclaimed Head O’ Meadow fifth-grader Amy Kelly.

Several raucous soccer and touch football games consumed the two schools’ fields each day as the damp air made the ground moist and muddy. Head O’ Meadow fifth grader Brendon Hintzen said that besides soccer and football, kickball (or Mat Ball, as it is known to some students) and tag are favorite playground pastimes.

Most students were content to frolic on the new playground equipment at each of the schools. Many shouted their enthusiasm for slides, swings and tic-tac-toe.

For Head O’ Meadow student Russell Menz, recess is always a good time just to walk around and hang out with friends.

Although the cold days of winter do not necessarily spell doom for daily recess, a Sandy Hook teacher said that when the temperatures are frigid and the wind chills are particularly biting, students would be required to have recess indoors.

Which is perhaps why Monday and Tuesday saw students playing with such reckless abandon. Loud as the playgrounds were this week, one sound always seemed to rise above the cacophony: the whistle that signaled the end of recess.

There can be no doubt that as students lined up to reenter their schools, many looked forward to the consistently temperate months of spring that make the playground that much more carefree and enjoyable.