ELDON, MO. -- Recess is an important part of a child's day at school. It's their chance to release pent up energy so they can focus better in the classroom.
Kindergarten through sixth grade students in Eldon have a whole new set of playground equipment.
But it's not an expensive jungle gym, it's a set of colorful diagrams painted right on the pavement.
"I noticed a lot of students were coming out during recess time and just running around, tagging and chasing," Eldon elementary P.E. teacher Nancy Fisher said. "We had these very large pavement areas that weren't really being utilized."
Fishers put an end to that.
She came to the school's Parent-Teacher Organization in January with the plan to make the interactive stations, all she needed was some funding.
The PTO came through and the playground project was finished last weekend.
"We have a lot of interdisciplinary actions out here where it crosses over into the classroom, such as working on numbers and working on spelling," Fisher said. "A lot of things also help us in the P.E. area and that's the children working on locomotor moves, like skipping and hopping and jumping."
There are racing lanes, four-square courts, maps, and even a Japanese hopscotch course to keep kids busy during their free time.
"Research has shown that on a regular, normal playground only about 15 percent of the children are engaged in constructive play," Fisher said. "And with diagrams, such as what we did, that it can go up to 85 percent of the children."
Fisher said that helps cut down the occassional discipline and behavior problems on the playground.
School budgets are tight these days, so school officials gathered about 50 volunteers to paint the diagrams instead of hiring an outside source.
The organizers also used yard sticks, string, and chalk to draw their own creations, instead of buying expensive stencil kits.
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