Frigid weather sends school kids inside for the winter

The playground at Frost Elementary was a tribute to its namesake during recess Friday — a silent field covered in snow.

The kids, like most throughout the Tri-Cities last week, played inside rather than venturing into the frigid temperatures.

Pasco and Richland schools keep students inside when it hits 20 degrees or less, including wind chill. Kennewick does not have a set policy, but normally shortens recess for temperatures below 20 degrees, and brings kids inside when it hits 10 degrees.

What happens when you have roughly 640 kindergarten through sixth-grade students stuck in a building?

You need to give them something to do.

Kindergartners through fourth-graders at Frost spent their recess breaks doing activities in their classrooms. A group of third-graders spent their time playing on a carpet with the design of the world map, building towers out of blocks and bouncing a marble off of the floor.

Across the hall, a group of students clustered around computers as they played a math game during recess.

Principal Nora Flores said many of the students continue learning as they play. They may work on a project or some other learning activity.

“Sometimes the teachers select the games that they play,” she said. “The kids think it’s fun, because for a lot of them they don’t have computer access or Internet at home. So this is great, but as they’re learning they also think that they’re playing.”

The students are active in their classrooms, but Flores said they don’t get unruly. Adults patrol the halls making sure they stay where they are supposed to be.

“We’re going to rotate the kids through the gym,” she said. “Maybe Monday is going to be kindergarten and first grade, and Tuesday is going to be second and third. That way everyone has a chance to be out of the classroom, and not just in the classroom all of the time.”

Scheduling the rotation is tricky since the school is full, and they have seven portables sitting outside.

The older students are spending their recess in the lunch room. D.J. Search, a physical education instructor, is one of the people monitoring them as they sit in class.

Depending on the time, the staff plans holds different events. Search said sometimes they hold competitions between the different grades, and other times the children relax.

While the kids could spend time outside, Search said the students would likely become uncomfortable quickly and want to come inside.

This story was originally published January 7, 2017 at 8:25 PM with the headline "Frigid weather sends school kids inside for the winter."