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A study reported in The Journal of Pediatrics measured energy expenditure and enjoyment in 30 different schoolyard games and came up with recommendations of activities that could be effective at addressing pediatric obesity. Researchers at Children's and the University of Massachusetts Amherst selected 30 games through focus groups with physical education teachers, and then tested them with 28 third-graders in a large gymnasium.
As children played, their energy expenditure was tracked with a portable metabolic analyzer with a face mask that measured their oxygen consumption. An accelerometer measured how physically active each child was during the game. Immediately after each game, the children ranked their level of enjoyment on a visual scale showing happy, sad and neutral faces.
Then, in a pilot study at two Massachusetts elementary schools, researchers tested the 22 most promising games. The findings suggest that organized games during recess, rather than unstructured free play, increase physical activity. "We really don't take advantage of recess now," says Stavroula Osganian, MD, ScD, MPH, director of Children's Clinical Research Program and senior investigator on the study. "But if you had short bouts of physical activity twice a day, you could expend up to 200 calories a day in energy at school."
Among the games ranking highest in terms of calories burned per minute were Computer Virus, Builders and Bulldozers, Race Day and Dragon's Tail. Most of these also ranked at the top of the physical-activity scale. Among those with the highest enjoyment scores were Dragon's Tail, Capture the Flag, Stop and Go and Monkey in the Middle.
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