Table II.

Teacher's perceived benefits of physical activity and outdoor time

	Physical benefit	Socio-emotional benefit
Physical activity	Healthy habits, obesity prevention ¶A1: I think (physical activity) builds healthy habits. There was just a huge study about childhood obesity and how in 10 years it is going to sky rocket. There is no better time than when they are just learning to walk or developing their gross motor skills to get them out moving so they can see that running around and moving around and participating in group activities is fun and they can hopefully build on that as they get older. ¶A2: I think getting the exercise and really trying to keep some of the childhood obesity down by being outside, getting that exercise… . Very rarely when you visit a playground you’ll see a group of kids just sitting. Usually if they are sitting, they’re digging. They’re still using muscles somewhere. ¶A3: We (teachers) encourage, if they sit around, that is encouraging them to be lazy. And they’re not active. We encourage them to be active that will help them, not just now, but as they grow up. Socially and physically they are going to be more active. So I think, I think our role is to encourage that.	Stress-relief, energy-release, calming ¶A4: Because people have the misconception that children’s aren’t stressed. They go through the same things we go through. We just stress about bills, they stress because Susie doesn’t want to be my friend today. It’s a stress relief. They can just kind of be open and be themselves. ¶A5: I think kids are like adults. When we run around and jump and get our energy out and exercise, it releases endorphins and I think they have the same thing. It is a thing that makes them feel better. ¶A6: If I am reading to a small group of children and more and more start coming over and they start getting fidgety, I will say, ‘Oh guys, we gotta get the wiggles out’. Then we will stand up and I will have them do all these things, like clap your hands above your head, do arm circles… . The kids love it and it gets all the energy out. It’s just fun. I like it. ¶A7: It just may be 10 min… . that can make their day so much better. It makes them easier to calm down… they have that energy that they need to get out.
	Developing fundamental gross motor skills ¶A8: Physical activity builds the body itself. It helps them to learn about their legs, their feet, what they can do with them. ¶A9: Some are just learning to pedal or they need encouragement as to how to get their legs to go around and push the pedals. I had a little girl that’s in occupational therapy and her therapist needed for her to use the climber as much as possible so that she could know how to walk up and down. ¶A10: We show them how to play hop scotch because none of these kids now … they don’t know how to do it. We had to show them how to do it. Converse: without the opportunity to develop gross motor skills ¶A11: Like I’ll have kids in my class that just cry—‘cause you know they’re 4—and they’ll say, ‘I can’t skip’. ‘You know, it is something you have to learn’. Most of the time you know it’s step, hop, step, hop but unless you practice it or learn it.	Self-efficacy, self-confidence, improve peer relations ¶A12: We have the fire pole and there are so many kids when they first started the daycare and they are so scared to go down the pole. Then they say ‘Ms. ____, I did it!!’ They are so excited when they get up enough confidence to fly down that pole. ¶A13: I believe their self esteem is enhanced by being involved in those type of activities… I see them on the playground and it’s like, ‘It’s great being me ‘cause I can run and I can jump. I can fall and get up and still keep going. And I have many friends and life is good!!’ ¶A14: I think it also gives those kids who might not feel as accomplished with things inside, even on an academic level, they might be very accomplished outside with their physical ability and so they get to rise and shine, like she was saying… They feel more confident about their physical ability than they might about their abilities that shine inside. Converse: feeling discouraged and embarrassed ¶A15: Kids can get very upset when they can’t do something physically that they feel their friends can do. It is more important maybe to the children than it is to the parents… . ¶A16: If a child is lacking in that, a lot of times they have problems with their peers. Because then they can’t throw a ball and someone else can and then as they continue to get older they get made fun of or they get left out. ¶A17: Children who have not had enough active play, especially outdoors, wind up, I think, having emotional difficulties, learning difficulties, social difficulties. So it’s extremely important that they are active everyday between the ages of 3 and 6.
	¶A18:If you have a child who is overweight or who is very uncoordinated, they can’t play the things the other kids are playing. They get discouraged and they don’t want to try. They see all the other kids up on the monkey bars and flipping upside down and he just can’t pull his weight up that much. Then he quits and is embarrassed and doesn’t want to try. Or a child who is just not coordinated or is developmentally behind the others and they get real discouraged because they can’t do what the others do.
Outside benefit	More room to run ¶A19: Our inside is like a limited space …When you get outside, there is much more freedom, more space so they can be more active. ¶A20: They are able to expend their energy. Inside, I notice on rainy days, that the muscle room just doesn’t seem to be enough as going outside. ¶A21: It’s better because there is more room for them to run. They can scream louder, you know, and they are able to open up more. Nap better later ¶A22: If we have a 15–20 min space for outside time, nap time goes a lot better. ¶A23: When I take my kids outside, they like to go outside and it helps them sleep. When it’s nap time, it helps them sleep. It does! I don’t have no problems. I don’t have to say “lay down!’. They just lay down and go right to sleep to sleep.	More creative, expressive ¶A24: They can be loud. You’re not telling them to use their inside voices. You know, they just have more room to be free and express themselves. ¶A25: I think with preschoolers you get a different kind of play. Inside … it’s a much more confined and small-motor kind of thing … Outside all of the sudden their movements are different… .They start assigning roles that they don’t assign inside as much. You kind of see a different theme emerge as they go outside… They were much more creative and much more into their roles than when they were inside the classroom. ¶A26: I agree. There’s a lot more creativity, like freedom. There was this one girl who was using a stick to write. The creativity expands when you go outside. Interact with other classrooms, develop social skills ¶A27: I think it gives the children a chance to interact. They interact a lot more and they come out of themselves a lot more outside because they have the room… They encourage each other a lot more outside. ¶A28: And it’s a different kind of social interaction with the kids. Like, they’ll play with kids they don’t even play with indoors. So it’s just a freer way of playing, I think. ¶A29: What I observe is that children get a chance to improve, to add to their social skills ‘cause they interact with other children. I’m not the only one in the class or the playground. There are other 3–5-year-old rooms out there so you have to learn to stand in line, to wait your turn to go down the slide, . . We don’t have a ball for everybody we have to share the ball… ‘Learn to balance your emotions. Play with others’.
	¶A30: (Children’s physical activity) is a necessary element as far as what we were saying earlier, their muscle development and their balance and I think there is a lot of social development that goes along with it too. Conflict resolution, trying to solve problems over equipment or doing a group activity or something like that. Not just muscle development but social development also.
Fresh air	Escape germs ¶A31: We try to take them outside. Just to get that fresh air. I think it helps to kill the germs. ¶A32: I think our children in our center—teachers and everyone—are healthier when they go outside because the germs are getting a chance to breathe and they’re getting a chance to get some different air, not necessarily the air that’s been breathed in and exhaled all day long by the same people. ¶A33: Because the fresh air … I open the windows, too, ‘cause it circulates the germs out of the room. I’m a germophobe, I’ll admit it. When we’re outside, if you sneeze into the grass, you know, that’s fine. You’re not sneezing on a whole pile of books and, you know, (on to) toys that need to be disinfected. ¶A34: (in response to previous speaker) That’s pretty much the same thing I was thinking. Even in the wintertime, as long as the temperature is the way it should be, I’ll take my kids outside for 15 min. Just so, like she said, I will open the windows and air out the room. Get all those germs out of there ‘cause they’re spreading in the winter more … ‘cause the heat’s on and the heat keeps them multiplying. ¶A35: (another respondent in response again) I feel the same way. In the wintertime … We go outside at least 15 min if the temperature is 33 and above … And I feel that the outside … they are not as likely to get sick because the germs are not confined. In the classroom, the germs are just hanging there. Outside I think the germs will just float away more. I think they’re less likely to get sick.	Improved mood of children and teachers ¶A36: I would say just that fresh of, that breath of fresh air. You know, just like 2 days last week it was like 70-something—I mean corporate women pushing strollers down the street, just happy to be outside ‘cause the sun was shining! … When we get out and hit outside, ‘Wooh!’ its like a breath of fresh air! ¶A37: I think it makes them feel better, too, to get the fresh air. Maybe not just healthier but then their frame of mind is a little bit different from being outside. ¶A38: The sun, I mean, mood, and then the getting you get vitamin D (when asked by moderator to clarify what she meant by ‘mood’) Well I think of myself. If I’m having, like a stressful day and I go outside, it’s so much better! And you know, I think daycare in general is more stressful, because the kids are there a long time. You know what I mean? It’s a long time for somebody who is little. It’s kind of—it’s like a change of pace. You know what I mean? You’re doing something different.