Importance of children’s recess play exploration within school outdoor environment

Playing at recess time in school gives a lot of benefits for children in both physical and social aspects, such as supporting physical, health, and cognitive improvement, and enhancing their learning motivation. Moreover, the outdoor school environment helps to bring back the children’s health condition after the pandemic event that has led to health problems such as obesity and screen fatigue. The physical layout of Indonesian public elementary schools is intended to offer children a learning and playing environment. However, many outdoor school environments are not specifically designed to facilitate children’s play. This study was undertaken at SDN Mendungan 2 to determine how children use outdoor areas in public elementary schools as play spaces during recess time using behavior mapping approach. The results demonstrate that boys tend towards being more active than girls and children with younger age demonstrate play more than the older. Furthermore, results show characteristics of outdoor play spatial characteristics areas used by children in specific play types and are important toward children’s health, growth, and development.


Introduction
Children could play everywhere [1], including play at recess time within the school environment aside from their daily learning activity.Children's play activities generally should be independent, fun, flexible, and positive [2][3][4] and fulfill their needs.Children fill the recess time with sedentary activities such as sitting and eating and physical activities such as running and playing badminton.
Playing in an outdoor school environment provides many benefits to children in both physical, cognitive, and social aspects [5].Physical activity in children's play supports their health improvement [6][7], while informal interaction with peers could improve their social and emotional development [8][9][10].Furthermore, playing within a school outdoor environment will help children with their learning abilities.
Studies show that natural environments may positively impact children's health development such as Physical activity and cognitive development [11].During the COVID-19 pandemic, children did not do much outside activity because there were restrictions on activities outside the home, including restrictions on access to schools that led them to have fewer physical activities to engage in [12].This condition has certainly changed after the New Normal.After their fatigue from always sitting in front of gadgets, children go back to their school environment with various problems such as obesity [12][13].
Other problems that arose due to reduced activity in the outside environment such as children's access to outside light and fresh air before the pandemic, are now starting to be obtained by children again by accessing the outside environment.The condition of the child's body which is stressed due to the online 2 learning process can also be restored through the natural environment of the school.This is also related to the school environment which has good natural spaces that will be able to help children improve their wellbeing.Apart from the COVID issue, a safe environment for kids also needs to be noticed considering that elementary school-aged children access a lot of risky play [14] such as climbing trees and games that use gross motors.
The quality of the play environment can be a consideration that has a large portion of children using the outdoor environment [5].School playground provides children with the opportunity to engage more in physical activity [15].Kids tend to be more active in schools that provide permanent equipment such as a sports facility, recreational area, variety of surfaces, and vegetation [16].Moreover, School playground elements could help increase and motivate children to come to school and lead to children's academic improvement [17][18].Unfortunately, most public elementary schools in Indonesia don't provide playgrounds such as manufactured play equipment caused of the school environment's narrow size and basic layout.This issue indirectly restrains children from exploring their free play variety [10].
The main focus of this study was to investigate how children explore and utilize outdoor play areas at SDN Mendungan 2 to support their growth and development.Specifically, the aim was to examine how children engage in play exploration during recess in public elementary schools.Furthermore, the study analyzed the spatial characteristics of the outdoor areas used by children to better understand how these spaces support their play exploration.The primary method used to explore this topic was behavior mapping, which provided valuable insights into the environmental factors that facilitate children's play exploration activities.

Study Area
The research was conducted in the elementary school SDN Mendungan 2 which is located in Umbulharjo, Yogyakarta, and has dimensions of 5,526 m2.In our chosen study area, for instance, although there is no equipped playground, there exists an abundance of green space and a versatile outdoor setting.This allows for a multitude of play experiences and encourages creativity and discovery.In this case, the study area consists of outdoor and semi-outdoor referring to pre-research that found closeness activity in both areas.Research focused on children's activities that are supported by environmental characteristics.

Data Collection
Data was collected using behavior mapping specified in the place-centered mapping technique to examine play activities held by children of different ranges of genders and age groups.This research used play type from TOPO (Tools For Observing Play Outdoor) by Leobach and Cox [9] which is divided into 9 play types consisting of physical play, exploratory play, imaginative play, play with rules, expressive play, digital play, bio play, restorative play, and non-play.Digital play type was not included due to school policy forbidding any kind of gadget in school.Furthermore, behavior mapping data is also used to explain spatial characteristics used by children.This study focuses on a place-centered mapping method to capture activities in a spatial view.Observations were conducted during recess time, for 25 minutes, and done in one-time observation.The research identified 222 group activities done by 475 children scattered throughout the outdoor school, with varying environmental characteristics in each activity.More details on these activities will be explained in the next section.

General Find
Table 1.Play activity.Out of all the play activities, the highest category is from non-play activities (36.49%), followed by expressive play (20.72%) and restorative play (14.86%).The lowest percentage was obtained in the categories of imaginative play (0.45%) and bio play (0.90%).

Physical
Non-play refers to activities that are part of the overall outdoor play cycle but are not classified as "play" activities.These activities include self-care, nutrition, distress, aggression, transition, and other subtypes.In this instance, non-play activities are predominantly centered around nutrition, followed by washing hands for self-care.Other activities that fall under non-play include washing cutlery, putting on socks, tying shoelaces, drying clothes in the sun, standing, and disposing of garbage.
Expressive play integrates a form of communication or expression into part of the play and consists of four subtypes namely performance, artistic, language, and conversation.Most of the activities involve talking with peers or adults, while performance activities like singing, dancing, and posing in front of friends are also common.
Restorative play refers to taking a break from the active play cycle or feeling hesitant to participate in play.It also involves the process of self-rejuvenation after becoming tired from playing.Children typically engage in restorative play by observing their peers or simply sitting and taking in their surroundings.Examples of restorative play activities include sitting or lying down on the floor.
The study found that children tend to engage in more sedentary leisure activities rather than physically playing games that require concentration such as in the play with rules category.This lack of movement during playtime could negatively impact children who are expected to be more active during recess time [16].However, leisure and moveless activities could still contribute to a child's independence ability and help improve language skills during conversation activities [19].Additionally, engaging in restorative activities can greatly benefit children by allowing them to recharge their energy and reduce stress and tension [20].The results of the behavior mapping show that boys (55.80%) do more activities outside the classroom compared to girls (44.20%).It validated previous research that boys are physically more active than girls [7,[21][22].Furthermore, Play type percentages show that boys have a higher outdoor activity rate than girls.The dominance of the activity by boys at non-play (21.44%) and expressive play (13.79%).

Gender and Age Group
Although previous studies showed that boys were not involved in communication activities [23], it was found that chatting was the most active activity outside of non-play activities.This shows that the quality of the outdoor environment as one of the motivations for girls to carry out social interactions [24] can also be found in boys.
Boys tend to have more dominance in outdoor activities as compared to girls who prefer to stay in class during recess time.This lack of activity among girls in outdoor spaces is also influenced by traditional schoolyards that are more oriented toward sports.This creates a lack of diversity in the play areas, which decreases the opportunities for girls to be more active in play [25].
The difference in how age groups did play activities in general showed that children in the younger group (68.93%) dominated play activities in outdoor environments when compared to the older group (31.07%).Children in the younger age group show a tendency to do a lot of physical activity when compared to the older group [15].They also show activeness in processing motion in performance play [23] [26] whereas children in the older group focus more on non-play activities and social interaction.The research discovered that children tend to play more in the open site than in the corridor area, and they also frequently use the paving area designated for circulation rather than the field area.The area near their classroom building sees a lot of play activity due to its proximity.The spread of play in school outdoor environments is primarily influenced by the availability of facilities that support children's recess activities.

Playtype Relate to Spatial Characteristic
It appears that a significant portion, around 47.75%, of the activities that take place in the outdoor school are located near vegetation, particularly big and shady trees.This suggests that the children enjoy spending time near these areas for the shade they provide during playtime.Previous research points out that vegetation could support children's constructive play (exploratory play), socio-dramatic play (imaginative play), and physical play [27].Physical play was found in areas that served manufactured equipment such as a pull bar for hanging activity and the edge of the pool for vestibular play.This manufactured equipment provides opportunities for children to play games more actively.Moreover, physical play activities provide opportunities for children to cultivate their motor development.Variety of the play that found dominated by sensory activity and followed by active play that manipulated things around to be useful things to play.This shows that exploratory activities come from the existence of external stimuli which is one of the factors that children engage in playing activities [22] [24].Stimuli such as the presence of a camera, and problem issues such as balls that are stuck on the tree, become external factors that are explored by the child.These various exploratory activities in children daily will help their cognitive processes and sensory recognition.Active play may indirectly improve problemsolving abilities.
Imaginative play did not depend on the environment because it just needs children in person.The imaginative process helps children to develop their imagination.In this case study, this play type was found along the corridor of the younger grade.In the previous section, it was discussed that children in the younger class like to use their imagination rather than the children in the older class who tend to explore their social ability [23] [26].
The play with rules category is formed into 2 types, namely conventional and organic.this is seen through how the playing occurs.Conventional play uses common rules whereas organic play involves children's opinions to create the rules [9].Conventional play is found in sports play such as badminton and hide and seek while organic play is found in benteng play.Badminton activity as sport play surprisingly occurs in a small area when the actual play usually happens in a bigger place such as a court.Moreover, playing with rules provides children's experience of discipline and leads them into discussions through games.
Bio play requires a natural environment for children to play in vegetation areas such as tall trees and flowers and bushes.Bio play, apart from providing sensory support to children, also provides them with natural experiences that can be used as a healing environment and as a small recreational facility for children.Additionally, playing in a green area can improve overall children's wellbeing.
Children mostly performed expressive play categories with conversation activity.They use a lot of open space areas close to shaded space.Elementary school-aged children have a stage of social interaction by telling stories [23] [26].In addition, social interaction with peers could lead to better communication skills.
Restorative play is closely related to the recovery process both physically and non-physically, such as mental conditions.Children carry out restorative play activities by doing activities such as sitting, lying on the floor, and watching other friends play.Most of the restorative processes that occur are carried out in green areas and shelter areas such as gazebos and stage areas which are seen by children as areas to sit and relax.Green area is seen as an area that can provide benefits in a restorative aspect.Green spaces can restore a child's tiredness after playing, and make children realize the need for a restorative process when they finish playing so that the body's condition can be returned to its initial situation to be able to start the next learning process.
Non-play activities happen in small spaces in open areas with the classroom as the nearest connectivity.Children engage more in the sitting area that has shading for eating activities such as the gazebo and hallway.The environmental characteristics of non-play activities feel more general because in fact some of the findings just use the facilities in different ways with other play activities, like using a pull bar for drying space for wet clothes.Moreover, non-play activities can help improve motor skills to increase the independence skills of children.
Based on the results, it seems that children tend to prefer certain elements in their play environment that encourage exploration and activity.However, there are some types of play activities, like bio play, that are not being performed as much even though the environment provides a lot of natural elements.The issue lies in the fact that the environment is not fully utilized for play, especially when it comes to the less preferred types such as bio play and imaginative play.To address this, improvements can be made to the environment to encourage children to engage in more diverse play explorations.
Improvement could be adapted from previous research such as using clear boundaries of the play space could reduce children's into accessing too many leisure activities and lead them to access more play activities [28].It also could be improved by providing a more adequately equipped yard to help improve physical activity [16].The improvement of environmental qualities such as replacing manufactured settings with more natural settings could help children to participate more in collaborative play during recess [29].

Conclusion
This study shows that during recess time, children engage a lot in non-play activities.Children do a lot of leisure and sedentary activities, even though physical activity is important for them.Sedentary activities don't give the same physical benefits as active play, but they help with children's development, such as promoting independence and language skills, and can serve as a restorative break from more rigorous activities.
The study has found that boys exhibit higher levels of physical activity compared to girls, and younger children tend to engage in play more frequently than older ones.The differences between groups could be influenced by preference and the environmental role that does not provide diverse play spaces.Additionally, the study emphasizes the importance of outdoor play and the spatial characteristics of areas designated for specific types of play in promoting children's overall health, growth, and development.
The environment provides space to engage in play but in fact, it is not fully utilized for play because the environment could not accommodate some types of play activities such as imaginative play and bio play.Improvements can be made by enhancing the environment to encourage children to engage in more diverse play explorations and create more diverse play spaces.
One limitation of this study is that the findings may not be applicable to other public elementary schools with varying layouts and architectural features.Further research could compare play experiences between schools with more comprehensive playground facilities or better-quality outdoor environments to gain a deeper understanding of the issues at hand.Additionally, it should be noted that the significance of each type of play may not fully capture the overall benefits, which warrants further exploration.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Behavior mapping of the play activities.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Children are playing with manufactured equipment

Table 2 .
Play related to gender and age.

Table 3 .
Spatial characteristics of each playtype