Play It Cool

Do you love recess? Many kids do. It’s an important part of the school day that gives kids a chance to play, relax, and hang out with friends. But during times of extreme heat, outdoor recess can be not only uncomfortable, it can be unsafe.

That’s why a growing number of schools are redoing their playgrounds and yards. Heat-trapping asphalt × asphalt a dark substance used for paving roads and playgrounds (noun) is on the way out. Trees, shade sails, and updated equipment are in. The upgrades make play spaces cooler and help students connect with nature.

BLANK SPACE Before an upgrade, this lot in the Bronx, New York, has an asphalt surface that traps heat.

NEW AND IMPROVED The lot reopens in 2024 with green space, trees, and vibrant colors. It now serves multiple schools.

Arizona’s Paideia Academy wanted to remake its playground, so the elementary school teamed up with the HeatReady program at Arizona State University (ASU). Located in Phoenix, one of the hottest cities in the United States, Paideia had a “traditional schoolyard,” ASU’s Jennifer Vanos told TIME for Kids. “Very open. Lots of space to run around, but little shade.”

Now it’s an oasis × oasis a green, fertile place in a desert; a place of refuge (noun) . There are desert willow and mesquite trees, a garden, and other environmentally friendly features. The transformation has “just been marvelous,” Paideia founder Brian Winsor says. Students wanted to keep the basketball court, which can still get pretty hot. But Winsor notes, “the difference is, now there’s a lot more trees for them to sit under to cool off.” Five more will be planted in October.

COOLING OFF Students at Paideia Academy, in Phoenix, Arizona, spend time together in the shade of trees.

Hot Stuff

In big cities with older school buildings, it’s common to see asphalt playgrounds. Asphalt surfaces soak up heat from the sun, creating what’s known as heat islands. Asphalt “makes the neighborhood hotter,” says Danielle Denk, of the nonprofit Trust for Public Land (TPL). “It also makes a school hotter.”

PUMPED UP This pump in the Paideia Academy schoolyard is part of a natural area called a bioswale.

Trees help solve the problem. “If there are trees in the yard, the yard is going to be cooler,” Denk says. “And it’s not just certain areas of the Southwest”—like Phoenix—“where tree planting is needed. It’s really all over the country.”

FRESH LOOK This grassy playground opened in 2024 at Castellanos Elementary School, in Los Angeles, California.

Denk speaks from experience. As senior director of TPL’s Community Schoolyards Initiative, she works with 75 school districts in 24 states to turn asphalt playgrounds into green spaces. Students guide the process. “They know better than anybody else how they want to play outside and how they want to learn outside,” Denk says.

Speak Up

This school year, John F. Kennedy Elementary in Scranton, Pennsylvania, has a brand-new play space. “It was just asphalt” before, says TPL program director Elizabeth Class-Maldonado. That’s been replaced with a new play surface, birch trees, and an outdoor classroom.

“I feel proud and happy for the other kids that are going to play in this playground,” middle schooler Camila Pena said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony in June. Camila was in third grade when she and her classmates first worked on the redesign. The students were “so amazed” by the results, Class-Maldonado says.

Is your playground too hot? Speak up! “Sometimes, kids are the pathway to change for this stuff, especially around environmental work,” Vanos says. “I think kids really, really drive that.”

Be Heat-Smart

Playing outside in extreme temperatures for too long can cause illness, such as heat exhaustion. Warning signs include heavy sweating, dizziness, headache, and muscle cramps.

Pay attention to your body’s signs. Seek shade when you need it. And drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Brian Winsor tells students to “always have a water bottle.” In Arizona, “you always have one with you, and you keep it full.”