When is it too cold for school recess in your area?

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Our school 🏫 closes if there is a skiff of snow on the ground 🙄
When I was in school, the heat went out one winter, foot of snow on the ground, can’t remember temps but they said wear a coat and bring a blanket if you want we aren’t cancelling school.
 
Cabin Fever said:
"skiff of snow?"
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I think we had this question before but here's the answer for those that missed it the first time around.

The origin is not clear, but some think it came from the Scottish verb "skiff," which means to lightly move across a surface barely touching it, as perhaps a "skiff" of snow barely covers the ground. The term appears to be colloquial, used mainly in northern parts of the country and in Canada to describe a minor rainfall or snowfall or a light breeze. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a skiff as "a slight gust of wind or shower of rain, etc. Also, a light flurry or cover of snow."
 
Just got a call that amish school is closed tomorrow, too. It's not the snow, it's the cold right now. Late start by 2 hrs on Tuesday, so far. Later in the week, I'll be adding another to our morning drive. Amish kindergarten starts this week, two days a week, and neighbor Kylie is so excited to go.
 
In our school district, for the elementary, 40 degree wind chill with rain; junior and senior high 38 degree wind chill. Does that mean they make them go outside? I know they made us go outside when I was in elementary.
Ridiculous, the summer is 100 heat index for the littles, 105-110 for junior and senior.
 
I don't know what the recess cancellation rules are now, but back when I was a kid, I think they used to call it off after 20% of the kids failed to make it back inside under their own power. Kids have it so easy these days. We had to walk 20 miles to school too. Through blizzards. Uphill both ways.
 
As a kid I remember getting out of school because it was raining. I moved to a town that got about 200" a year. The new grade school was built about 10' above ground and the recess was held under the school. Then I moved to a town that shut down the school when the wind chill hit either -50℉ or -70℉. The planes quit flying at -50℉ ambient so I may be confusing the numbers. They didn't like shutting down the schools. Inside recess was normal.
 
The schools only close here if there is a red weather warning and that's because no buses (or anyone actually) are meant to travel. Mostly they stay open unless there is an electric or heating issue.
Our worst weather was in 2010 and our rural school stayed open, one of the teachers left her car on a main road and one of the farmers drove her the last few miles (uphill) in his tractor.
The children would be allowed recess, depending on whether the yard was icy and dangerous, but if it was very wet or deep snow, the classes would be brought into the hall at different times to play. That's for the primary schools- the secondary schools, or town schools wouldn't change.
 
It's a brisk 10 where I am right now, but there was no wind. I believe if the wind chill hits -15 or so, they cancel school. (It's not really that cold, but some kids have the IQ of a bottle of glue and don't bother to put on a coat. I've seen kids in t-shirts at the bus stops when it's well below 0 ambient or with wind chill.) To get an actual snow day - school cancelled because of snow - we would need to have several feet of snowfall overnight such that the plows couldn't keep up.
 
I guess we had a "skiff" of snow yesterday. Just barely covered the ground. I don't know if there is a temperature limit where the kids will stay inside for recess. It does seem like schools close more frequently for snow, but at least one district that is close to me covers a very hilly region. I have driven to a couple of those schools many times, and I guarantee you I wouldn't want my child riding a school bus in that area when the roads were covered with snow. Better to err on the side of caution. If they have to make it up with one day less of Summer, so be it.
 
T
bkt said:
It's a brisk 10 where I am right now, but there was no wind. I believe if the wind chill hits -15 or so, they cancel school. (It's not really that cold, but some kids have the IQ of a bottle of glue and don't bother to put on a coat. I've seen kids in t-shirts at the bus stops when it's well below 0 ambient or with wind chill.) To get an actual snow day - school cancelled because of snow - we would need to have several feet of snowfall overnight such that the plows couldn't keep up.
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Those kids inherited their IQs!!
 
I don't ever remember our schools closing in Germany in winter for cold weather, or snow, except if we got several feet or more.
But here is something Pearl is going to laugh so hard about: we got "heat free" ( out of school at 10 AM) when the temperature reached 77 degrees F ( I converted it) by 10 Am
( no ac anywhere in Germany )
 
Pearl said:
T

Those kids inherited their IQs!!
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Well sometimes kids are just dumb and like to play tough. But I know you are partly right, I see it at a Walmart near me. (I wear my winter coat, SOCKS with my shoes, and here comes a mom wearing shorts etc with similarly clothed young children). Stupidity, poverty?
 
I don't know about these days either. In my day, school was never canceled. The school bus stopped running at -40 but school was always open. We rode in the back of an open pickup in a pile of hay. When we got to school, we had to do school chores like hauling in wood and water for the day.

There was none of that walking up hills both ways. I am pretty sure it was mountains for those of us who lived less than 5 miles away. Many of us had driveways that long.

I laugh at the recess thing. We had to use an outhouse (at school ) at all temperatures and they are never close to the building.

I think it would have been impossible to keep us off the skating rink, and I doubt any teacher would have wanted us inside climbing the walls of a tiny two room school.
 
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backlash said:
I think we had this question before but here's the answer for those that missed it the first time around.

The origin is not clear, but some think it came from the Scottish verb "skiff," which means to lightly move across a surface barely touching it, as perhaps a "skiff" of snow barely covers the ground. The term appears to be colloquial, used mainly in northern parts of the country and in Canada to describe a minor rainfall or snowfall or a light breeze. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a skiff as "a slight gust of wind or shower of rain, etc. Also, a light flurry or cover of snow."
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We call that a dusting.

Today, we are seeing many photos of "snow" from our Texan family and friends. We laugh and tell them, that's not snow, it is "frost."
 
Cabin Fever said:
It's a well known fact that southern schools have more weather-related closures and late starts compared to northern schools.
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Yeah that seems to be true. We don't get regular snow and aren't equipped to deal with it as well as needed. The other factor is the mountains. Somebroad are cut into the side of a ridge, straight up on one side, straight down on the other. And there are miles and miles of roads like that. Too easy for a bus to slide off.

That said they are getting ridiculous. Just last week school was canceled for high winds, 35mph. Say what?
 
backlash said:
I think we had this question before but here's the answer for those that missed it the first time around.

The origin is not clear, but some think it came from the Scottish verb "skiff," which means to lightly move across a surface barely touching it, as perhaps a "skiff" of snow barely covers the ground. The term appears to be colloquial, used mainly in northern parts of the country and in Canada to describe a minor rainfall or snowfall or a light breeze. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a skiff as "a slight gust of wind or shower of rain, etc. Also, a light flurry or cover of snow."
Click to expand...
Cabin Fever said:
What is a "skiff of snow?" If Minnesota schools closed if there was snow on the ground, they would be closed for 5 months.
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Sorry, I thought you were being silly since you probably don't get skiffs but get dump-truck loads of snow.
 
ClemKadiddlehopper said:
I don't know about these days either. In my day, school was never canceled. The school bus stopped running at -40 but school was always open. We rode in the back of an open pickup in a pile of hay. When we got to school, we had to do school chores like hauling in wood and water for the day.

There was none of that walking up hills both ways. I am pretty sure it was mountains for those of us who lived less than 5 miles away. Many of us had driveways that long.

I laugh at the recess thing. We had to use an outhouse (at school ) at all temperatures and they are never close to the building.

I think it would have been impossible to keep us off the skating rink, and I doubt any teacher would have wanted us inside climbing the walls of a tiny two room school.
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I think kids should have to tend their school, do the cleaning and general maintaining of it - they would have more respect for it. I'm sure I'm not very popular with kids by saying that 🤭
 
When we graduated to high school, our bus ride was 2 hours one way to town. No bush kid ever wanted to stay home and work. Townies always stayed home because they didn't have work to do.

We were expected to wait 1-2 hrs for the bus, but we had wind breaks and a camp fire. We didn't just stand around waiting to freeze to death.

I feel bad for kids these days. They really haven't been taught how to take care of themselves in the real world and really are helpless. It's not right.

I don't laugh at southerners dealing with 'frost' on the roads. They should stay home if at all possible. They haven't the equipment or experience to deal with it.

Even school/all busses in the north do not have winter tires and have zero traction on even the smallest inclines. Busses should be canceled more than they are. That doesn't mean shut down the school.

I do wonder why no one drains their
pipes before the big freezes, though. That has got to be way less inconvenient then burst pipes for weeks while waiting for repairs along with every other Tom, Dick and Jane.

If you don't have drain valves, turn off the main and cut the pipe; one easy fix when it's all over.
 
LadyLocust said:
I think kids should have to tend their school, do the cleaning and general maintaining of it - they would have more respect for it. I'm sure I'm not very popular with kids by saying that 🤭
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In Montessori classrooms, there is clean up time at the end of the day. There is a chart of chores that need to be attended to. The chores would sometimes rotate, and sometimes they got to choose the chore they wanted. If I saw children regularly throw stuff onto the floor instead of the trash can, guess what chore I assigned to them? Cleaning the floor! It is called natural consequences. Write on the wall? Scrub the wall! Mess something up? Straighten it up.

I know from observation that some people have no respect for the chores and cleaning up that someone else does. We see it all over, the litter. Or maybe, they don't care if they are creating a trashy environment. I do. When I used to walk Crosby, before I figured out about dog parks, I would take a plastic grocery bag on our walks and pick up trash until it was full.
 
Patchouli said:
Well sometimes kids are just dumb and like to play tough. But I know you are partly right, I see it at a Walmart near me. (I wear my winter coat, SOCKS with my shoes, and here comes a mom wearing shorts etc with similarly clothed young children). Stupidity, poverty?
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I'm going with stupidity. Warm clothing is too easy to get - even free.
 
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