Chesterfield Pre-School Goes for Guinness World Record

At noon Friday, The Goddard School in Chesterfield joined in a coast-to-coast attempt to set the Guinness World Record for the most people to play a game of Simon Says.

The other Missouri locations—in Arnold, Fenton, Manchester, O’Fallon, Oakville, Rock Hill, St. Charles, St. Peters, Wentzville and Springfield—were expected to participate with another 360 Goddard School locations in the U.S. to obtain the 12,300 people needed for the record at noon p.m. CST, said Marla Brunk, owner of the Goddard School in Arnold at 3228 Miller Rd.

Goddard is a school that focuses on early childhood development, she said via a phone interview.

West Coast schools will participate at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. East Coast schools will perform the activities at 1 p.m., Brunk said.

The record attempt is because of Goddard’s ultimate block party that occurred in New York City two years ago to teach children about healthy lifestyles, Brunk said.

“It was a very successful event. Everyone enjoyed it, but not everyone can travel to New York,” Brunk said.

September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, she said.

The game Simon Says is good childhood development tool, Brunk said. “It requires children to listen, follow directions and perform an activity.”

Physical activity also improves children’s ability to study, she said.

Children will begin to wiggle their legs or start looking around the room during a lesson, Brunk said.

“That’s when our teachers will ask the children to stand and perform a few yoga stretches,” Brunk said. After the exercises, the children are calm and can focus on their studies.

Each Goddard location will play its own Simon Says game with its own “Simon,” she said.

Students can miss game instructions given via the Internet or speaker phone, Brunk said.

And that can ruin the fun for kids.

An independent observer, someone without an affiliation to the Goddard school, needs to verify that the Arnold Goddard School location participates in Friday’s record setting event, Brunk said.