Ending The Year With Purpose: Constructing YOUR Field Day

By Scott Townsend email, Corey Edmiston email,

Brandon Chrest email, and Armando Lua email

What is field day?  An end of the year celebration that incorporates multiple skills learned during the school year. YOU have the flexibility to incorporate games that use practice skills learned throughout the year such as teamwork, teambuilding, combative, etc.

**Some of the most popular field days we have done in the past are combative, team building, water theme, and Olympic theme field days.

Why do a field day?

How do I start?

  1. Introducing it to staff- use both an email and elaborate during one of your staff meetings, keep it short and sweet on email and add more detail during a staff meeting.
  2. Introducing it to students-  teach the stations/activities you will be doing ahead of time during class. ( Minimum 2-3 weeks before the event)
  3. Facilities-  utilize blacktop/ grass, station maps (remember you will have to be able to monitor all students out on field day so make sure your facilities are not too far from each other).
  4. Scheduling- different PE schedule than normal, lunch times, recess times, Make sure times are appropriate and don't conflict.  Get bell schedules.  How many stations, how much time between stations, transitions- how are you going to let everybody know it’s time to rotate,

Structure-  

  1.  Theme- use activities that students will be successful in, make it meaningful for all your students! Be mindful!
  2. Order or sequencing of stations- what is the purpose of placing events in that order- try not to put hard stations back to back (cardiovascular, muscular strengthening, etc)

  1. Additional supervision- teachers, parents, students (teacher choice/student council)
  2. Student helpers- double up students, have one stay and the other student walk group to the next station.  Provide helpers with t-shirts, party, etc.

Themes- team building, water, Olympic, more competitive (tallying points), intersperse fun activities, PE unit review, non-traditional games

Needs- allow for hydration, shade structure/canopies,  music loud enough for everybody to hear (maybe mix up selection),  station markers/map, instructions for each station.

SAMPLE LETTER

 

Hello _____________ Staff,

 

I just want to thank everyone for a wonderful school year and acknowledge all of the amazing work you are doing in the classroom.  I genuinely appreciate your efforts in the areas of classroom management and positive character development within our student body.  I have seen its effects on a daily basis in terms of how students conduct themselves, interact with others and approach each day. I cannot thank you enough for your support of the Parkwood PE Program. Whether it was walking your students out to lines, protecting the physical education space during recess or lunch, stressing the importance of responsible pedometer use, or positive words of encouragement, it all is genuinely recognized and appreciated!  Thank you for making my job easier.

 

With great enthusiasm, I would like to share with you the details of PE during the last two weeks of school (5/29 - 6/6).  We will be hosting a field day for all students  1st- 6th grade, beginning on Tuesday, May 29th.   Please remind students to dress appropriately for physical activity on your classes designated day.  The day will include a mixture of activities/ games that will revisit some of the major units conducted during the year, combined with fun, collaborative team competitions.

 

The schedule is as follows:

 

Tuesday (5/29):           6th grade  8:30- 9:50 am

 

Thursday (5/31):         2nd grade  8:30- 9:50 am

 

Friday (6/1):                 5th grade  8:30- 9:50 am

 

Monday (6/4)               3rd grade  8:30- 9:50 am

 

Tuesday (6/5)              4th grade  8:30- 9:50 am

 

Wednesday (6/6):          1st grade  8:30- 9:50 am

 

Organization of Students for Field Day:

 

                Teachers, please split your class up into 6 different teams.

  1.  You will need a red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple,  team. Please put yarn, ribbon, or paper wristbands with team color on your students before they come out to the field. If you need help with that please let me know.
  2. When bringing your students out to the field you will see all 6 team colors designated by 6 cones located on the blacktop near the play structure. Please tell your students to go to the cone that matches their team color, sit down, and wait quietly for instruction.
  3. The field day will consist of 7 stations. You will have a team representing your class at each station.  
  4. Each station will go for 10 minutes. Remaining time has been accounted for with instructional time and transition between stations.
  5. Teachers: Please help to supervise one station.  Please figure out a schedule within your grade level that allows for two teachers to be present at all times. Please help to keep students rotating properly to the next station and remind them to hustle so we can stay on schedule. Make sure to acknowledge any positive effort, or acts of sportsmanship, respectful/ mature behaviors!

I hope that this is a fun session for all involved and think it has the potential to be a great ending to a wonderful year in Physical Education. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me, I will get back to you as soon as possible. Please be on the lookout for follow up emails with more detailed information on stations, rotations, and scoring. Thank you, again.

Chuck Norris,

PE Specialist

_______________ Elementarychucknorris@maderausd.org

START

                                                                                          FINISH

MAZE CRAZE SHEET

PRESENTATION STATIONS:

Spot Shot-   Spread spots are spread out around large bucket or hula hoop in the center.  Get students into groups or teams with an object to throw.  Students run out, stand on a spot, and shoot their object into target.  If students make get their object to land in the target then they collect the spot that they were standing on.  The team with the most spots wins.

Pipe and Marble Relay-   Each students gets a PVC tube and lines up at the start.  First person in line inserts the marble into the tube and then runs to the back of the group.  The object is to get the marble through the tube without dropping it all the way from the start to the finish.  

Aerobic Bowling-    You will need to set up pins or another object that could be toppled (2 liter bottles, etc) at one end of the playing area.  Use a poly spot to designate where you want the “bowler” and “waiter” to stand.  The “retriever” will stand behind the pins.  Get students into groups of 3: one student to be the “bowler”, one the “waiter” and one to be the “retriever”.  On the signal, bowler bowls the ball.  The bowler sets up any knocked- down pins and runs to become the retriever.  The retriever gets the ball,  runs it to the person rotating to become the next bowler, then becomes the waiter.  The waiter becomes the next bowler.  

Be creative!  The waiter can be given any task you desire them to do before they rotate.  For example, see how many push ups you can do while you wait, Bounce the ball five times with each hand, or any other task.

Javelin-  Students get into teams.  One student throws the javelin, trying to hit the target (bucket or hoop), runs and gets the javelin, then returns it to the next person in the relay line.

Kayaking-  Using the PVC paddle and a scooter, students try to paddle to a turn around spot and back.  Be creative!  You can have them do something at the turn-around such as a squat before they come back or carry an object to do something with like stacking cups.

Team Cup Stacking-  Get a rubber band and tie 5 or so strings to it (so it looks like a 5-legged octopus) to make a “grabber”.  Teams use the “grabber” to pick up a stacking cup, move as quickly as possible to a designated spot, run back and do it again.   You can have students stack a six stack (3, 2, 1) pyramid or any desired pattern.

Fireman Relay-   Have a large bucket or trash can filled with water.  Each team gets a sponge (one that you would use for a car wash).  On a signal , one student runs to soak the sponge. runs back to the front of their team, passes it over head to the person behind them and runs to the back.  The object is to fill their teams bucket first to a certain line.  

Maze Craze-   

OTHER POSSIBLE STATIONS:

Google search for field day activities- Click the link- make sure you check out 101 field day games.