Building a community where fitness and play are the foundation for all families.
Field Day is annually one of the most exciting events for elementary school students. It’s often a culminating activity where the entire school community comes together to celebrate the completion of the school year. I’ve grown to enjoy getting a glimpse of field day throughout the world via social media. It’s evident that every school has its own personal touch. Throughout my career, I’ve worked at several different schools, each with a different take on this extravaganza. The one common factor in every field day is fun! I’d like to share with you a 26 year field day formula with proven success from my current school. It’s a well-oiled machine, too good not to share (see videos of our field day in action below).
How do we make teams?
What is our field day format?
Our field day is structured around a variety of eight different relay races. As you can see below, races start out dry, then eventually turn into water events as the students get hot. In my experience, water is a must! Each race lasts three minutes (except water events, which last until a team’s bucket is filled with water).
How do we mark the field?
How do we keep score?
Our Field Day in Action
Tug-O-War
After completing our relay races, we finish with the tug-o-war as a grand finale. Each grade takes takes turns competing in their blue/white teams. The winner of each round receives 50 points while the losing team receives 40. Following each round, the blue/white teams shake hands, get a popsicle, and return to the bleachers to cheer on the rest of the groups.
BONUS GAMES!
Each school has its own unique formula for field day. Our school has kept field day competitive yet fun, with all grades from 2nd-6th sharing the same field and same events. We find it’s a great way to end the year as a community.
Thanks to my PE teammates Brian, Jedd and Laura for another fantastic day of fun and excitement! Kudos to our parent volunteers, teachers, and staff for making the day run so smoothly!
We would enjoy learning about YOUR field day! What works for you and your school?
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Field days sure are fun! I like the idea of the students knowing what color their team is so that they can come up with their own outfit. And you are so right that WATER is the definitive ingredient for field day. At our school, there was a parent who owned a water trucking company and we were fortunate to have an abundance of water from a water truck…and of course the kids loved getting their teachers soaked!
I love the spirit of your Field Day! At our school we have our student body, Grades 1-5, divided onto community teams that meet about 4 times a year to get to know each other. They each have different colors and names…Verse Vultures, Brown Buffalo, Flying Purple People Eater, etc.! On Field Day they wear their team color and compete against the other teams at 6 stations.
1. Capture the Color (similar to Capture the Flag but with no holding jail and more action)
2. 4 corner relay
3. Castle Ball (think dodgeball except they are throwing balls at ‘castles’ they built out of hula hoops. Each team has 3 castles that can be rebuilt by team members. Game ends when all three castles are down at the same time).
4. Crazy Kickball (bases reversed, partner kicking and running)
5. Sponge water battle
6. Water station/playground/break station
Each team has a teacher assigned to them that travels to different games and are encouraged to play with them. Each game has a teacher assigned to it to monitor game. Students are wearing their team color so no need for pinnies. Students have all learned the games in PE prior to Field Day. Fifth graders are captains and are given the schedule to follow for order of games. Game time is approximately 12 minutes so teams travel to each game quickly to get started. Time to rotate is indicated by an air horn. Our day then ends with a faculty/fifth grade kickball game.
We don’t keep score of any games or indicate any winners. They are just out on the field playing and having a blast!
PK/K students have the same type of Field Day in the morning with 4 games more developmentally appropriate.
Wow! What a great formula. I love that the students are rotating through such active stations. Kind of like the greatest hits of PE. It’s also nice to see that teachers are encouraged to participate.
We also end the school year, a week after field day with a Faculty/Staff vs. 6th Grade kickball game. Thanks for sharing you unique, action packed take on field day! AWESOME!
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We are a K-4 school and Field Day is the first half of the day. A Fun Run starts the day and hypes us up, there is a quarter mile trail we run and a surprise is give at the finish line. This year it was a Field Day silicone bracelet. Then it’s on to a rotation of 5 -30 minutes stations. 1)A relay station, 2)A water station, 3) An obstacle course in the gym, 4) A Face paint/ triage area. The kids pretend they are hurt and there are bandages to wrap on them. 5) This year I did a take off on “Minute to Win it” with bottle flipping, cone stacking, pom-pom pick up with clothes pins and cube stack. After a cook-out lunch we have a big dance party, our cool music teacher DJ’s, with snow cones. The end of the day is our Third-and-Fourth- grade talent show. It’s a fun action packed day!
What an awesome,unique field day. I sure would love to see it in action.
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