May 26, 2025 • 20 mins
Hello PE Nation!
Let's create something special.
Field days create magical end-of-year experiences for students, requiring thoughtful planning and creativity to master. With proper preparation, themes, games, and volunteer support, these special events become memorable celebrations of physical activity.
• Breaking field days into K-1, 2-3, and 4-5 grade groups for manageable 2-2.5 hour sessions
• Optional themes like Star Wars, Olympics, or water games can enhance the experience
• Plan logistics at least a month ahead, securing administration support and teacher buy-in
• Create a game map with numbered stations and clear rotation schedule
• Recruit parent volunteers and trusted student helpers to run stations
• Select activities based on class numbers with 8-10 minutes per station
• Popular stations include obstacle courses, gaga ball, bucket stacking, relay races, and tug of war
• Regularly update activities while keeping student favorites
• Prepare for the physical demands of setup and teardown
Put in the work, watch the magic happen, and create memories your students will cherish forever.
Take care,
Dave
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Article on Field Days with a map and list of games
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hello and welcome to the SuperScience Phys Ed podcast
.
My name is Dave and today Iwant to talk about field days
and how we can master them andcreate memorable experiences for
our students.
So without further ado, here wego.
All right, welcome in everybody.
(00:41):
So you remember field days, themagic of field days, the relays,
the class versus classcompetitions, tug of war, end of
the year games.
I just love it.
It's my favorite time of theyear because we have a lot of
students.
(01:01):
So I break it down into a K-1day, a 2-3 day and a grade 4-5
day, and these are hot days.
This is at the end of theschool year.
In Florida I have done thembefore around Christmastime,
when we had some half days inthat area.
They kind of changed theschedule around so we don't do
(01:27):
that as much anymore, but Icould do those in the Christmas
time frame there.
But I almost always do them atthe end of the school year and I
know a lot of you do as well.
So I want to go over somedifferent strategies, some
different ways that I createthese experiences for my
students and hopefully they willhelp spark some ideas for all
of you.
So let's get going.
(01:48):
First, you need a theme.
Now you don't really have tohave a theme and I usually don't
have a theme, but I've seensome really amazing ones that
some teachers have put together.
I've seen Star Wars, theOlympics if it's during that
school year or that four-yearperiod with the Summer Olympics.
(02:10):
I've seen water games whichI've done before, which we'll
talk about in a moment Holidaythemes, competitive or
non-competitive.
So if you want to give outmedals and certificates, I
usually don't do that.
I've done that in the past andit was just.
It was too.
It was too difficult because Icouldn't be at all places at all
times and some of the teachers,actually one definitely cheated
(02:34):
to game.
We did like a little scorecardand she gave her class all these
bonus points and stuff likethat.
It was just a mess.
So I don't do that anymore.
But you can, you know you canget medals and things like that,
especially if it's an Olympicyear, like I said.
Um, the water games.
So they're a lot of fun and agreat way to cool off in Florida
(02:56):
, but there are some drawbacks.
Um, first, we only had abouttwo uh faucets and my current
school I think we have one, sovolunteers were filling up water
buckets.
Just throughout the whole daythey were just constantly
filling up water bucketsnon-stop and the students would
uh man, they'd leave socksbehind, they'd leave wet towels
(03:22):
behind, other nasty items behind, and it was really messy.
There was dirt and mud and juststuff everywhere under the
pavilion at the end of the day,just on the basketball courts.
It was just terrible.
So I don't do water daysanymore, but you can, and it's a
lot of fun as well.
So, like I said, I don't reallyhave a theme.
I just pick games that I enjoy,that the students enjoy.
(03:46):
That could be almost like awrap-up of the things we've
learned that year in justdifferent categories or
different sets of games andactivities that really worked
well, or new ones that they'venever seen before, which is a
lot of fun as well ever seenbefore, which is a lot of fun as
(04:08):
well.
So now we're onto the logistics.
So you need to make sure youradministration's on board and
plan way ahead, I'd say a monthahead at least.
So our field days are two totwo and a half hours, depending
on the number of classes, howmuch time I have.
I usually give them about eightto 10 minutes per station and
my assistant principal usuallyworks on the schedule of lunches
and things like that, if theyhave to switch specials and
(04:29):
stuff.
Now we've done before at myformer school where field day
was like all day.
It was like there was a morningand then there was an afternoon
shift and there were nospecials that day.
So you know, it's up to you,it's up to your administration
If you want to make field daylike just an all-day thing.
It really wiped the kids out,especially, like I said, living
in Florida.
Just the heat that was a lot.
(04:51):
So two to two and a half hoursis good for us.
So the teachers have to bebought into this as well.
They have to get their classesready for the day.
They're reminded to bring, orhave their students bring, you
know, wear sunblock, sunglasses,hats.
(05:15):
I send them a game map andstarting stations where they
know where they need to go tostart the day and from then on
they have to follow the numbersand I have each station labeled,
usually.
Well, on the cones I have thoseones with the numbers.
I slip on top of them and theyneed to follow them.
If they don't, it messeseverything up and I've seen it
before and it was awful.
(05:35):
So the teachers have to walktheir students from station to
station in an orderly fashion,hopefully, and if they need
their planning time again, Iwork with my AP on that to have
uh like, uh, separate paras.
Maybe take their classes for,you know, half hour or whatever.
The planning time is 40 minutesand then they the paras rotate
(05:57):
to different teachers.
That's what we're doing thisyear.
So you know they get theirbreaks, but there always needs
to be an adult walking thestudents from station to station
.
At least that's how I do it.
And on a separate note, I'veheard of other PE teachers doing
things like I guess calling italmost like a carnival theme I
know I didn't mention thatbefore where students just go
(06:19):
from station to station, youknow wherever they want, and
just play, and that is Soundsawesome.
But I think with the amount ofstudents we have, the teachers
would just be sitting on bencheson their phones, not even
watching, and kids would just begoing wild.
I have great kids, but I'm justsaying like without structure
(06:40):
it might fall apart.
Need logistically to keep thingsmoving in an orderly pace, with
students obviously followingdirections and going again,
having fun, but having structureas well.
All right, let's talk aboutvolunteers.
(07:02):
So there's two types ofvolunteers.
There's students and parents,and parents are welcome to come
and watch your child or childrenon field days.
However, the secretary in thefront office sends out a uh like
a parent link to sign up.
If the parents want to run astation and we stress to them
that they're, they're helpingout, they're not just following
(07:23):
their kids around.
Now, that's a separate thing.
You know you want to followyour kid around, fine, but if
you want to run a station, youneed to run a station.
And I always add extravolunteers just in case, and
I'll put you know if I have toomany.
I'll put them to work, don'tworry.
So also this day, the art,music and STEM teachers come out
.
I usually put them in the shadeat their request, under the
(07:44):
pavilion, and they can help runthe obstacle course and things
like that.
I also have two paras and I putmy paras in like different zones
so we can help monitor thegames and jump in where needed.
They usually spread out.
They have their radios.
I'm usually near the music andthe place where the microphone
(08:05):
is kind of thing, just to makeannouncements and make sure the
people the people are on time,transitioning to different
stations, all that stuff.
So they're in the field.
I'm usually by the pavilion ofbasketball courts and, you know,
sometimes I'll let a student bethe DJ.
I have a playlist and I haveextra students which we'll talk
about in a moment that you knowcan help out where needed.
(08:27):
And a little note again on myparas.
So in the past I had paras thatwould show up like real early
and help me with field days orstay late.
I don't have that anymore.
It's all on me.
Um, you know, uh, maybe it'sjust a different time or
whatever, but, um, it's on me.
I got to make this work, I gotto put in the work.
Yes, this is the time where Istay late and I get there early,
(08:48):
like super early, and I havegood paras, but they don't
really volunteer to go the extramile, I guess, which I don't
know, whatever, but it's on meand I want to make sure it's run
smoothly.
So sorry about that.
A little quick note there.
(09:10):
But let's go on to studentsstudent helpers, student
volunteers.
They are chosen by the PE teamand I do let my parents pick
some of them.
Although I pick probably mostof them, I always pick the best,
most trustworthy, helpfulstudents that also talk a little
bit.
So there's some really quiet,awesome students that might not
(09:32):
be the best at running a stationjust because they don't talk as
much.
I guess they're quieter, whichis nothing wrong with.
I was quieter when I wasyounger but I need somebody
that's going to help run astation that will instruct the
students.
I want to do and I tell thestudents if they're not chosen
it doesn't mean that they didanything wrong Like I probably
wouldn't have been a good fieldday helper when I was their age
(09:54):
because I was just more reserved.
I wasn't.
I was a good student, I waswell behaved and I just wouldn't
have been a great field dayhelper.
So, anyways, we teach I Ialready meet with the students
before field day and I tell themwhere they're going to be, what
(10:15):
they're going to do, what thegames are and their expectations
, which are to.
You know they're not.
They don't have to disciplineanybody.
They could tell an adult that'sat their station or they could
teach, by the way, the adult,the parent volunteer how to play
the game and because I can'thave a parent volunteers coming
out 8.03 when it starts at 8o'clock and try to tell them
(10:36):
what to do and where to go.
That's why I have students thatknow what to do and they can
help.
So again, I meet with thestudents beforehand.
I tell them they need toinstruct the teachers and
students on how to play and ifthere's a problem they can tell
an adult.
So they're really excited aboutit.
They miss class for two and ahalf hours and they come outside
(10:58):
and they get rewarded that way.
So it's a reward.
So let's move on to the gamesand activities next.
Here we go, all right.
So the games and activities arebased on how many classes I
have.
So my biggest group this yearis second and third.
(11:18):
There's eight second grade.
No, eight third grade classesand seven second grade classes.
So that's eight plus seven is15.
So it's 15 stations and it'sjust.
I tell them it's a math problem.
You have two and a half hours.
There's 15 stations.
So I divide that up and itcomes to about eight minutes a
station.
I try to put a little time infor transition to you know, from
(11:41):
station to station.
So you know, I, I add andsubtract as I go.
Uh, this year, let see, mysmallest group is kindergarten,
and first because there's onlyfive first grade classes, but
there's eight kindergartenclasses.
So there's 13 classes, or 13stations, and classes Fourth and
fifth there's 14.
(12:02):
So there's seven fourth gradeclasses, there's seven fifth
grade classes.
So, again, it's just, it's amatter of number of stations.
Is the number of classes for me?
And it's just, it's a matter ofnumber of stations.
Is the number of classes for me?
And it's just, like I said, amath problem.
It's two and a half hoursdivided by how many stations.
So, um, the first one.
I'll go through all these realquickly.
Here's my stations and I'veI've changed them from year to
(12:26):
year and I keep a lot of thereally good ones, the kids, the
ones that they really love, butI do make changes.
And I keep a lot of the reallygood ones, the kids, the ones
they really love, but I do makechanges.
I don't want to do the samething over and over and over
again.
It just gets boring and it'skind of lazy on my part.
I want to do some differentthings each year.
So let me go through thestations for this year and I
will link these in the shownotes.
(12:49):
I actually put these in theshow notes.
I actually put these are mystations from last year, so I'll
talk about those and I'll talkabout what I replaced them with,
because I want you to see thechanges I made.
So number one is the obstaclecourse.
That's the rail yard obstaclecourse.
That is a staple.
I wrote two grants for the twoparts of it, basically to make
(13:10):
it bigger, and I'm using it.
And we use it about three timesa year, once right before
Christmastime, once during theAmerican Heart Association, the
Kids Heart Challenge, and onceat field day, because it's a
beast but it's fun.
So they go through oppositecourse.
I'm not going to go through allthe stuff, but they do
(13:33):
different exercises on it ordifferent, just a relay on it
and I'll add things like theladder to run through it or hula
hoops or hurdles at the end ofit.
So that's number one.
Number two is on.
This is the popsiclearrestation um.
This year I got a gaga ball pitum for my grant and we're going
(13:58):
to put that in there for thegaga ball action.
And then number three will bethe popsicles um.
Number four is bucket stacking.
That's just a relay race withscooters making a pyramid, uh, a
3-2-1 bucket stack, and itcould also be like a running
station as well, like runningback and forth If they're
(14:19):
running low on time.
It doesn't have to be scooters,see number four.
On here I put tennis racketrelay.
I got rid of that.
I'm doing something a littledifferent.
The older kids will do the hulahut relay, which they have to
build like a castle with a hulahut and they have to get their
whole team through it and thentransport it.
The younger students aren'tgoing to do that.
(14:40):
They're going to do the egg andspoon or ice cream relay.
Egg and spoon is kind ofobvious, but there's also an ice
cream thing where they have tostack pretend ice cream scoops
on their ice cream cone and getit back and forth.
It's really difficult actually.
So that's usually for secondand third grade.
Let's see.
I had the candle launchers.
I did like a bucket knockoutInstead.
(15:02):
This year I made it to a like abucket bounce thing where I
have to bounce a ball.
If it gets in the bucket, theyflip it over.
The first team to flip alltheir buckets over wins.
The next one is a brain ballchallenge, which I again wrote a
grant for brain ball at both myschools as well as the rail
(15:23):
yard, and we use it once ortwice a year where we bring out
the brain balls and the teamshave to work to get the younger
kids just run down.
They find their number orletter they need and bring it
back, while the older studentshave to make a basket as well
with that.
The next one I was doing aputting challenge.
I changed it to the bowlingchallenge where they um, it's
(15:43):
like cardio bowling where theyhave to bowl.
If they hit the pin, they moveit back farther, like to a
different dot, and just thefirst team to make it all the
way to the end wins.
The next one I had long jump.
The students love doing longjump.
It's like they have to run andjump as far as they can and we
keep moving the stick back.
(16:04):
But we get a lot of injuriesthat way as well.
So we just save that just forthe American Heart Association
Challenge.
I'm changing it this year.
We've got Frisbee targets,stand-up Frisbee golf targets
and we've got six of them fromthe PTO.
So we're going to do a Frisbeechallenge where they have to try
to see how many they can makein a certain amount of time.
It's just a little safer andagain I'm adding the new
(16:26):
equipment.
I'm adding the new equipment.
I'm adding the gaga ball pit,the Frisbees, frisbee targets
things we got that are new thisyear I want to add.
The next one is a 40-yard raceor 40-meter race.
We do relay races in lines,like four lines, and they have
batons, so just a race betweentheir classes or they mix up,
(16:49):
you know, girls versus boys orwhatever they want to do, and I
let the student volunteers mixup the games as well.
I tell them they could changethings up a little bit if it's
getting boring or if it's, youknow, just lasting a long time,
like the stations are going alittle, like it's okay, you got
five minutes left, you know,let's change things up.
(17:11):
All right, the next tug of war,that's a two class game because
it's a big rope and of courseit's a classic.
It's the only time we ever dotug of war.
It's not like I do a unit ontug of war just for field days
and they can do class versusclass or they can do again boys
versus girls, or you know, uh,teachers can join in things like
that so they can mix it up alittle bit.
The next one I did I got rid ofis the launch it um, where we
(17:33):
have bands and they have to kindof, uh, shoot the tennis balls
at targets.
They have a hard time with thatand sometimes the bands would
break.
So I got rid of that.
Um and I'll, I don't really Idon't think I needed that many
stations, so I got rid of thatone.
Um and I'll, I don't really Idon't think I needed that many
stations, so I got rid of thatone, although I like it.
Um.
The next one that we normally dois the Ninja Warrior.
(17:54):
Course, we do that on theplayground and I'll add
different obstacles and thingsagain like, um, those agility
sticks, those poles and, uh,hurdles and things like that.
So, uh, that leads us kind ofback and there's's a map in this
article so you can see the maps.
I sent out using Skitch andGoogle Earth actually to make
(18:17):
these maps.
And the last station is thethree-legged amazing race.
Again, I changed it this year.
I do have these bands that cantie their ankles together, these
like Velcro bands, and theyhave to go down and come back.
And this year I changed it toactually Ben Perillo put out a
(18:38):
kangaroo hop, one where you putthe students put like a gator
skin ball between their kneesand they have to hop and I'll
have them go get something andbring it back and the team that
has the most wins, kind of thing.
So you can always mix thosethings up.
But yeah, those are the gamesand I hope you enjoyed that and
maybe got a couple ideas fromthat.
(19:02):
So I think field days are worthit.
They're a lot of work.
It's when you can shine as ateacher with your creativity and
with your hard work anddedication and people can really
see that, hey, this guy or girlis really really working hard
and just a great teacher.
So you're going to be exhausted, but you know the students are
going to love this and they'regoing to cherish this forever.
(19:23):
So you know, put in the work,watch the magic happen and go
make memories with the studentsand with that PE Nation.
Have a great day, week, weekend, whenever you listen to this,
and let's keep pushing ourprofession forward.
Thank you.
Hello and welcome to the SuperScience Phys Ed podcast
.
My name is Dave and today Iwant to talk about field days
and how we can master them andcreate memorable experiences for
our students.
So without further ado, here wego.
All right, welcome in everybody.
(00:41):
So you remember field days, themagic of field days, the relays,
the class versus classcompetitions, tug of war, end of
the year games.
I just love it.
It's my favorite time of theyear because we have a lot of
students.
(01:01):
So I break it down into a K-1day, a 2-3 day and a grade 4-5
day, and these are hot days.
This is at the end of theschool year.
In Florida I have done thembefore around Christmastime,
when we had some half days inthat area.
They kind of changed theschedule around so we don't do
(01:27):
that as much anymore, but Icould do those in the Christmas
time frame there.
But I almost always do them atthe end of the school year and I
know a lot of you do as well.
So I want to go over somedifferent strategies, some
different ways that I createthese experiences for my
students and hopefully they willhelp spark some ideas for all
of you.
So let's get going.
(01:48):
First, you need a theme.
Now you don't really have tohave a theme and I usually don't
have a theme, but I've seensome really amazing ones that
some teachers have put together.
I've seen Star Wars, theOlympics if it's during that
school year or that four-yearperiod with the Summer Olympics.
(02:10):
I've seen water games whichI've done before, which we'll
talk about in a moment Holidaythemes, competitive or
non-competitive.
So if you want to give outmedals and certificates, I
usually don't do that.
I've done that in the past andit was just.
It was too.
It was too difficult because Icouldn't be at all places at all
times and some of the teachers,actually one definitely cheated
(02:34):
to game.
We did like a little scorecardand she gave her class all these
bonus points and stuff likethat.
It was just a mess.
So I don't do that anymore.
But you can, you know you canget medals and things like that,
especially if it's an Olympicyear, like I said.
Um, the water games.
So they're a lot of fun and agreat way to cool off in Florida
(02:56):
, but there are some drawbacks.
Um, first, we only had abouttwo uh faucets and my current
school I think we have one, sovolunteers were filling up water
buckets.
Just throughout the whole daythey were just constantly
filling up water bucketsnon-stop and the students would
uh man, they'd leave socksbehind, they'd leave wet towels
(03:22):
behind, other nasty items behind, and it was really messy.
There was dirt and mud and juststuff everywhere under the
pavilion at the end of the day,just on the basketball courts.
It was just terrible.
So I don't do water daysanymore, but you can, and it's a
lot of fun as well.
So, like I said, I don't reallyhave a theme.
I just pick games that I enjoy,that the students enjoy.
(03:46):
That could be almost like awrap-up of the things we've
learned that year in justdifferent categories or
different sets of games andactivities that really worked
well, or new ones that they'venever seen before, which is a
lot of fun as well ever seenbefore, which is a lot of fun as
(04:08):
well.
So now we're onto the logistics.
So you need to make sure youradministration's on board and
plan way ahead, I'd say a monthahead at least.
So our field days are two totwo and a half hours, depending
on the number of classes, howmuch time I have.
I usually give them about eightto 10 minutes per station and
my assistant principal usuallyworks on the schedule of lunches
and things like that, if theyhave to switch specials and
(04:29):
stuff.
Now we've done before at myformer school where field day
was like all day.
It was like there was a morningand then there was an afternoon
shift and there were nospecials that day.
So you know, it's up to you,it's up to your administration
If you want to make field daylike just an all-day thing.
It really wiped the kids out,especially, like I said, living
in Florida.
Just the heat that was a lot.
(04:51):
So two to two and a half hoursis good for us.
So the teachers have to bebought into this as well.
They have to get their classesready for the day.
They're reminded to bring, orhave their students bring, you
know, wear sunblock, sunglasses,hats.
(05:15):
I send them a game map andstarting stations where they
know where they need to go tostart the day and from then on
they have to follow the numbersand I have each station labeled,
usually.
Well, on the cones I have thoseones with the numbers.
I slip on top of them and theyneed to follow them.
If they don't, it messeseverything up and I've seen it
before and it was awful.
(05:35):
So the teachers have to walktheir students from station to
station in an orderly fashion,hopefully, and if they need
their planning time again, Iwork with my AP on that to have
uh like, uh, separate paras.
Maybe take their classes for,you know, half hour or whatever.
The planning time is 40 minutesand then they the paras rotate
(05:57):
to different teachers.
That's what we're doing thisyear.
So you know they get theirbreaks, but there always needs
to be an adult walking thestudents from station to station
.
At least that's how I do it.
And on a separate note, I'veheard of other PE teachers doing
things like I guess calling italmost like a carnival theme I
know I didn't mention thatbefore where students just go
(06:19):
from station to station, youknow wherever they want, and
just play, and that is Soundsawesome.
But I think with the amount ofstudents we have, the teachers
would just be sitting on bencheson their phones, not even
watching, and kids would just begoing wild.
I have great kids, but I'm justsaying like without structure
(06:40):
it might fall apart.
Need logistically to keep thingsmoving in an orderly pace, with
students obviously followingdirections and going again,
having fun, but having structureas well.
All right, let's talk aboutvolunteers.
(07:02):
So there's two types ofvolunteers.
There's students and parents,and parents are welcome to come
and watch your child or childrenon field days.
However, the secretary in thefront office sends out a uh like
a parent link to sign up.
If the parents want to run astation and we stress to them
that they're, they're helpingout, they're not just following
(07:23):
their kids around.
Now, that's a separate thing.
You know you want to followyour kid around, fine, but if
you want to run a station, youneed to run a station.
And I always add extravolunteers just in case, and
I'll put you know if I have toomany.
I'll put them to work, don'tworry.
So also this day, the art,music and STEM teachers come out
.
I usually put them in the shadeat their request, under the
(07:44):
pavilion, and they can help runthe obstacle course and things
like that.
I also have two paras and I putmy paras in like different zones
so we can help monitor thegames and jump in where needed.
They usually spread out.
They have their radios.
I'm usually near the music andthe place where the microphone
(08:05):
is kind of thing, just to makeannouncements and make sure the
people the people are on time,transitioning to different
stations, all that stuff.
So they're in the field.
I'm usually by the pavilion ofbasketball courts and, you know,
sometimes I'll let a student bethe DJ.
I have a playlist and I haveextra students which we'll talk
about in a moment that you knowcan help out where needed.
(08:27):
And a little note again on myparas.
So in the past I had paras thatwould show up like real early
and help me with field days orstay late.
I don't have that anymore.
It's all on me.
Um, you know, uh, maybe it'sjust a different time or
whatever, but, um, it's on me.
I got to make this work, I gotto put in the work.
Yes, this is the time where Istay late and I get there early,
(08:48):
like super early, and I havegood paras, but they don't
really volunteer to go the extramile, I guess, which I don't
know, whatever, but it's on meand I want to make sure it's run
smoothly.
So sorry about that.
A little quick note there.
(09:10):
But let's go on to studentsstudent helpers, student
volunteers.
They are chosen by the PE teamand I do let my parents pick
some of them.
Although I pick probably mostof them, I always pick the best,
most trustworthy, helpfulstudents that also talk a little
bit.
So there's some really quiet,awesome students that might not
(09:32):
be the best at running a stationjust because they don't talk as
much.
I guess they're quieter, whichis nothing wrong with.
I was quieter when I wasyounger but I need somebody
that's going to help run astation that will instruct the
students.
I want to do and I tell thestudents if they're not chosen
it doesn't mean that they didanything wrong Like I probably
wouldn't have been a good fieldday helper when I was their age
(09:54):
because I was just more reserved.
I wasn't.
I was a good student, I waswell behaved and I just wouldn't
have been a great field dayhelper.
So, anyways, we teach I Ialready meet with the students
before field day and I tell themwhere they're going to be, what
(10:15):
they're going to do, what thegames are and their expectations
, which are to.
You know they're not.
They don't have to disciplineanybody.
They could tell an adult that'sat their station or they could
teach, by the way, the adult,the parent volunteer how to play
the game and because I can'thave a parent volunteers coming
out 8.03 when it starts at 8o'clock and try to tell them
(10:36):
what to do and where to go.
That's why I have students thatknow what to do and they can
help.
So again, I meet with thestudents beforehand.
I tell them they need toinstruct the teachers and
students on how to play and ifthere's a problem they can tell
an adult.
So they're really excited aboutit.
They miss class for two and ahalf hours and they come outside
(10:58):
and they get rewarded that way.
So it's a reward.
So let's move on to the gamesand activities next.
Here we go, all right.
So the games and activities arebased on how many classes I
have.
So my biggest group this yearis second and third.
(11:18):
There's eight second grade.
No, eight third grade classesand seven second grade classes.
So that's eight plus seven is15.
So it's 15 stations and it'sjust.
I tell them it's a math problem.
You have two and a half hours.
There's 15 stations.
So I divide that up and itcomes to about eight minutes a
station.
I try to put a little time infor transition to you know, from
(11:41):
station to station.
So you know, I, I add andsubtract as I go.
Uh, this year, let see, mysmallest group is kindergarten,
and first because there's onlyfive first grade classes, but
there's eight kindergartenclasses.
So there's 13 classes, or 13stations, and classes Fourth and
fifth there's 14.
(12:02):
So there's seven fourth gradeclasses, there's seven fifth
grade classes.
So, again, it's just, it's amatter of number of stations.
Is the number of classes for me?
And it's just, it's a matter ofnumber of stations.
Is the number of classes for me?
And it's just, like I said, amath problem.
It's two and a half hoursdivided by how many stations.
So, um, the first one.
I'll go through all these realquickly.
Here's my stations and I'veI've changed them from year to
(12:26):
year and I keep a lot of thereally good ones, the kids, the
ones that they really love, butI do make changes.
And I keep a lot of the reallygood ones, the kids, the ones
they really love, but I do makechanges.
I don't want to do the samething over and over and over
again.
It just gets boring and it'skind of lazy on my part.
I want to do some differentthings each year.
So let me go through thestations for this year and I
will link these in the shownotes.
(12:49):
I actually put these in theshow notes.
I actually put these are mystations from last year, so I'll
talk about those and I'll talkabout what I replaced them with,
because I want you to see thechanges I made.
So number one is the obstaclecourse.
That's the rail yard obstaclecourse.
That is a staple.
I wrote two grants for the twoparts of it, basically to make
(13:10):
it bigger, and I'm using it.
And we use it about three timesa year, once right before
Christmastime, once during theAmerican Heart Association, the
Kids Heart Challenge, and onceat field day, because it's a
beast but it's fun.
So they go through oppositecourse.
I'm not going to go through allthe stuff, but they do
(13:33):
different exercises on it ordifferent, just a relay on it
and I'll add things like theladder to run through it or hula
hoops or hurdles at the end ofit.
So that's number one.
Number two is on.
This is the popsiclearrestation um.
This year I got a gaga ball pitum for my grant and we're going
(13:58):
to put that in there for thegaga ball action.
And then number three will bethe popsicles um.
Number four is bucket stacking.
That's just a relay race withscooters making a pyramid, uh, a
3-2-1 bucket stack, and itcould also be like a running
station as well, like runningback and forth If they're
(14:19):
running low on time.
It doesn't have to be scooters,see number four.
On here I put tennis racketrelay.
I got rid of that.
I'm doing something a littledifferent.
The older kids will do the hulahut relay, which they have to
build like a castle with a hulahut and they have to get their
whole team through it and thentransport it.
The younger students aren'tgoing to do that.
(14:40):
They're going to do the egg andspoon or ice cream relay.
Egg and spoon is kind ofobvious, but there's also an ice
cream thing where they have tostack pretend ice cream scoops
on their ice cream cone and getit back and forth.
It's really difficult actually.
So that's usually for secondand third grade.
Let's see.
I had the candle launchers.
I did like a bucket knockoutInstead.
(15:02):
This year I made it to a like abucket bounce thing where I
have to bounce a ball.
If it gets in the bucket, theyflip it over.
The first team to flip alltheir buckets over wins.
The next one is a brain ballchallenge, which I again wrote a
grant for brain ball at both myschools as well as the rail
(15:23):
yard, and we use it once ortwice a year where we bring out
the brain balls and the teamshave to work to get the younger
kids just run down.
They find their number orletter they need and bring it
back, while the older studentshave to make a basket as well
with that.
The next one I was doing aputting challenge.
I changed it to the bowlingchallenge where they um, it's
(15:43):
like cardio bowling where theyhave to bowl.
If they hit the pin, they moveit back farther, like to a
different dot, and just thefirst team to make it all the
way to the end wins.
The next one I had long jump.
The students love doing longjump.
It's like they have to run andjump as far as they can and we
keep moving the stick back.
(16:04):
But we get a lot of injuriesthat way as well.
So we just save that just forthe American Heart Association
Challenge.
I'm changing it this year.
We've got Frisbee targets,stand-up Frisbee golf targets
and we've got six of them fromthe PTO.
So we're going to do a Frisbeechallenge where they have to try
to see how many they can makein a certain amount of time.
It's just a little safer andagain I'm adding the new
(16:26):
equipment.
I'm adding the new equipment.
I'm adding the gaga ball pit,the Frisbees, frisbee targets
things we got that are new thisyear I want to add.
The next one is a 40-yard raceor 40-meter race.
We do relay races in lines,like four lines, and they have
batons, so just a race betweentheir classes or they mix up,
(16:49):
you know, girls versus boys orwhatever they want to do, and I
let the student volunteers mixup the games as well.
I tell them they could changethings up a little bit if it's
getting boring or if it's, youknow, just lasting a long time,
like the stations are going alittle, like it's okay, you got
five minutes left, you know,let's change things up.
(17:11):
All right, the next tug of war,that's a two class game because
it's a big rope and of courseit's a classic.
It's the only time we ever dotug of war.
It's not like I do a unit ontug of war just for field days
and they can do class versusclass or they can do again boys
versus girls, or you know, uh,teachers can join in things like
that so they can mix it up alittle bit.
The next one I did I got rid ofis the launch it um, where we
(17:33):
have bands and they have to kindof, uh, shoot the tennis balls
at targets.
They have a hard time with thatand sometimes the bands would
break.
So I got rid of that.
Um and I'll, I don't really Idon't think I needed that many
stations, so I got rid of thatone.
Um and I'll, I don't really Idon't think I needed that many
stations, so I got rid of thatone, although I like it.
Um.
The next one that we normally dois the Ninja Warrior.
(17:54):
Course, we do that on theplayground and I'll add
different obstacles and thingsagain like, um, those agility
sticks, those poles and, uh,hurdles and things like that.
So, uh, that leads us kind ofback and there's's a map in this
article so you can see the maps.
I sent out using Skitch andGoogle Earth actually to make
(18:17):
these maps.
And the last station is thethree-legged amazing race.
Again, I changed it this year.
I do have these bands that cantie their ankles together, these
like Velcro bands, and theyhave to go down and come back.
And this year I changed it toactually Ben Perillo put out a
(18:38):
kangaroo hop, one where you putthe students put like a gator
skin ball between their kneesand they have to hop and I'll
have them go get something andbring it back and the team that
has the most wins, kind of thing.
So you can always mix thosethings up.
But yeah, those are the gamesand I hope you enjoyed that and
maybe got a couple ideas fromthat.
(19:02):
So I think field days are worthit.
They're a lot of work.
It's when you can shine as ateacher with your creativity and
with your hard work anddedication and people can really
see that, hey, this guy or girlis really really working hard
and just a great teacher.
So you're going to be exhausted, but you know the students are
going to love this and they'regoing to cherish this forever.
(19:23):
So you know, put in the work,watch the magic happen and go
make memories with the studentsand with that PE Nation.
Have a great day, week, weekend, whenever you listen to this,
and let's keep pushing ourprofession forward.
Thank you.
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