Mastering the Art of Field Days: From Planning to Execution

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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Chapters

• 0:00 Field Day Introduction and Themes
• 4:08 Planning and Logistics for Field Day
• 6:56 Working with Volunteers and Helpers
• 11:05 Games and Activities for Field Day
• 19:02 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

Hello and welcome to the SuperScience Phys Ed podcast. My name is Dave and today I want to talk about field days and how we can master them and create memorable experiences for our students. So without further ado, here we go. All right, welcome in everybody.

Speaker 1: 0:41

So you remember field days, the magic of field days, the relays, the class versus class competitions, tug of war, end of the year games. I just love it. It's my favorite time of the year because we have a lot of students. So I break it down into a K-1 day, a 2-3 day and a grade 4-5 day, and these are hot days. This is at the end of the school year. In Florida I have done them before around Christmastime, when we had some half days in that area. They kind of changed the schedule around so we don't do that as much anymore, but I could do those in the Christmas time frame there. But I almost always do them at the end of the school year and I know a lot of you do as well. So I want to go over some different strategies, some different ways that I create these experiences for my students and hopefully they will help spark some ideas for all of you. So let's get going. First, you need a theme. Now you don't really have to have a theme and I usually don't have a theme, but I've seen some really amazing ones that some teachers have put together. I've seen Star Wars, the Olympics if it's during that school year or that four-year period with the Summer Olympics. I've seen water games which I've done before, which we'll talk about in a moment Holiday themes, competitive or non-competitive. So if you want to give out medals and certificates, I usually don't do that. I've done that in the past and it was just. It was too. It was too difficult because I couldn't be at all places at all times and some of the teachers, actually one definitely cheated to game. We did like a little scorecard and she gave her class all these bonus points and stuff like that. It was just a mess. So I don't do that anymore. But you can, you know you can get medals and things like that, especially if it's an Olympic year, like I said.

Speaker 1: 2:51

Um, the water games. So they're a lot of fun and a great way to cool off in Florida, but there are some drawbacks. Um, first, we only had about two uh faucets and my current school I think we have one, so volunteers were filling up water buckets. Just throughout the whole day they were just constantly filling up water buckets non-stop and the students would uh man, they'd leave socks behind, they'd leave wet towels behind, other nasty items behind, and it was really messy. There was dirt and mud and just stuff 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 days anymore, but you can, and it's a lot of fun as well. So, like I said, I don't really have a theme. I just pick games that I enjoy, that the students enjoy. That could be almost like a wrap-up of the things we've learned that year in just different categories or different sets of games and activities that really worked well, or new ones that they've never seen before, which is a lot of fun as well ever seen before, which is a lot of fun as well.

Speaker 1: 4:08

So now we're onto the logistics. So you need to make sure your administration's on board and plan way ahead, I'd say a month ahead at least. So our field days are two to two and a half hours, depending on the number of classes, how much time I have. I usually give them about eight to 10 minutes per station and my assistant principal usually works on the schedule of lunches and things like that, if they have to switch specials and stuff. Now we've done before at my former school where field day was like all day. It was like there was a morning and then there was an afternoon shift and there were no specials that day. So you know, it's up to you, it's up to your administration If you want to make field day like 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. So two to two and a half hours is good for us.

Speaker 1: 4:55

So the teachers have to be bought into this as well. They have to get their classes ready for the day. They're reminded to bring, or have their students bring, you know, wear sunblock, sunglasses, hats. I send them a game map and starting stations where they know where they need to go to start the day and from then on they have to follow the numbers and I have each station labeled, usually. Well, on the cones I have those ones with the numbers. I slip on top of them and they need to follow them. If they don't, it messes everything up and I've seen it before and it was awful.

Speaker 1: 5:35

So the teachers have to walk their students from station to station in an orderly fashion, hopefully, and if they need their planning time again, I work 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 minutes and then they the paras rotate to different teachers. That's what we're doing this year. So you know they get their breaks, but there always needs to be an adult walking the students from station to station. At least that's how I do it. And on a separate note, I've heard of other PE teachers doing things like I guess calling it almost like a carnival theme I know I didn't mention that before where students just go from station to station, you know wherever they want, and just play, and that is Sounds awesome. But I think with the amount of students we have, the teachers would just be sitting on benches on their phones, not even watching, and kids would just be going wild. I have great kids, but I'm just saying like without structure it might fall apart.

Speaker 1: 6:45

Need logistically to keep things moving in an orderly pace, with students obviously following directions and going again, having fun, but having structure as well. All right, let's talk about volunteers. So there's two types of volunteers. There's students and parents, and parents are welcome to come and watch your child or children on field days. However, the secretary in the front office sends out a uh like a parent link to sign up. If the parents want to run a station and we stress to them that they're, they're helping out, they're not just following their kids around. Now, that's a separate thing. You know you want to follow your kid around, fine, but if you want to run a station, you need to run a station. And I always add extra volunteers just in case, and I'll put you know if I have too many. I'll put them to work, don't worry. So also this day, the art, music and STEM teachers come out. I usually put them in the shade at their request, under the pavilion, and they can help run the obstacle course and things like that.

Speaker 1: 7:51

I also have two paras and I put my paras in like different zones so we can help monitor the games and jump in where needed. They usually spread out. They have their radios. I'm usually near the music and the place where the microphone is kind of thing, just to make announcements 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 of basketball courts and, you know, sometimes I'll let a student be the DJ. I have a playlist and I have extra students which we'll talk about in a moment that you know can help out where needed.

Speaker 1: 8:27

And a little note again on my paras. So in the past I had paras that would show up like real early and help me with field days or stay late. I don't have that anymore. It's all on me. Um, you know, uh, maybe it's just a different time or whatever, but, um, it's on me. I got to make this work, I got to put in the work. Yes, this is the time where I stay late and I get there early, like super early, and I have good paras, but they don't really volunteer to go the extra mile, I guess, which I don't know, whatever, but it's on me and I want to make sure it's run smoothly. So sorry about that. A little quick note there.

Speaker 1: 9:10

But let's go on to students student helpers, student volunteers. They are chosen by the PE team and I do let my parents pick some of them. Although I pick probably most of them, I always pick the best, most trustworthy, helpful students that also talk a little bit. So there's some really quiet, awesome students that might not be the best at running a station just because they don't talk as much. I guess they're quieter, which is nothing wrong with. I was quieter when I was younger but I need somebody that's going to help run a station that will instruct the students. I want to do and I tell the students if they're not chosen it doesn't mean that they did anything wrong Like I probably wouldn't have been a good field day helper when I was their age because I was just more reserved. I wasn't. I was a good student, I was well behaved and I just wouldn't have been a great field day helper.

Speaker 1: 10:04

So, anyways, we teach I I already meet with the students before field day and I tell them where they're going to be, what they're going to do, what the games are and their expectations, which are to. You know they're not. They don't have to discipline anybody. They could tell an adult that's at their station or they could teach, by the way, the adult, the parent volunteer how to play the game and because I can't have a parent volunteers coming out 8.03 when it starts at 8 o'clock and try to tell them what to do and where to go. That's why I have students that know what to do and they can help. So again, I meet with the students beforehand. I tell them they need to instruct the teachers and students on how to play and if there's a problem they can tell an adult. So they're really excited about it. They miss class for two and a half hours and they come outside and they get rewarded that way. So it's a reward.

Speaker 1: 11:01

So let's move on to the games and activities next. Here we go, all right. So the games and activities are based on how many classes I have. So my biggest group this year is second and third. There's eight second grade. No, eight third grade classes and seven second grade classes. So that's eight plus seven is 15. So it's 15 stations and it's just. 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 it comes to about eight minutes a station. I try to put a little time in for transition to you know, from station to station. So you know, I, I add and subtract as I go.

Speaker 1: 11:48

Uh, this year, let see, my smallest group is kindergarten, and first because there's only five first grade classes, but there's eight kindergarten classes. So there's 13 classes, or 13 stations, and classes Fourth and fifth there's 14. So there's seven fourth grade classes, there's seven fifth grade classes. So, again, it's just, it's a matter of number of stations. Is the number of classes for me? And it's just, it's a matter of number of stations. Is the number of classes for me? And it's just, like I said, a math problem. It's two and a half hours divided by how many stations. So, um, the first one.

Speaker 1: 12:19

I'll go through all these real quickly. Here's my stations and I've I've changed them from year to year and I keep a lot of the really good ones, the kids, the ones that they really love, but I do make changes. And I keep a lot of the really good ones, the kids, the ones they really love, but I do make changes. I don't want to do the same thing over and over and over again. It just gets boring and it's kind of lazy on my part. I want to do some different things each year. So let me go through the stations for this year and I will link these in the show notes. I actually put these in the show notes. I actually put these are my stations from last year, so I'll talk about those and I'll talk about what I replaced them with, because I want you to see the changes I made.

Speaker 1: 13:03

So number one is the obstacle course. That's the rail yard obstacle course. That is a staple. I wrote two grants for the two parts of it, basically to make it bigger, and I'm using it. And we use it about three times a year, once right before Christmastime, once during the American Heart Association, the Kids Heart Challenge, and once at field day, because it's a beast but it's fun. So they go through opposite course. I'm not going to go through all the stuff, but they do different exercises on it or different, just a relay on it and I'll add things like the ladder to run through it or hula hoops or hurdles at the end of it.

Speaker 1: 13:46

So that's number one. Number two is on. This is the popsicle arrestation um. This year I got a gaga ball pit um for my grant and we're going to put that in there for the gaga ball action. And then number three will be the popsicles um. Number four is bucket stacking. That's just a relay race with scooters making a pyramid, uh, a 3-2-1 bucket stack, and it could also be like a running station as well, like running back and forth If they're running low on time. It doesn't have to be scooters, see number four. On here I put tennis racket relay. I got rid of that. I'm doing something a little different. The older kids will do the hula hut relay, which they have to build like a castle with a hula hut and they have to get their whole team through it and then transport it. The younger students aren't going to do that. They're going to do the egg and spoon or ice cream relay. Egg and spoon is kind of obvious, but there's also an ice cream thing where they have to stack pretend ice cream scoops on their ice cream cone and get it back and forth. It's really difficult actually. So that's usually for second and third grade. Let's see.

Speaker 1: 14:59

I had the candle launchers. I did like a bucket knockout Instead. This year I made it to a like a bucket bounce thing where I have to bounce a ball. If it gets in the bucket, they flip it over. The first team to flip all their buckets over wins. The next one is a brain ball challenge, which I again wrote a grant for brain ball at both my schools as well as the rail yard, and we use it once or twice a year where we bring out the brain balls and the teams have to work to get the younger kids just run down. They find their number or letter they need and bring it back, while the older students have to make a basket as well with that.

Speaker 1: 15:38

The next one I was doing a putting challenge. I changed it to the bowling challenge where they um, it's like cardio bowling where they have to bowl. If they hit the pin, they move it back farther, like to a different dot, and just the first team to make it all the way to the end wins. The next one I had long jump. The students love doing long jump. It's like they have to run and jump as far as they can and we keep moving the stick back. But we get a lot of injuries that way as well. So we just save that just for the American Heart Association Challenge.

Speaker 1: 16:10

I'm changing it this year. We've got Frisbee targets, stand-up Frisbee golf targets and we've got six of them from the PTO. So we're going to do a Frisbee challenge where they have to try to see how many they can make in a certain amount of time. It's just a little safer and again I'm adding the new equipment. I'm adding the new equipment. I'm adding the gaga ball pit, the Frisbees, frisbee targets things we got that are new this year I want to add.

Speaker 1: 16:39

The next one is a 40-yard race or 40-meter race. We do relay races in lines, like four lines, and they have batons, so just a race between their classes or they mix up, you know, girls versus boys or whatever they want to do, and I let the student volunteers mix up the games as well. I tell them they could change things up a little bit if it's getting boring or if it's, you know, just lasting a long time, like the stations are going a little, like it's okay, you got five minutes left, you know, let's change things up. All right, the next tug of war, that's a two class game because it's a big rope and of course it's a classic. It's the only time we ever do tug of war. It's not like I do a unit on tug of war just for field days and they can do class versus class 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 a little bit.

Speaker 1: 17:27

The next one I did I got rid of is the launch it um, where we have bands and they have to kind of, uh, shoot the tennis balls at targets. They have a hard time with that and sometimes the bands would break. So I got rid of that. Um and I'll, I don't really I don't think I needed that many stations, so I got rid of that one. Um and I'll, I don't really I don't think I needed that many stations, so I got rid of that one, although I like it. Um.

Speaker 1: 17:51

The next one that we normally do is the Ninja Warrior. Course, we do that on the playground and I'll add different obstacles and things again like, um, those agility sticks, those poles and, uh, hurdles and things like that. So, uh, that leads us kind of back and there's's a map in this article so you can see the maps. I sent out using Skitch and Google Earth actually to make these maps. And the last station is the three-legged amazing race.

Speaker 1: 18:26

Again, I changed it this year. I do have these bands that can tie their ankles together, these like Velcro bands, and they have to go down and come back. And this year I changed it to actually Ben Perillo put out a kangaroo hop, one where you put the students put like a gator skin ball between their knees and they have to hop and I'll have them go get something and bring it back and the team that has the most wins, kind of thing. So you can always mix those things up. But yeah, those are the games and I hope you enjoyed that and maybe got a couple ideas from that.

Speaker 1: 19:02

So I think field days are worth it. They're a lot of work. It's when you can shine as a teacher with your creativity and with your hard work and dedication and people can really see that, hey, this guy or girl is 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're going to cherish this forever. So you know, put in the work, watch the magic happen and go make memories with the students and with that PE Nation. Have a great day, week, weekend, whenever you listen to this, and let's keep pushing our profession forward. Thank you.