What’s up Phys Ed Friends!
I am pumped to finally publish this Field Day Blog Post and Resource Pack!
I’ve been working on this one for a while and Field Day details have been a really common request that I get from teachers, so I really hope it’s a helpful tool as you plan out your next Field Day!
Just like anything I create, this is what works really well for me – feel free to modify and adjust based on your personal situation.
Take what works and trash what doesn’t
One of the big responsibilities of most Physical Education Teachers is planning a Field Day for their school.
I get tons of questions about what I do for Field Day at my school, what games and activities I use and the format for my day – so I decided to break it down for you in 10 easy steps in the video and blog post below.
Here’s my 10 Steps to Plan an Awesome Field Day:
Hope you enjoyed that video!
There are lots of different ways to do it and tons of opinions on how it should be done, but I’ll give you an overview of how I run mine below and I hope it sparks some ideas and helps you plan the Best Field Day Ever!
1.) Choose a Date
Step one is picking out a good date for your Field Day.
This will vary depending on your situation and weather where you are.
For me the perfect Field Day Date is the last day of school right before Spring Break, usually at the end of March.
My school used to hold Field Day at the end of school in June, the issue with that was that it would sometimes be over 100 degrees outside and the kids, parents and teachers were all totally exhausted and overheated by the time it was over.
We even had a parent volunteer pass out one year – no joke!
So one of the changes I requested after getting the full time job at my school was to move the date back to March and the weather has been incredible for all except one of those days (we had to do indoor Field Day once because of rain – more info on that later).
Another bonus of having Field Day earlier in the year is getting it out of the way before we have to deal with schedule interrupters like end of the year testing, end of the year events, graduations, finalizing report card grades and other similar end of the year school events.
Your perfect date will depend on your specific situation, but putting it on the calendar is the first thing you’ll want to do in your Field Day Planning Process.
2.) Choose the Format for Your Field Day
There are lots of different ways to run Field Day, the three most common ones I’ve seen and heard about from others are below:
Track and Field Style Field Day:
- This is the format where you have students from each class compete in different track and field style events to determine winners in each event. Normally you would split up each event by grade level and by male/female.
- Examples of events:
- Long jump, 100 meter race, 400 meter relay, discus throw, hurdles (google “track and field events” for a ton of additional ideas)
Festival Field Day:
- This format is more of a party or festival style of an event. There might be a dunking booth setup, cake walk and other games or activities that you might see at a carnival or state fair. You might have a concession stand with refreshments and a bounce house or obstacle course
Station Activities Field Day:
- This is the format that I use. You setup a bunch of station activities and games around the school and classes rotate through all of the different activities on a timed schedule throughout the day.
There are probably other types of Field Day Formats and you can even mix the ones above up and combine them if you want, but those are the 3 main categories I’ve seen.
I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer for what Field Day format is “best”, it really comes down to what’s best for your school and what your admin, teachers and most importantly students would enjoy and benefit from the most.
I have always done the “Station Activities Format”, because when I asked for feedback the consensus from my teachers and administration is to plan a day that is based around having fun with friends and using teamwork and good sportsmanship (which also aligns really well with my PE Program Goals)
3.) Plan the Activities
Now that you know what you’re doing, it’s time to plan your activities.
For me this means choosing 18 different stations that my students will rotate through during our Field Day. Each year I plan out 16 game/activity stations and 2 “rest and refresh” stations (water break or an icee pop).
I create 18 stations (here’s a few examples) because we have 16 homerooms in 3rd – 5th Grade, so that allows me to plan out our Field Day with 2 empty slots so that nobody has to start out at a “Rest and Refresh Station”
See the “starting positions” page of my Teacher Field Day Packet below to see the stations I used this year and how we organize the activities (there are 2 empty slots at the 2 resting stations since we didn’t want anyone to start there for their first station):
Each year, I switch out a few activities to keep it interesting for the kids and to try out a few new games.
This year we created a game off the “bottle flipping” trend and had a Cone Flip Relay (here’s an Instagram Video Example) that was a pretty big hit.
Some of the games we play are just spin offs from lessons that we’ve already taught throughout the year in Physical Education class. A few examples are (Hula Hut Relays, Cross the River and Spot Shot)
4.) Recruit Volunteers
No matter how you swing it, you’re going to need some help.
I have pretty active parents at my school and I mainly use to run my stations on Field day (along with a few of the non-homeroom teachers at my school).
If you’re struggling to get parent volunteers – You might be able to get community members, non-homeroom teachers, previous students who are now in high school, nearby church groups or even have your older students run the stations for your younger students – get creative and you can find some help.
I put out an email blast and create an ad that goes in the Newsletter and have parents sign up using a Field Day Volunteer Google Form that I created.
P.S. The more fun you make it and more organized you are, the more likely you’ll have folks volunteer and also have them return the following year because they had so much fun
See an example of the ad below:
Here’s a link to my Volunteer Form if you want to copy it
5.) Prep Your Teachers
The more detailed instructions you can give your Homeroom Teachers the better.
I create a “Teacher Packet” for them each year that has the following elements:
- Field Day Directions (overview of the day and tips for success)
- Field Day Map (make a map with each station numbered and rotation directions)
- Starting Positions (where each class will begin their Field Day)
- Time Out Slips (if kids need to “refocus” they fill out a reflection sheet for 10 minutes)
- Competitive Scorecard (Option for classes that want to track team scores at each game)
I also create a video walkthrough of the teacher packet with an App Called Show Me – you can check out and example video below:
Links from the video:
I always print out this packet for my teachers, email it to them AND send them the walkthrough video.
Over communicate with your Homeroom Teachers and your Parent Volunteers to make sure you cut through the noise (let’s be honest they are all super busy, just like us)
6.) Prep Your Students
I declare the 2 weeks leading up to Field Day our “Field Day Training” in PE Class.
We focus on going over Field Day Games, reviewing good sportsmanship and making sure kids know what to expect and are ready to have a blast.
View this post on Instagram
I also made a “Field Day Pep Talk” that I send out to the school so teachers can show it to students the morning off to give them those important reminders right before hitting the field.
You can check out the Field Day Pep Talk Video Below:
I start teaching the Field Day games to my students about 2 weeks before Field Day. We call this our “Field Day Training” and I sometimes play a few of the games in the previous weeks as warmup activities as well.
I only have 50 minutes a week of instruction with my students, so I basically have 2 lessons to get them ready to play all the games and activities on Field Day.
Let’s Practice Losing
Before we play any games I usually let any classes that might struggle with being a good sport have an opportunity to “Practice Losing” before we play the actual game:
Here’s How I Introduce Day and give an Overview to my Students:
After the overview we practice each game together so that on Field Day students will know what to expect, understand the rules of the games and we can move quickly through the Field Day Activities on the day of the actual event.
Check out a few clips from my “Field Day Training in PE” in the videos below:
Another fun game we do every year is the Cone Flip Relay – You can see an overview of that HERE
One recent game I added to our rotation that worked really well is Hula Hoop Bocce Ball, check it out in the post below:
View this post on Instagram
7.) Have a Rainy Day Plan
Nobody wants to think about a back up plan, but you can’t control the weather.
For me personally, rescheduling Field Day is not an option – I’ve put in too much work, instruction time and scheduled tons of parent volunteers.
There is no way that I am going to do that all over again – so I always have a backup plan in case of bad weather.
Luckily, in the 17 years I’ve been teaching, we’ve only had to have indoor Field Day twice- and it honestly went pretty well.
Check out the video below for a quick look at how I prep for our Indoor Field Day and also what it looks like in action:
Check out the video below for an overview of my Rainy Day Plan:
8.) Prep for Field Day (the Day Before)
Now you’ve hustled, put in the work and have to make the last few arrangements to make sure everything is ready to go.
The day before Field Day I always stay late at school and go through my checklist of each station, and make sure everything is ready to go.
A few things I do the day before:
- Line each station’s equipment up by the door so it will be ready to take outside and I go ahead and setup any inside stations
- Assign all of my parent volunteers to their station positions and print out station descriptions to give each volunteer so they know how to run each station activity
- Print out a few extra maps for my volunteers that might be new and need some help getting around the school
- Order Pizza for lunch for my Related Arts team since they help me out with Field Day
- Plug in and test our Portable Bluetooth Speaker (Ion Blockrocker) and get my music playlist ready to pump the jams outside during Field Day
- Ice down all the Icee Pops in cooler and put in the freezer so they’re ready to go
- Fill up some extra buckets with ice from our Cafeteria Ice Machine to have some extra in case we use it all on Field Day
9.) Setup Field Day
It’s FINALLY HERE!!!!!!
The morning of Field Day I am super amped – I get to school early and my co-teacher and I (plus any student teachers I have and maybe a few helpful students) load up all the PE Equipment in a truck and drive it down to our school recess playground to start setting up all the stations.
As we setup our stations we color code each station with 4 lines of Red, Yellow, Blue and Green with these dome cones and keep any stations with 4 teams in the same basic format to make it easy for transitions from game to game (especially for our younger students), check out a few examples below:
By the time we finish setting up the stations my parent volunteers are starting to show up. As they file in I check their names off the list, hand them their station descriptions and answer any questions. Once we get most of them in the gym I do a quick volunteer orientation.
Field Day Volunteer Orientation:
- Introductions and THANK YOU (introduce yourself, student teachers and give a big thanks for everyone being there)
- Overview of the day (how things work, where everything is, tips and things to watch out for)
- Overview of the schedule (how long at each station, breaks during the day)
- Overview of games (format for relays, how to modify stations if needed, common things to watch out for)
- Housekeeping (bathroom locations, general map overview, water bottle stations)
After all the stations are setup and the volunteers are ready to go there’s only one thing left to do…
10.) HAVE AN AWESOME FIELD DAY
Listen to this poem the night before and then go get a good rest and have an awesome day!
During Field Day my co-teacher and I are walking around and helping teachers, students and parents, taking pictures, and helping iron out any kinks that might appear throughout the day.
We radio each-other every 6 minutes on a set rotation schedule that we have and coordinate blowing an air horn for outside stations or a whistle for inside stations to keep everyone moving to the next game.
Our schedule is K-2nd in the morning from 9:00-11:00 and then we switch out a few stations for our older students before they show up for their field day block, which is 12:00 – 2:00.
After our Field Day is over, students and parents help to bring all the equipment back to the gym and we clean it up, organize it and store it back in our equipment closet.
At about 3:00 I finally sit down for the first time all day and try not to pass out 🙂
I make a few notes about things that went well and things I want to change the following year and then send out a Thank You to all the staff at my school and my Parent Volunteers for all their help to make our day a success.
And that pretty much wraps it up!
If you want to save some time and you think my Field Day process would work for you school, I’ve created a really helpful resource called the “Field Day Resource Pack” which you can check out below. I hope it saves you a ton of time and gives you some fresh ideas to plan your next AMAZING Field Day. If your a member of the PE Specialist Membership program you can download the resource pack in the Member Forums area after you login here (details on The PE Specialist Membership Program here)
Field Day Resource Pack Preview
The Field Day Resource Pack Includes:
- The Field Day Resource Guide E-Book
- This E-book will walk you through the entire planning process
- 43 Field Day Games E-Book
- This book is full of tried and tested Field Day games that are a blast and your students will love
- Examples and Templates for:
- Field Day Directions for Homeroom Teachers
- Directions, scorecards, time out slips, starting positions
- Field Day Prep
- Volunteer Assignments, Checklist, Rotation Schedule, Things to think about
- Lesson Plan for Field Day Training
- Rainy Day Field Day Plans
- Plus More Bonus Videos, Links and Resources
- Field Day Directions for Homeroom Teachers
You can purchase the Field Day Resource Pack by clicking the button below:
Lindsey Winn says
What is in the pool noodles for the javelin throw? They all looked like they were the same color but you were saying way to go blue or orange etc…
Marcus says
Hey Lindsey,
Some of the pool noodles travel better than others sometimes
Coach Smith says
Hey Coach Ben!!
This is Coach Smith from North Carolina! I love all your tips and game ideas for K-5 physical education lessons. I would love to become a member of your PE community.
Marcus says
Hey Coach Smith,
You can find out all about our PE community at the link below:
https://www.thepespecialist.com/info
Let us know if you have any questions!
Christelle says
Hello,
Could you help me please with scoring and getting the 3rd 2nd and 1st place at the end.
I have 6 stations and 4 teams rotating. ALL games are relay games (finish first to win as at team)
Winning team on each station gain 2 points and losing team gains 1.
My supervisor wants to add stopwatch on each station, so time all teams to know who finished first on each station. Then check all results on all games to have 3rd 2nd and 1st on each station. Then how to get the winners overall of the whole event and not of the station and what about if we have a tie.
It would be great if you could help me as this is my first field day in a new school and i want to make the best of it.
Marcus says
Hey Christelle,
Thanks for reaching out!
I would suggest just playing for fun and not keeping score, but if you do have to, having the class keep track of their finish and relaying to them how to score it.
If they tie, then both teams win.
We just try to keep it simple and fun for the students!
Hope this helps!
Christelle says
Thank you so much for your reply.
Angel Conaway says
Hello – PTM President here trying to assist the PE coaches. We are planning a non grouped free day for 5th, 6th, 7th grades (600 students). This goes against my instincts to want to keep kids somewhat grouped by HR teacher, grade, etc… Do you recommend this? Do you have any tips? Love all of the stuff here on your blog.
Marcus says
Hey Angel,
Thanks for reaching out!
Our students are grouped with their HR teacher for our Field Day. It helps to keep students organized.
Whichever way you want to group students just make sure it’s planned out before and you know where students are going to be.
Best advice is to follow the tips from Ben on the blog post. It’s the best way to organize students so they have the most fun!
Hope this helps!
Dan miller says
Hi Brian
I bought your packet and the files were from a few years back
Do you have any updates since that time, especially with grouping students? IE do you divide each classroom into 3 colors and that is their color for the entire event? Thanks. Dan
Thanks
Marcus says
Hey Dan!
No updates besides some new games here in there to the Field Day post.
Our activities are usually in 4 teams. We allow the classroom teachers to decide. They can stay on their team for the entire game or they can switch.
But they mostly stay with the same team because we only have so much time at each station.
Jessie says
Hey! I love your field day packet and this is my first year planning our schools field day, so it was a great place to start!! I had a quick question – what size hoppity hops do you use and what type of basket do you use for the human hoop?
Marcus says
Hey Jessie!
Glad you’re enjoying the resources!
You can find all of our recommended equipment and technology tools at the link below:
http://thepespecialist.com/amazon
A link for the Hippity Hops is below:
http://amzn.to/2t0x3L0
They are currently unavailable but I did find similar hops at the link below:
Hopper Ball
We use small plastic baskets, I’ll link something similar below:
Small Laundry Baskets
Hope this helps!
Stephanie Veldhouse says
Hi Ben, I have been trying for hours (literally) to find and get the Field Day Resource Pack as a paying member. I read the comments and noticed someone else had this issue as well. The link in the forum just puts you to your cart and wants you to pay to check out….but I’m already a paying member. Could you please send me a link that will take me to it so I can download it?
Thanks!
Stephanie Veldhouse says
Nevermind–I followed the instructions in that comment to do it through the training video. 🙂
Marcus Nellems says
No worries Stephanie! Sorry it was an issue before! Let us know if you need anything else in the future!
Caleb says
i think this is a great plan but im counfused with the date and month.
Ben Landers says
The date of your Field Day will change depending on your school/location and situation
Roxie McNeilan says
I am a residential care worker at a children’s home in southern Ohio. I have worked there for the last 16 years and started doing a “field day” for the kids about 14 years ago when I found out that our local school doesn’t do one anymore. We are ran by the local children’s services so I have a shoestring budget and I would love some ideas on field day games that would be fun for teenagers that didn’t need a bunch of expensive supplies. I often have to spend my own money and we house up to 20 kids ages 10-18 so any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Ben Landers says
Awesome, sounds like a great event Roxie! I hope this Field Day Post/Videos and Resource is helpful!
Sharla Reynolds says
Hi, I am already a member. Do I still need to purchase the Field Day Resource Pack or does that come with the membership? I found all the stuff on Field Day but wanted to print it so I can look at it on paper.
Thanks,
Sharla
Ben Landers says
Hey Sharla – everything we create is available for free download to anyone inside the membership.
Check out the Field Day Training Forum in the Training Section of the Membership.
Here’s instructions on getting logged in and finding resources – if you can’t find it shoot us an email through the contact form and we’ll be happy to help you out.
Garrett says
Thanks for the great information!
My wife and I have been doing field day for about 20 years and now have a unique challenge. We are at a new school grades 1-5 with over 1,100 students. We don’t have nearly the amount of field space that we did at the older school. We have about 9 or 10 classes per grade level. Any ideas as to how we can structure our event in one day?
Ben Landers says
You could set up 25 stations – have half the classes go in the morning and half in the afternoon
Jen Hauser says
Thank you for the ideas! Definitely using this for our field day!
Ben Landers says
Sure thing Jen, hope it goes well!
Jon Hoffnagle says
Hola everyone! Got a great idea from J.D. Hughes to make your field day water stations even better. Its a non-toxic, water soluble, safe and non staining coloring. Its a caramel color used in sodas. Fill up your trash cans, kiddie pools, buckets, etc… and drop your coins, golf balls, or whatever else you can think of for your kids to find and grab for your race of event. I called the company to confirm the safety of their product and everything checks out!!!
The website is http://www.ddwcolor.com
The product you want is CLASS IV or V CARAMEL COLOR 050.
Check it up and take your water games on field day to the next level!!!!
Thank you Ben for all you do for the PE World and thank you J.D. Hughes for the idea!!!!
Jon
Ben Landers says
Good stuff Jon – thanks for sharing. I agree , J.D. is the man!
James says
Just in time! This will make our first field day under my watch so much more manageable!
Thanks a bunch!
John Wachira says
Thank you so much for your wonderful tips. I will use the 10 steps checklist this year!
Ben Landers says
Sure thing John – Glad it was helpful!