Now that it’s almost May, teachers across the country can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Only six more weeks left of school! Maybe five if you are lucky. This epiphany soon turns to dred for PE teachers who still have their Field Day looming over them. Now that the weather is getting warmer, I am seeing the same Facebook post containing pleas for help. it usually goes something like this:
Help! What should I do for field day!
Field Day is an interesting phenomena. Some PE teachers love it. Some absolutely hate it. Classroom teachers usually love it because it gets the kids out of the classroom and running around when it’s warm outside. It comes at time when many students have mentally checked out or there are no more lessons to give. Administrators love it because it is one of the few times when the whole school comes together, young and old. It can be a boon for school spirit. However, few people outside of PE teachers appreciate the logistics and planning that goes into making a successful Field Day. The sheer amount of organization one needs to pull it off can be overwhelming. What I suggest is that we outsource some of this organization to your older students.
One of my older students favorite PE activities is our Invent a Sport Lesson Series. In this series of lessons, the students make a game completely from scratch using the engineering method. At my school, once every three years, we have an engineering fair. Other years we have a science fair or a culture fair (Imaginary Island). The Invent a Sport Lesson Series is what we do in PE to integrate with the classroom by supporting the engineering process through the creation of a brand new game. Here is lesson #1 of the Invent A Sport Series (Free Download).
In the full lesson series, we explore how the playing area can affect the dynamics of a sport, look at different materials, think about constraints, make prototypes, combine/abandon prototypes, test, play, compromise, and more. The lesson series contains six lessons which can be condensed, especially if you have a PE period that lasts longer than an hour. As each class goes through the process, they create unique games with their own materials and rule sets. Then the students get to play each others final versions and fun is had by all. Now imagine using these newly created games and featuring them for Field Day!
Take your playing area and divide it up by the classes you have in middle school or upper elementary (whoever your oldest students are). Provide them with the materials that they need to play their game. Distribute the younger students amongst these games and have the older students explain, demonstrate, and teach the younger students how to play their game. Have the younger students play the game for a set amount of time, then rotate the younger students to a new group of older students where they will learn a completely new game. Repeat this process so the younger students can play all the games made by the older students.
This scenario makes everyone happy:
Young students get to play a bunch of new and unique games they have never seen before.
Older students get to see how well their creations do with a completely different population.
PE teachers have less work to do on the actual day because the older students are running the show
Younger classroom teachers are happy because their students are outside and having fun.
Older classroom teachers like the fact that their students are getting a legitimate leadership opportunity.
Administrators are thrilled to have an opportunity where older students are working with younger students. The camaraderie built amongst the older and younger students (and the photo opportunities) is priceless.
You may have to reward your older students for being your assistants. Maybe letting them choose the PE games they play at the end of the school year, or a mini-field day just for them might be in order. I imagine some older students will need no reward because they are excited to teach their game. You could poll the younger students and see which game they liked the most. There are lots of options. What I hope is that this gives you a way where you don’t have to do it all by yourself. Hopefully this adds to the fun of Field Day for your students and brings back the love of Field Day to our exhausted PE teachers.