Action Tips: Host a Field Day

A Fitness Field Day gets your entire school together to celebrate, compete, cooperate, exercise, and have a great time.

Pitch your idea. Speak to your physical education teacher(s) and principal. Tell them:

• what a field day is
• why you want a field day (besides for fun)
• what it requires - an afternoon free of classes and some help with organization.

Make a plan. Consider:

• How many students are there in your school?
• How many teams do you want to divide students into?
• How will you deal with the variety of ages?
• What games will you play?
• Where will you have your event?

Name your teams. Think of something that involves a cause. Having a Wildlife Field Day? Name the teams after cool animals or endangered species. Imagine teams cheering "Let's go sea turtles," rather than "C'mon yellow".

Have team spirit. Encourage participants to make tee shirts representing their teams. Maybe every team should have a sportsmanship cheer, something they can yell to another team when that team does well.

Create the games. Try:

• a relay race
• an over-under race with dodgeballs
• a relay where you pass a wiffle ball balanced on a spoon
• a wheel barrow race, a hula-hoop race
• a race where you have to shoot a hoop and shoot a goal

Choose a winner. Does there need to be one? If so, what will the person get? How will you decide, a point system?

Dedicate your field day. Like we mentioned before, a field day is a great way to raise awareness for a cause. When you have the attention of the entire school, you can take the opportunity to promote facts or even raise money if you'd like. Fitness itself is a good cause, of course. Feel free to keep the focus of your Fitness Field Day on fitness.

A few other tips: Make sure absolutely everyone wears sunscreen (if you're outdoors) and stays hydrated. Not being healthy is no fun. To keep everyone cool and happy, see if you can get your PTA or your school to sponsor buying ices for all the field day participants.