* Spoon/Egg Race: Kids have a spoon and a plastic easter egg. Race to the line and back without dropping and pass to next relay member and so forth. We also use real eggs but it takes a lot.
* Jump The River: Do this in a sandy area.You need two jump ropes. Start close together..the kids jump over one at a time….each time we spread the ropes further apart until all are eliminated but a first, second and third place.
* Frisbee Throw: String up several hoola hoops at different levels….they throw until we have a first second and third place winner.
* Football Throw: Same as Frisbee throw but with a football.
* Ping Pong Blow: (One year our water guns brokes so we changed…) We still had the 4 2-liter bottles filled with water with ping pong balls on top….We had a starting point and kids walked with hands behind them from the starting point to the ping pong balls and blew until they fell off…..this can be relay or individual by heats…
* and of course you know the obvious ones…three legged race, sack race, fifty yard dash….
* Types of relays:
1. cotton ball on spoon to paper plate at end of line
2. pass the baton in race around a track
3. water from one bucket to another using cup
* Put hoola hoops in a circle (one less than # of kids) Each child stands in one. Music starts. Kids jump from one hoop to the next. When music stops, kid not in a hoop is out. Remove one hoop and continue game.
* Water balloon toss
* We do a relay that’s fun but has to be monitored. It’s called rock, bridge, tree. You choose 3 non-runners from each team. One stands a distance away from the line-up of runners, facing them. The child gets on their knees, puts their heads all the way down and covers their heads. They are the rocks. Further beyond the rock is the bridge. A “tall” child stands with arms by the side and legs spread. Further along stands the tree with arms and feet spread. The first child in the relay line runs to the rock and jumps over it, runs again and goes under the bridge, runs again and goes around the tree, runs back to line going under the same bridge again and then runs to the rock jumps over and runs to the next person in line. You have to be careful that the rocks stay down and covered and that the bridges are tall and with shorts on. The children love this and there is no prep time or equipment for it. The children go in a loop: relay line run rock run bridge run tree
* Tie a hula hoop to a basketball hoop and one person steadies it and they throw a football through it.
* Throwing a softball to knock down bottles
* Suitcase Race: have two suitcases filled with old clothing at a distance, the two runners have to run to the suitcases, get dressed and run back, the first one back is the winner.
* Frisbee throws: A good thing to use to mark the distance to run is either spray paint on the grass or cones
* Kicking a soccer ball into the net from a marked distance.
* Kickball game at the baseball diamonds
* Tag games and /or prison ball.
* We revamped our sports day into a color day. Each class was randomly divided into red and white team (our school colors). They wore their color on color day and teachers tried to wear both colors. The idea was each relay team got points for their color by placing frist or second. At end of day point tally was announced. It was just for fun no prizes other than ribbons for first, second and third place team. It worked out that all primary students got at least one ribbon or a sticker for being a super kid. The relay were placing shoes in one pile and students had to race to pile find shoe, tie laces and return. Laces were checked!
* Water relay: large sponges were in a bucket of water and children had to race to fill an empty 2l clear plastic gatorade bottle First team to fill it won.
* Leap frog: Children had to leap over 4 sections of rope and return to team
* Golf ball on spoon relay (For 4th grade up we changed this to include blowing up and popping brown paper lunch bag at half way point then picking up spoon and ball again and returning to team)
* Box relay: children had a shoe box on each foot, then raced to a large box crawled througth that in both directions and put boxes back on feet to return
* Plan a paper and pencil scavenger hunt about students. Questions like, “whose sister just graduated from high school?
* One idea shared from a family reunion was to have each participant donate one dollar to buy a “grand prize.” For each activity participated in, each student would receive one ticket to write their name on and enter in a drawing for the prize. The more you participate, the better your chance of winning.
* Obstacle course
* At our school students donate 2 liter drinks. After their events everyone gets a free drink. A concession stand is set up for students to buy extra drinks and snacks. The P.E. teacher gets the profit.
We do a field day every spring. We have 12 stations. One of the stations is lunch, the PTA feeds the students by grilling out hot dogs for everyone. The other station is at the end of the day a tug-o-war. That leaves 10 stations. Last year we had a DJ and the
kids had a great time. Water games, chalk/bubble activities,Tae Fit, Treasure hunt, croquet, “goofy games”, Team building or challenge games, Music Mania (name that tune), Big ball activities, and rest and relax (puzzles, books, music, blankets).While waiting for buses at the end of the day the PTA supplied everyone with icees(OUTSIDE). -Debbie Gamble, Custer Park School, Custer Park , IL.