Theme Days: Get Outside and Play Day!

 Theme days are a fun way to break up the regular routine or celebrate the last week of school.  My goal was to create thematic outdoor stations that had novel activities and kept student engaged.  Here is the breakdown of my Get Outside and Play Day!   This was a replacement for field day.  I tried to keep it very simple and sustainable.  I borrowed most of the equipment from our Phy. Ed. teacher.  I had a few volunteers and used a rotation system.  I try to plan activities that include all students the entire time so no one has to wait.  This kept engagement high and behavior issues low.

Hmmm, there is a big red egg hidden here somewhere.

One of the most simple games was The Great Egg Hunt! One child hides the "egg" in the forest while the rest of the kids hang out somewhere and don't peek.  When given the signal, the kids search for the egg (or whatever object you have laying around).  The hider may not search but may give hints or do the "hot and cold" cues.  The finder of the egg is the next hider. We did this in our little forest area but it could be easily adapted to a playground.  The egg itself was a completely random gift from one of the playground supervisors.  I had no idea what I would use it for until I made up this game.

Don't Spill The Beans! (Notice our strategic use of shade).  All you need is a cup or other container and a few bags of dried beans.  I marked a starting and ending spot and made up ways for kids to move from one end of our space to the other. (Run, skip, hold the cup on your head, gallop, etc.) If you spill your beans you have to try to pick them up.  Sustainability bonus, lost beans either compost on their own in the grass, serve as food for squirrels or sprout and provide some intrigue to the grounds crew.  

Next time I do this I will try different sized and shaped containers and kids can try a turn with each.  You decide on the amount of beans.

Bean Bag Golf (sorry, this isn't the greatest picture).  A golf course is created using cones to mark the "tee" or throwing spots and hula hoops to act as the holes.   Bean bags are tossed from the cone to the hula hoop. The idea is to make the course more challenging at subsequent holes. Each child gets one bean bag to use throughout the course and could go around the course as many times as time allowed.

Cone Tee Ball!  You need a taller cone for each group member, bats and whiffle type balls.  Kids bat at their tee and chase down the ball to put back on their cone for their next turn.  They love this game! (Notice another strategic use of shade)

In order to provide enough stations to keep the number of participants to 4 per station I added a sidewalk chalk station and a swing on the swing station (all in the same area for supervision purposes).  This gave the kids a break from running and added some extra artistic beauty to the play area.  We carried water bottles with us the entire day.  I was even able to set this up with enough simplicity and volunteers that our Kindergarten classes, 2nd grade classes and distance learning classes were able to participate in their own 45 minute time slot.