As the end of the school year nears, school staff across the country are planning field trips, parties, and field days to celebrate. The warm weather and excitement of the end of the year are the perfect excuses to get outside with the whole school to play. Here are six games to rock your field day:
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Five-Legged Hip Hop Group Race. This partner activity requires coordination and communication, just like a hip hop performance. You’ll need bandanas or scrap fabric to tie four students’ lower legs together. Joined together, the hip hop bands stand side by side at a starting line. Then at a start signal, race to the finish line.
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50-Yard Groupie Dash. Mark your start and finish lines in chalk or with cones. In small groups of three to ten, obsessed fans (students) line up to race. Use a whistle or other signal to begin each race. For even more running, have the top one to three winners of each heat race again with others.
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Dance Freeze. Play music for as long as you want, when the music ends, everyone must freeze. Start the music again, everyone dances to their hearts’ desires.
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Ro-Sham-Bo Rock Star. Teach students rock, paper, scissors — a fist is a rock, a flat hand is paper, and the index and middle finger make the ends of scissors. Each student says ro-sham-bo and then, on bo, picks one of the three things to show with their hand: rock beats scissors, paper covers rock, and scissors cut paper. Whichever student succeeds at the game continues on as the rock star. The other student becomes that person’s groupie, cheering them on. All rock stars go find another person to play. This game continues until there is one final rock star.
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Shadow Shadow. A rock star goes nowhere alone! Choose a volunteer to help you and demonstrate how to move and be a shadow, emphasizing the importance of awareness and avoiding physical contact with your partner and others. Tell the students that the rock star shadow is supposed to do everything the rock star does, without running into him/her. Identify what type of movement is possible (walking, fast walking, running, skipping, hopping, leaping, crawling, air guitar, drums, singing, dancing etc). The funnier the movements the better. Tell the students to "rock on" to begin moving around the play area. Then say "stop the music" to stop moving. Signal to students to switch roles after one minute so both sides have the chance to lead.
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The Voice. See how far students can run when they belt out the last note of their favorite song! First, get the students on their marks. To get set, have the students take a deep breath. Then go! Everyone begins running and singing the longest, loudest note they can. When their breath is gone, they must stop. Then turn around and see how far they got.
What field day games do you like to play?
