Since the executive order in March to close all schools due to risk of the COVID-19 virus, the Lower School Administration and Teachers have been looking for activities and programs to engage students and bring some normalcy back to their lives.
Lower School Health and Wellness Teacher, Kim Franco, came across the OPEN National Field Day, held on Friday, May 8, while researching activities for her students. The event was sponsored by Online Physical Education Network (OPEN) which is a web-based platform that helps provide teachers with curriculum and training support tools to improve the effectiveness of physical education for students. What a wonderful way to invite students to participate in one of the favorite end-of-the-year Physical Education activities.
The fifth-grade students joined thousands of schools from around the nation to participate in The National Field Day. There were over 20 competitions students performed at home using common household items. These activities were done indoors or outside, and the events include paper plane corn hole, balloon bowling and the milk jug relay. Students had the opportunity to practice and select at least 4 events. During the event they used provided score sheets to record statistics and submit their scorecards via Google Classroom. All participants will receive a certificate of participation from Open National Field Day.
While this event was not be like our regular field day, the students were able to interact with each other through school-spirit activities along and competitions. Building community through the school-spirit activities was important, providing the children with a chance to get their minds off the quarantine for a while and to engage in something fun with classmates.
During these incredibly challenging times, this national event provided a unique way to stay connected as a community and support one another in a fun and meaningful way. With the friendly competition between students and classes, this event came close to replicating the energy of field day and that “summer-is-nearly-here” feeling.