Field Day always brings a world of excitement to our school. It’s definitely one of my favorite days. No doubt the prep work can be exhausting trying to make the day absolutely perfect. But I don’t mind, not one bit! Why? Because it’s almost summer and I can rest later. To me, it’s all about my students and their families making positive memories.
A few years ago, I wrote a part one of this blog: 5 DIY Projects for the Best Field Day Ever! I have received lots of feedback on how simple the projects were to put together, and compliments on how much their students enjoyed them. That’s exactly what I like to hear and why I have a passion for sharing! Thus, inspiring part two and this blog you’re reading right now.
Here are five more DIY projects for the BEST Field Day EVER!
GIANT TWISTER
Supplies:
- Cardboard sheets of paper
- Protractor
- Scissors
- Duck Tape
- Spray Paint
Directions:
- Using the protractor, drawl out a 10-inch circle on the cardboard sheets of paper.
- Cut out the circle.
- Connect the cardboard sheets with Duck Tape
- Mark your field area to the desired size.
Don’t forget the Spinner: Download the Twister Spinner App, borrow from the original game board, or make your own. Shoot, you could probably make up the calls and the kids would have just as much FUN!
Helpful Tip: When marking your field, alternate the color you start with that way your students have options for those colors near them. This is especially important because you’re playing with large groups, the size of your area and color options is important. For example: If my twister board is 18 dots tall, I don’t want 18 blue dots all in one column, instead I would have 6 dots Blue, 6 dots Yellow, and 6 dots Green.
WATER TRANSFER BOARDS
Water Transfer Relay is a great team building activity and perfect for field day. I love it because it gets the whole team involved, and you don’t have to be athletic to have success in this competition. At our field day, we have four teams battle to be the first to fill their bucket up to the red line, using a small cup and a transfer board.
Supplies to make one transfer board:
- 12” x 12” x1” wooden board
- 8 metal eye hooks
- 48 feet of rope cut into 8- 6ft pieces
You’ll also need a small cup, clear bucket with a taped line, and a water source to play the game.
Directions to make the transfer board:
- Cut down your wood piece to
12” x 12” x1”
- Add two eyelets to each corner, opposite to one another.
- Secure your string to the eyelets.
Helpful Tip: when purchasing the wood, you can purchase a wooden shelf to cut down. It’s more durable then plywood, and you can make several out of one piece! Also, this year I am going to paint the last foot of the string RED, this way I can tell my students they have to hold the string within the RED part. It’s supposed to be a challenge and if you’re hold only five inches of the string than that’s too easy!
LEAKY BUCKETS
Leaky Bucket Races have been a part of my field day stations for as long as I can remember. It’s simple, the kids love it, and it makes the absolute BEST pictures.
Here’s how we play: Divide students into two teams. Have students line up one behind the other, with the teams’ side by side. The first student in line holds a sand bucket with holes in it. On the word go, the first student fills the bucket with water and passes it over their head to the next person in line and so forth. The last person dumps the remaining water into a clear bucket and runs to the front of the line to repeat. The first team to fill their clear bucket passed the red line wins! **Feel free to switch the patterns every round! For example: Over/under, side by side passing (aka Fire House Relay), between the legs only.
Supplies:
- Two Sand Buckets
- Drill with an 1/8 drill bit
- Sharpie Marker
You’ll also need a clear bucket with a taped line, and a water source to play the game.
Directions:
- Decide how many and placement of the holes.
- Mark with a sharpie.
- Using your drill, careful drill the holes.
Helpful Tip: make sure you mark the same amount and placement of the holes on each bucket. That way one team doesn’t have more of an advantage over another.
Rolly Polly Race
We LOVE using this team building activity at our field day! Check it in action on PEUniverse.com
Supplies:
- Plastic Sheeting 6mil or higher
- Duct Tape
- Scissors
- Tape Measure
Directions:
- Measure out and cut Plastic Sheeting to 3ft x 32ft.
- Bring both ends together and overlap the last foot.
- Duct tape the ends together.
Helpful Tip: The higher the mil the more durable your Rolly Polly Mat will be. I would not use anything lower than a 6mil. Also, over duct tape the ends, the more duct tape the better to keep your mat from coming apart.
AQUA FLUSH
New this year to our closet full of goodies is what we call Aqua Flush. This piece of equipment rivals the dunk tank and gets people equally just as wet. The idea of Aqua Flush came from me sitting in a meeting, where I was told that we couldn’t have a Dunk Tank because it was too expensive and it’s a liability. The wheels in my mind started turning. Knowing I have a very talented son and a handy dandy husband, I quickly volunteered their services and Aqua Flush was created. Watch this video to see Aqua Flush in action! We hope to get some awesome pictures at this year’s field day to update this blog in the future.
Supplies:
- Lots of 2 1/2” PVC pipes
- 9- 45 Degree Elbow Joints
- 1-90 Degree Elbow Joint
- 14- T Joints
- Corner Joints
- PVC Cutters
- PVC Clement
- Clear Container
- Flush Kit for a Toilet
- Water line ¾” Female to ½” Female
- Plastic 5-gallon bucket lid
- Red Spray Paint
- Painter’s Tape
- X-Acto Knife
- Wooden Board
- Bolts/Washers
- Chain
- Eyelet
Directions: it’s going to be too difficult to give you a play by play for every piece of directions. So, we’re going to make use of pictures. Create the base using the PVC pieces listed. Attach the wooden board using bolts. Cut a hole in both the wooden board and the clear container to make room for the Flush Kit. Place the clear container on top of the wooden board and assembly your flush kit securing the two together. There’s no need to attach the clear container to the wooden board, the flush kit alone will secure it enough and the weight of the water won’t allow the container to fall off. Attach a water line from the bottom of the flush kit, this is where you attach your water source for easy filling. You may need to purchase a reducer fitting to get it to all fit together right. Design the swing arm, and attach a chain connecting the top of the swing arm and the flush kit. For the target: cover the plastic lid with painter’s tape. Trace out circles and use an X-Acto knife to remove every other circle. Spray the whole lid red and remove the remaining tape. Secure the target to the swing arm.
Helpful Tip: Only use PVC Clement Glue on the top base, swing arm, and bottom base. Leave the four legs unglued, so it can be broken down to help with storage.
I hope you found some inspiration to help bring extra smiles to your Field Day this year with one of your DIY projects. Don’t forget to take out my original DIY Field Day blog post. If you try any of these projects, I would love to hear about how it went. If you have a great DIY project yourself that you would like to share or have any questions, contact me sirwin@standrewsch.org
One Response
These are some great ideas. I liked your first 5 from a previous post also. I am going to try building a few of these over the summer for next year.
I like the water transfer board. I could get that done before my field day this year. I have a question though. Do they carry the cup down on the board and put the whole board and cup in the water to fill it or do they just dip the cup in the bucket using their hands to hold cup?