Hosting a Unified Field Day for High School Students
Have you heard of Unified Field Day? Hosting a field day event for adapted physical education students in their communities is an initiative that fosters inclusivity, promotes physical activity, and builds strong connections. Events like these provide students with disabilities the opportunity to participate in fun, engaging activities tailored to their unique needs, ensuring they experience the joy and benefits of movement in a supportive environment! Every March, our school invites other local schools to participate in our Unified Field Day. It is a big celebration with over 400 athletes, student partners, and educators coming together to celebrate physical activity and inclusivity!
Here is a preview of what our day looks like!
Activities for Kids of All Abilities: Plan Fun Events for All Athletes and Partners
Our athletes and their peer partners partake in exciting events throughout the day.
The events we included this year were:
Foul Shooting: Each athlete and their partner takes 10 foul shots, scores are combined and added to the team total. We have modified baskets and basketballs available to athletes of all abilities.
55 Meter Dash: On the straightaway of our indoor track, athletes are seeded depending on speed with wheelchair students in their own heats to start things off. Many students partake in this event with a partner alongside to guide them.
½ Lap Relay with Baton: Relay teams of 4 are composed of 2 athletes and 2 peer partners who race 576 meters against other teams. Athletes will start and finish the race with partners running the middle stretches and each runner taking on 144m (or about a ½ lap on the track) with the baton.
Long Jump: Athletes and partners will each have 3 jumps to try and record their longest distance. The longest jump from each team member will be totaled together for a final distance. Students who are unable to physically jump participate in a modified throwing activity for this event.
Invite Other Schools to Join
We reach out to other districts nearby to invite them to our field day months in advance and this year we had 6 visiting schools attend our event. It is a day that is looked forward to all year! We share details of the events ahead of time and ask program directors to sign students up for the field day events before the day arrives. We invite the schools to spend the day with us and together we share a pizza lunch for all attendees.
Include and Involve the Whole School
We seek volunteer students and teachers from other classes to work on making banners for each school that is invited, as well as posters for each athlete from our school. These are posted around the gym so all visiting students can see their school name and colors. Each school also has their athletes, partners, and teachers come dressed in their school colors with some schools bringing mascots, balloons, and decorations to cheer on athletes! Our school used a special T-shirt designed by our Unified Art Teacher this year.
We invite classes and teachers to stop by and cheer on our athletes, and our PE team helps with keeping time, recording scores, and supervising the area. It is all hands on deck to make the day run smoothly. The more the merrier in celebrating our athletes on this special day!
Celebrate!
Spread the word to local news stations, invite the Special Olympics, order t-shirts, bring desserts to share, and have a post-lunch dance party. At the conclusion of events, we award 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prize ribbons to athletes and groups for each event. We also have an overall winner that gets their name engraved on our Field Day plaque on display in our gym. We take lots of photos throughout the day to create a slideshow that plays on our screens in the gym throughout the event. Kids are so excited to see photos and videos of themselves on this special day!
Our Unified Field day is a chance for students to make friends, have fun, and experience the joy of physical activity while promoting social inclusion and understanding.
