5 Steps to Plan the Best Field Day for Your School

I’m educational school assembly specialist Joe Romano. I’ve presented my wildly popular series of assemblies for schools in Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Washington DC. Because I’m in schools so much, I have a deep understanding of the challenges both faculty and parents deal with. Let’s dig into field days!

What are ‘Field Days?’

Are you a parent brand new to your school’s PTA/PTO? If so, the entire concept may be foreign to you. Or you may have moved from an area where schools did not do field days to a district that does.

Field days are typically one school day near the end of the school year. It’s a day filled with games, special events, friendly team competitions, and much more. It’s a time for kids and adults to come together and have fun.

Field days are a great way to let everyone ‘let their hair down’ and have a day of fun activities at the school. I’ll offer simple tips and strategies to make your school’s field day amazing, smooth, and successful.

Awesome Field Days Tip #1: Schedule Your Date… And Rain Date

New to field days? A key component is the great outdoors! You need places for all the team events, games, and various activities. If your school has enough space for outdoor fun, that’s going to be everyone’s first choice.

But Mother Nature doesn’t always cooperate. When you schedule your field day on your school calendar, pick an alternate rain date. And this is important – discuss rain dates with your vendors, too. Remember your vendors may charge you an extra fee for holding a second date they will probably not be able to fill at the last minute.

Awesome Field Days Tip #2: Gather Volunteers

To pull off a successful field day at your school, you’re gonna need a lot of help! You’ll need help monitoring the games, bounce houses, contests, and other activities. You’ll need added help to keep schedules on track. It’s easy for both faculty and kids to lose track of time when they have fun. Be sure to get help coordinating the schedules.

Volunteers are often parents, members of the PTA/PTO, and school faculty. To find out how many volunteers you need, you’ll first need to plan the day’s schedule.

Awesome Field Days Tip #3: Plan Your Schedule

You can have a great field day with games, contests, and food right in your school. But half the fun of field days is the surprises and out-of-the-norm events many schools have.

Make a list of the games and contests you want to have. Consider extra options for fun activities, such as bounce houses, foam parties, or magic shows. Sit down and plan your schedule around the must-haves (lunch, games, contests). Then add your ‘nice-to-have’ extras like magic shows or bounce houses.

Many field days’ schedules are just like a regular day in school. Every 45 minutes, a grade goes off to a different activity. Depending on your grade levels, you may have five or six ‘stations’ going on at once. If you have a K-5 school, you’ll need at least six ‘stations’ for everyone to cycle through.

Awesome Field Day Tip #4: Contact Your Vendors

Once you decide on which outside vendors you need, it’s time to start surfing the web or making phone calls. If you’re lucky, last year’s field day committee left notes detailing who they used, what was successful, and what wasn’t.

If you have these notes handy, it can make choosing vendors much easier. If you need to start from scratch on the web, look for vendors with stellar reviews. If you’re hiring a magician or other form of entertainer, look for folks who represent themselves. Agency companies often send whoever is available, so you may wind up with a vendor you didn’t want.

Once you select your vendors, be sure to find out what insurance requirements, if any, are required for the outside vendors to come to your school’s property. Communicate these insurance needs to your vendors are soon as possible. There is nothing worse than finding the perfect vendor only to find out they either won’t or can’t comply with your district’s requirements.

Awesome Field Day Tip #5: Create a Field Day Bible

Some field days are huge, elaborate affairs. Some are much smaller. Regardless, be sure to have all volunteer contact information in your master binder. Include cell phone numbers, what the volunteer(s)’ duties will be, and more. The same goes for your outside vendors.

Keep your vendors’ info updated with deposit records, contracts, contact information, insurance requirements, and everything you might need right at your fingertips.

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