Field day

My girls field day is next week and some parents are complaining about it.  I was wondering how your school does field day.  Is it an all day event, a few hours?  Who runs it?
 
 
In my girls school field day is about half the day.  The younger grades in the morning and the older ones in the afternoon.  Their school is k-5.   The gym teachers set up all the activities, then there are 3 parent volunteers who run each station.  Usually the teachers do very little other than walk the kids from station to station.   The parent volunteers are parents who are active in the PTA- either on the board or in charge of a some pta activity, or a rep for a district committee.  
 
A parent posted this on facebook last night about it "Very sad policy for our children"
 
 

 

ours are K-6 and they are split up onto teams - mixed grades on each team.  It is all day with water and lunch breaks.  Run by the teachers mostly with PTA and the senior class council and student athletes involved as well....
 
its fun for the kids and the parents come watch and have lunch with the kids.

 

Ours sounds like yours. Run by volunteers, stations, divided by grade. Parent volunteers are a few from each grade (I volunteer and am not on PTA). It is 2 hours. (K-2 in am and 3-5 in PM).
 
What is 'sad' about it?
 
We don't have official winners or keep score. Each station splits into teams, but that changes each station too so that teams aren't 'weighted'. It is all in fun without trophies, medals, or anything else.
 
They keep it light & fun. My kids love it and they really cheer each other on in good spirit (my two are not the most athletic) with 'good jobs' and ' you can do it!' heard.
 
Activities are water race, bounce house, obstacle course, egg walk, etc. All fun, low competition games meant more for team building than 'winning'.

 

When we were in Florida, it was an all day thing.  They stuck with their class (so the teachers were involved) and signed up for what events they wanted to do.  There were some parent volunteers there and parents were encouraged to come visit with the kids during the day.    Sounds a lot like how you're describing your field day, Lisa
 
Here in SC it was two hours per grade.  It didn't seem like it was worth the fuss to me. 
 
I'm also wondering what is "sad" about it??

 

I think she is saying that it is sad that not every parent can come, but i'm not sure.    

 

Our field day in middle school is an all day event for both 6th and 7th Grade, while 8th Graders graduate and do their thing.  It's run by the teachers, with help from PTA parents.  Neither our elementary school, nor this middle school has ever turned away a parent that wanted to attend and/or help with any "fun" activity day at school, or any other activity for that matter. 

 

Ours is an all day event (set up by PTO and parent volunteers) We call it Fitnes Day and have different stations and clinics that each grade/class has a schedule for.  It seems to go really well.  All parents are welcome to come hang out with their kids or volunteer. 

 

Our school is PK to 5th, but the PK and K kids don't have field days.  Last year was my girls' first time having field day and it was 2 hours long, events were organized by the gym teachers and run by all the teachers (classroom teachers and other specials teachers and aids helped the gym teachers), and all parents and other family members were invited to come and cheer for the kids.  
 
There were about 6 events and the kids either competed against their classmates or for team competition classes (for the same grade level) competed against each other.  It was a fun morning last year!  And this year it will be followed by the girls' end of the year classroom parties which is nice because it means I only had to take one half day off  

 

Our elementary school does field day, and our Middle School, Ball Park day.  For the elementary students, it is set up and run by the SLA (5th grade leadership, kind of like student council), their advisor and the special teachers.  Pre-K and K have their own stations away from the older kids, and they have a session with each group.  1-3 go in the morning and 4-5 in the afternoon.  Classes travel station to station, with the SLA kids running each station and the teacher and room mom's overseeing it.  PTO runs the water booth and takes anyone willing to volunteer.  
 
Ball Park day is basically a hot dog lunch cooked by PTO, and then the kids have free reign in the back of the school fields and they get a DJ.

 

The school I work in has two field day events.  Each is 2 hours.  PreK-2 on one day, 3-5 on the other day.  Teachers walk their class from station to station and monitor, and parent volunteers do the rest.  It's just long enough to be fun and short enough that they keep the rotations moving so no one gets bored and in trouble.  :winking:

 

Our 3rd and 4th grade school has a track meet on the last day of school. It goes from the beginning of the day, until about 1:00 (school gets out at 2:30 on the last day). Our PE teacher sets it up and parent volunteers run the different events. As far as I can tell, the teachers don't have a specific job or responsibility, other than to keep a head count every now and then, and have an idea of where everyone is! The PE teacher divides the kids into heats and always tries to keep the heats evenly matched, so the less athletic kid still has a chance to win a blue ribbon. It's supposed to be fun and we've been doing this on the last day of school since I was a kid (a looooong time ago). Any parent that wants to come and watch is welcome to do so, but that's because it's held in our stadium that the HS kids use for football, soccer, and track. Lots of room for spectators without the extra people adding to the chaos of the day.

I'm a little confused about what the parents are complaining about and what is so "sad" about the day.

 

Our school has different stations, most supplied by a games company - 4 large inflatables,  a huge slingshot station, other games with equipment from this company, a few stations set up by the gym tacher. Half the kids in the morning & half in the afternoon. It's run by the PTA, but volunteer slots are open to all parents on SignupGenius. There always seems to be more people there than needed, parents are always welcome to come even if the needed slots are filled.The teachers walk their classes from station to station but the parents run the stations. It's always the Friday of the last full week of school. (The last week they get out on Wednesday or Thursday. )
 
The only thing that might be considered sad about ours is our Kindergarteners go full days, twice a week and every other Friday. The Kindergarteners that have class that day go in the morning, the ones that don't are allowed to come in the afternoon, however they need someone to bring them at the start of the afternoon session. If they are bus riders or normally have daycare transportation they are allowed to go home the way they normally do. Of course, not all families are able to make arrangements for their child to be there for part of a non-school day, and those kids do not get to participate.

 

Our field day is called red and white day.  PreK- to grade 4 do their activities in the morning.  Grades 5-8 do some activities in the afternoon and there are some in the evening where the 8th grade challenges the faculty.  All parents are welcome to come and volunteer.

 

How did field day go? What were the parents upset about?

 

My school does field day like you described. Younger kids in the AM, older in the PM. Kids travel from station to station with the homeroom teacher, each station is run by a resource teacher/ESE teacher/Admin and we have parent volunteers/ Local NAVY members to assist. This year it was required that parents were there as VOLUNTEERs to assist, not just for parent to wander about campus. In the past we have had a difficult time finding parent volunteers to work the day, and we have reached out to the Naval Base for volunteers. Any parent at our school willing to help was not turned away.

 

 
Field day was great but it was friday morning instead of monday afternoon.  Monday during the morning field day, it started to pour. So they decided the ground would be too wet to have field day for the older kids. 
 
 

 
My girls school only lets the parents who volunteer all year long do field day.  We have around 2 classes walking around station to station with their teachers.  The parents run each station. The only time parents can leave their station is if they don't have a group since we have more stations that groups of classes