Action was everywhere on the South Ridge Elementary School playground: water balloons sailing, kickballs flying, eggs balancing, full cups spilling. The end-of-year Field Day had students outside and moving with all kinds of fun activities. They laughed and clapped for each other, enjoying their last day of school before summer vacation.
\r\nWith so many students attending South Ridge, classes came out to Field Day in shifts. Each group cycled through a series of fast-moving games. When a siren sounded, it was time to move to a new station.
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Water balloons sailed between two lines of students trying (and mostly failing) to keep the balloons intact. Huge sponges soaked with water were carried between buckets in a car wash relay. An egg and spoon race had students walking precious cargo carefully and quickly from one line to the next.
\r\nStudents climbed into big burlap bags for an old-fashioned potato sack race, then paired up to hand-walk across the finish line with a wheelbarrow race. A water cup relay had lines of students transferring cups of water from one to the other—backwards, and over their heads (spoiler alert: a lot of people got wet).
Kids hopped through a line of colorful hula hoops on the asphalt from opposite ends, playing a quick game of rock-paper-scissors where they met to determine who got to keep hopping. Then they rounded out the day with a classic game of kickball.
\r\nField day was a perfect way end to the school year, with dozens of students at each station running and cheering. Margo Manke’s first grade class, still giggling and excited from the games, ran to the final station—for popsicles and chalk drawing. One student, Alexander Hacker, held his orange popsicle high, grinned from ear to ear and declared, “This is the BEST. DAY. EVER!”
