Ms. Copher, I am tired. Ms. Copher, it’s so hot. Ms. Copher I need to go to the bathroom. Ms. Copher when do we eat lunch? That was just the first five minutes of field day.
Year 24 of teaching is almost over for me and this has been one of my most rewarding years as an educator. I will save all of those details for another blog when school is over next week to share with all of you.
Today I want to focus on how I survived field day. The planning and preparation that go into running a field day experience is beyond me. It was a successful and fun day for everyone.
My students couldn’t contain their excitement and many were thinking field day would be cancelled because of the rain showers in the morning. Shortly before 9:00 am the sun came out and the weather was hot, but perfect.
I gave my do your best, be a good sport and don’t embarass me speech before we went to our first event. I gave them all jobs. Some would be in charge of the wagon, a few would count the kids before we move to the next station, two teacher assistants would be buddies and take kids to the bathroom, there were kids in charge of dividing the class into teams, kids were time keepers and the rest were in charge of reading the map of the field day stations. Everyone had a job.
I’ve watched my teacher friend Tammy bring her wagon to field day in the past, so I owe her for this genius idea. I had my nice blue beach wagon ready to hold 25 water bottles, bug spray, sunscreen and an emergency kit. You name it and I had it in that wagon. There was even cupholders on the side for my Starbucks. That was my special treat to myself to get me ready for field day.
I will never do field day again without my wagon. I didn’t hear I can’t find my water bottle or I left my water bottle at the last station. We had everything we needed in my blue wagon. My leaders navigated that wagon through the grass, over curbs and on the black top. Teachers please invest in a wagon or bring your Little Tykes wagon from home for field day. You can thank me later.
Next, I will never leave my tiara visor at home on field day or a field trip ever again. At one point my students were saying, “Follow the queen, follow the queen.” Some of them may have known about GOT, because they said we can’t make the queen mad. All I could do was laugh and so did some of the parent volunteers.
I survived field day and there were no tears or injuries. One student said “Ms. Copher we didn’t learn anything today, like we always do.” Before I could answer the other students responded for me and this is what I heard.
I learned never forgot my lunch at home on field day.
I learned to remember to bring extra clothes next year.
It was okay we didn’t have a lot of time at the Drip Drip Drop station. (Dont’ ask)
I learned Ms. Copher could do a plank.
That’s a wrap to Field Day 2019, until next year.
~Brooke
A Woman's Work - Brooke Basically Blogging 