Best Field Day Ever

Elina and Eli's school just had their first Field Day and it was unlike any other Field Day we've ever attended.  This event was beyond fun!

The theme was Olympics in Ancient Greece, so each class was assigned a color and Greek city-state.  Eli's class was orange Macedonia and Elina's was green Corinth.  Each class needed to come up with a team shirt, which could be as simple or as elaborate as we wanted.  Since I'm the room parent in both classes, I had to figure out what the teachers wanted on the shirts.

Eli's teacher was easy because I designed it and she approved it right away.  Elina's teacher, on the other hand, had many many many elaborate ideas.  She's young and doesn't have kids yet so she threw out about 5 ideas that she wanted incorporated on the shirt.  Don't get me wrong--I LOVE Elina's teacher...mainly because of her energy and enthusiasm, but sometimes that's what makes things complicated...like a simple t-shirt design.  In the end, I incorporated as much as I could and she liked the design, so we were good to go!

Unfortunately, the t-shirt design company I worked with was a nightmare to deal with.  There was a lot of reiterating exactly what the designs were...confusion with multiple orders being placed by different room parents from our one school...delay in production...  You name an excuse and I've pretty much heard it before.  It was a slow and painful death for me.  BUT in the end, we got everything we needed and the shirts looked great so that's that.  Now I know to go to another shirt design company next time.

Here were Eli and Elina's shirts.  They both say GHNO Field Day 2016 on the bottom in Greek.  The top is just their team names in Greek, too.  (Note: Elina's class nickname is Hydra Potato because the teacher jokes around that they are like a hydra because every time she asks a question, hands keep popping up everywhere to answer...and they added the word potato because they all love the Spalding phonics way of saying "potato."  These kids all sound like cool nerds, right??)

You would have never guessed there was drama behind-the-scenes!

Each team also had to come up with a team chant to perform during the Opening Ceremony.  Eli's class did a take on the "Boom Chicka Boom" song...instead of "I said a-boom chicka boom!" they did "I said a-Macedonia!"  It was cute, but unfortunately, B didn't catch it in time on video.  =(

Elina's class, did a crazy, amazing cheer.  This is how you know she has the best teachers ever...they are just committed and when you see this video you will know what I mean.  They created a chant that is similar to New Zealand's Haka, which is the Maori war dance.  During the chant, Mr. E (their teacher assistant) shouts in Latin, "Who are we?" and certain students yell out "We are Corinth!"  It was such a thrilling spectacle!  I definitely got goose bumps!

Then each class went from station to station playing games and earning points.  Kindergarten through 2nd grade had their field day in the morning, so they had their own Closing and Awards Ceremony. Then  3rd through 5th had theirs in the afternoon.  So the classes that had the highest points total would win 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place laurel wreaths.  There was basketball shooting in a certain amount of time, filling a bucket with water using only a sponge, pulling huge tires, hula hooping, long jumps, etc.  B and I took turns running the parachute pop game.  We put inflatable balls on top of a huge parachute and the kids had to shake all the balls off as quickly as possible.  Each class got 3 tries to get the fastest time.  They all had to figure out on their own that all they needed to do was lift one side of the parachute to slide all the balls off quickly.  This took some classes really long to figure out.  Amazingly, a 2nd grade class (NOT Eli's) did it in under 3 seconds.  I don't even know how that's possible!  Eli's class' first try took them 1 minute and 30 seconds!  I don't know what those kids were doing!  But then they trimmed down the time to 8 seconds by the 3rd try.  Phew!

This was a fun game to run and B even got to use the megaphone because it was really loud in the gym.  He kind of loved using that thing a little TOO much....and he became quite the comic while talking into it, too!  Hahaha!

The final event was a relay race.  16 of the fastest kids from each class ran a relay around the school parking lot.  Elina wasn't in her relay because when they had the initial race to get the 16 fastest from the class, Elina hadn't heard the teacher yell "Go!" so she started the race too late.  She wasn't too bummed about it though.  Ha!  Eli was in his class relay and he did well!  That boy is a pretty good runner.

Unfortunately, Eli's class didn't win 1st place, but they won the Roar and Soar Award which was the sportsmanship award.  I was so proud of them because they always encouraged each other and they were good sports about everything.

Elina's class ended up winning 1st place for their field day.  If you watch the video, it looks like they won the lottery!  It's the best!  But Elina didn't cheer as energetically because her popsicle had broken and she didn't want it to land on the floor...so she's doing a semi-cheer while protecting her treat.  That's Elina for ya!

It was such a fun-filled day!  I had the most fun I've ever had at a field day.  It was healthy competition and the team camaraderie was palpable.  

I loved this field day so much!  I wish they would do things like this more often....not the t-shirt making part, but the games and fun!  We can't wait for field day next year!