One of my favorite days of the year as both a student and a teacher was Field Day. It was the perfect blend of competition and recreation, and being able to avoid homework for a day was an added bonus. When I was a child, we could win ribbons for each event, and we would bring a safety pin from home and wear them as a badge of honor. The boys' field day was devoid of any real competition, other than looking to see if they outran the person next to them. There were no ribbons, but I do not think it made any difference as far as they were concerned. The kids had a blast just being outside and completing each station. The day started with Opening Ceremonies and a parade of each class around the track. Each class rotated through several stations, which were the hula hoop, soccer kick, sack race, jump rope race, and hurdles, and they even got to run through a bounce house obstacle course. The only event that included a clearly decided winner was the tug-of-war, but it had to be delayed until a later date due to rain. Nate's class took second place, and of course his first response was that the other class cheated. Ah, field day ... some things have not changed. I used to accuse other classes of cheating, and my students did the same thing. I'm glad to see the art of gracefully accepting defeat is alive and well! Some pictures from Field Day 2015 are below. You can see how gray and gloomy the day was, which looking back, was a nice alternative to 90+ degree heat.

Life in the Burbs