Everybody loves Field Day. Field Day is the one day in the entire school year where children get to play with their friends from various grade levels for the vast majority of the school day, replacing essays and lessons with frisbees and laughter. Field Day is a fan favorite because the kids get to play games, such as water balloon toss or the dodgeball throw, with other students ranging from grades K4 to 6th as the 7th and 8th graders host each specialized event. Field Day is truly one of the best days of the year.

People love Field Day because they get to spend it with their friends and also make new friends when playing the games. Sam, a seventh grader at Saint Robert middle school, said, “It’s fun to be with the little kids because they are usually really silly and fun.” Sam loves Field Day because he gets to play games with others, and he gets “to hang out with [his] friends.” Sam has many friends in his seventh grade class, but  he is also friends with other people in the grade above his as well as the grades below his because of the opportunity Field Day presents in allowing him to socialize with kids of all ages.

Another reason why people love Field Day is because they set up multiple fun games that the people love to play. According to Mr. Jefferson, the gym teacher and person behind Field Day’s activities, “The most popular activities are shark attack for little kids, dodgeball darts, ring toss, bing bag toss, and the 50 yard dash.” Shark attack is a game where people sit in a circle and hold a parachute while shaking it up and down to create a wave-like effect. Then there are one or two people chosen to be “sharks”, and they try to drag the kids holding the parachute under the parachute to be a shark. There are also lifeguards that try to save the people that are being dragged under the parachute. This game is very popular among the younger grades because they like being sharks and getting dragged under the water.

The last reason why field day is loved among students at Saint Robert is because mainly the students are in charge of running the games, and they are always there to help out and teach the little kids what to do in the games. According to Mr. Jefferson, “7th and 8th, me, and Mrs. Jordan and Mrs. Beckmann” are the people that run the games but the majority of the games are run by the 8th and 7th graders.  If a kid is doing something wrong, they’ll talk to a fellow student and not a teacher, so the older students will be able to relate to the students if the younger students have any problems. The older students have already played the games at previous Field Daya, so they are better able to relate to the kids questions and problems. This day is an incredible opportunity not only for students to engage in fun, but for 7th & 8th graders to show leadership in a concrete way.