Sports Day Ideas (that are Covid friendly!)

 

In our school, Sports Day is one of the highlights of the year. So many activities and trips had to be shelved this year due to Covid but Sports Day can still happen with perhaps a little more consideration of the guidelines and plenty of sanitiser. Here are a couple of ideas that could be used and adapted this year.
 

Noughts & Crosses

Simply draw a 3 × 3 grid using chalk or use skipping ropes/hoola hoops. It is effectively x's and o's with beanbags.
Two teams have 4 beanbags each (e.g. 4 red and 4 blue) Like a relay, the first child in each team runs and places the beanbag in the grid. The next child can go when their teammate returns. When they have used the 4 beanbags, the next child runs and can move 1 of their coloured beanbags to try and get 3 in a row.  Continue until a team has 3 in a row.
 
*If you would rather not use beanbags, you could use plastic cups which can be easily cleaned.
 

Don't Drop the Ball!

This is a great team building activity. My dad was recruited to make these for me and they were great fun!
The idea is to have a pipe per child and they move from one point to another (e.g. aim is to drop the tennis ball into a bucket) without dropping the tennis ball. They also can't touch the ball once it is placed in the pipe. They need to keep moving to the end of the line once the tennis ball has left their pipe.  The first team to reach the end point/have the ball in the bucket wins.
 
*Easy to spray the pipes between each group.
 

Giant Obstacle Course

We do this every year as the final event in Sports Day. Usually 6th Class are team captains and it is a whole school event. You could still do it class by class this year. It is always a favourite, especially when we do the water relay with holes in the cups!!!
 
*With a little thought on the equipment used, it could easily be made Covid friendly.

Traditional Sports Day Races

Last but not least, most of the traditional sports day races can still take place. 

Ask the children to bring in and label their own spoon & potato for the egg and spoon race. Sprints and relays can still happen (maybe an elbow tap instead of a baton).
 
Another one we use in our school is the welly toss! Children can bring in their own or sanitiser and spray can be used.
 
Waddle like a duck: all children bend down on their hunkers and they waddle to the finish line. Extra points for quacking!!

Grand National hurdle jumps: set out some hurdles and the children put their acting skills to use to be the quickest/liveliest/funniest horse over the hurdles to the finish line!

I have also put together a list of Parachute Games that you can find by clicking on the image below.

Above all, I hope your school manages to have a fun Sports Day, centred around the children in your school!  

Add any other Sports Day ideas in the comments below.