Students using the Gateway Recreational Centre play structure during their lunch hour

On Friday, June 11th, the kindergarten to grade 3 students held their annual “field day” at the Gateway Recreational Centre in East Kildonan. This was the school’s 2nd attempt at a field day - the original date of June 9th at Kildonan Park was postponed because of rain.

This was the school’s second visit to Gateway Recreational Centre (last year was the first). In the past, the K-3 field day was always held at Kildonan Park, but Gateway Recreational Centre allows teachers the option to play their games outside, or to move indoors in the event of rain. As it turned out, the weather was wet and unpredictable, so all events took place inside the building. All events at the K-3 field day were team based and meant to be fun. Individual accomplishments were downplayed in favour of team competition and co-operation.

The students were supervised by the K-3 classroom teachers - Sr. Anne and Sr. Georgia (kindergarten), Miss Bailey (grade 1), Miss Lutyj (grade 2 ), Mrs. Tycholis (grade 3), and by Mrs. Walkow, the school's resource teacher. In addition to her supervision duties, Mrs. Walkow was also gracious enough to take photographs for the website. Each teacher was responsible for running one type of activity, and the students moved in small groups from activity to activity. Mr. Dedio and Mr. Picklyk were also available to help out as needed.

The students knew in advance they would be participating on different teams, and were pre-assigned to these teams based on the colour of shirt they were asked to wear. Each team had a mixture of students from K-3, and a letter was sent home to the parents asking them to dress their children in one of the following “team colours”: red, light blue, dark blue, white, grey, black, yellow, orange, purple, and green.

Red team

Light blue team

Dark blue team

White team

Grey team

Black team

Yellow team

Orange team

Purple team

Green team

The events in the morning were competitive and team based (such as tug of war), while the events in the afternoon were co-operative and meant to be fun (such as the parachute). There were 5 organized activities in the morning, and 3 in the afternoon.

At lunch time parent volunteers served each of the students a barbequed hot-dog, a slice of watermelon, a juice box, and a Freezie.

Parent volunteers preparing and serving food to the K-3 students

The Gateway Recreational Center had readily accessible washrooms, which were very convenient for the younger students. It also had a fenced in play area, which some students used during their hour of free time. Because of inclement weather, this was the only time students ventured outside.

Students went outside to play during their lunch hour

Everything wrapped up early in the afternoon, and the students were bused back to IHMS where they assembled in the gym for the awards ceremony. Team awards were given out for 5 different categories:

• Most co-operative teams
• Most encouraging teams
• Best team spirit
• Most colourful teams
• Best organized teams

There were 10 different teams of students, and 5 award categories. By giving an award to 2 teams for each category, every student “won” a team award.

The K-3 field day appeared to be successful, and everyone involved seemed to enjoy the outing.