Family Field Day Games for Kindergarten Kids

Tug of war is a great addition to a family field day event.

Family field day is a day for celebrating and rewarding children for all their hard work during the school year. Kindergarten students have just as much reason to celebrate as do older students, and what better way than with exciting games and activities like tug of war, a three-legged race and a sack race? Many of the activities involve pairing a child with an adult, so be sure to have plenty of volunteers on hand for the children whose parents or other family members could not attend the field day event.

Three-Legged Race

In the three-legged race, a kindergartner and her parent, or an adult volunteer, will form a team. Using rope and bandannas or fabric strips, the child and the parent tie their two closest legs together to create a team with three legs. Teams race each other to the finish line, trying not to fall down in the process. If a team falls down, they have to return to the starting line and try again. The first team to cross the finish line is the winner.

Tug of War

In tug of war, a length of rope is pulled from both sides by pairs of kindergarten students and a parent. Two equidistant lines are spray painted or marked with chalk on the grass, and the center of the rope is placed in the middle of the lines. The rope will have knots tied on each end to ensure a good grip, and a flag or bandanna is tied in the exact middle of the rope for reference purposes. Each team tries to pull the middle of the rope onto their side of the line. The team that succeeds first is the winner.

Sack Race

Burlap sacks are commonly used for sack races.

A sack race consists of a person wearing a large sack and hopping from the starting line to the finish line. Wearing the sack refers to the person having both feet inside the sack and the sack pulled up to the waist. There are several variations to the sack race, which can be tailored to a kindergarten field day event. A parent and child team can both fit in the sack together and hop as a team, a parent and child can form a team and hop side by side in individual sacks toward the finish line or the sack race can be completed as a relay. In either case, the team to cross the finish line first is declared the winner.

References

• Three-Legged Race
• Tog-O-War
• Sack Race Rules