MMS volunteers lead games at Eugene Field
By JENNIFER DITLEVSON HAGLUND Staff writer
Eugene Field Elementary School first graders Talexis Dial-Tuomala, Aniya Brumley, and Kambree Davis sit under a parachute dome during Thursday’s annual field day.
From what Maryville Middle School seventh grader Tobin Cordell can remember, field day at Eugene Field Elementary School has changed since he was a student there.
“It’s not like it used to be,” Cordell said.
Cordell served as a volunteer at Thursday’s field day. He and fellow seventh grader Jake Walker ran a relay station where students had to balance small bean bags on their heads as they walked 50 meters and back to their teammates.
Walker said current Eugene Field students had a lot more stations to work through than he did.
Neither middle schooler thought the day looked any less interesting than when they were going through the stations a few years ago, but it was different.
According to Nic Mattson, physical education teacher at Eugene Field, Cordell and Walker are onto something. This year, the games didn’t change, but there were more places to play around the school grounds.
Mattson said teachers had to get creative with how they used space because of the recent construction of a new kitchen and commons area that opened in April. But the goal of the day remained the same.
“It’s all part of getting kids to play games that they can play at home and get moving,” Mattson said.
For physical education teachers across the country, finding ways to keep kids active can be challenging.
A 2013 study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information reported that no more than half the children in the United States take part in at least 60 minutes of daily physical activity.
The study, which measured trends in physical activity related to school policies, noted that over the last 30 to 40 years the amount and intensity of children’s daily exercise and active play has declined.
The same study indicated that although policy is important in education, it’s still unclear what makes a particular practice effective.
Getting MMS students involved in field day, said seventh grader Abby Sharp, was supposed to set an example for elementary students and show them that it’s fun to play hard.
Sharp ran the 100-meter dash and threw shot put and discus for the MMS track team this year and was in charge of the limbo station during field day.
“They thought it would be a good idea to have people who are leaders in the school and involved in track to help,” she said.
Aside from getting time off school, the middle school students got to enjoy aspects of childhood that already seem distant to them.
“Seeing them get excited and having such a good time is really great,” said Jeff Stooksbury, an eighth-grade MMS student.
Henry Swink, an MMS seventh grader whose mother teaches third grade at Eugene Field, said he noticed that the students weren’t as competitive in the early grades. To him, that’s not always a bad thing.
“It just creates more arguments when they’re supposed to be having fun,” Swink said.
Even though Swink and the other middle school volunteers get plenty of exercise during track season, Swink said he could still have fun participating in a field day for students his age, as long as the games were structured on a larger scale.
By JENNIFER DITLEVSON HAGLUND Staff writer
Addison Bowe of Laura Tobin’s first-grade class waits for one of her classmates to hit the target and send water-soaked beanbags onto her head during the annual field day at Eugene Field Elementary School. Tobin’s class tried to convince her to get in line for a turn under the bucket, but she avoided mutiny and remained dry.
By JENNIFER DITLEVSON HAGLUND Staff writer
One-year-old Aly Anderson wasn’t all that excited about this year’s Eugene Field Elementary School field day. Her father, Ryan Anderson, was there to watch his first-grade son, Owen, participate in the various games and activities.
