T-Falls students play in the rain
Fifth-grader Gary Wadman pulls with all his might at the tug-of-war at the Thompson Falls field day at the school Thursday. The 11-year-old’s efforts were to no avail, his team lost the heat.
A little rain shower couldn’t spoil the Thompson Falls Elementary’s field day Thursday, in fact, for most of the kindergarten through sixth graders it only made the day better.
“We love it,” said second-grader Dylan Beckman, as the rain started to steadily fall halfway through the field day at the school. The 9-year-old wasn’t the only one that enjoyed the rain, right after he said it, more of his classmates started to chime in about how much they liked the rain.
“They really like to get wet,” said Randy Symon, the elementary health enhancement teacher and the organizer of the field day. He said in previous years, when it was hotter, they would have water balloons for the students.
While there was no need for the water balloons this year, there was still six activities for the students to go to, plus hop scotch and a bean bag toss for the younger students. The activities included picnic-type games such as a three-legged race, relay races and a tug-of-war. Each grade were at the activities for 20 minutes before moving on to the next one and each grade got the chance to participate in each event. Each event was monitored by junior high students.
Symon said they went to this format of field day about six years ago and the students really seemed to enjoy it. Symon said before, the field day use to be held at the high school’s track and was a little bit more competitive and the kids also enjoyed it. It doesn’t really matter what the format is the kids will enjoy it, said Symon. “It just gives them a chance to get outside and unwind,” he said.
Just after getting done with the tug-of-war, fifth-grader Gary Wadman said he was having a blast outside. “We don’t have to do school work or anything, so it’s a lot of fun,” he said. He said the funnest event of the day was kickball, although tug-of-war was a close second. After winning the first leg of the tug-of-war, Wadman lost the second heat, but was convinced the third time was the charm.
After finishing his leg of the bat relay, fourth-grader Brad Thomas also said that kickball was his favorite. The 9-year-old may not have been thinking straight though, after twirling around with a baseball bat. “I’m dizzy. It feels like the world is going upside down,” he said.