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Run your own sports day

Complete individual and group challenges to test your balance, coordination, speed and strength in your very own mini Olympics.

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You’ll need

  • Calculator or phone
  • Chalk
  • Rope
  • Something to mark lines (for example, chalk, masking tape, or rope)
  • Stopwatch or phone
  • Tape measure
  • Whistles
  • Pens or pencils
  • Spoons
  • Sacks or old pillow cases
  • Hard boiled eggs or bouncy balls
  • Wellies or bean bags
  • Prizes or awards for the winners

Before you begin 

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Take a look at our guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.   
  • Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely. 
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.  

Planning and setting up this activity

  • Decide whether you’ll split the group into teams to take part in different challenges at the same time, or if you’ll move from challenge to challenge as a whole group. 
  • Choose an appropriate, accessible outdoor area. You may need to think about avoiding steps, being close to public transport, or steep gradients or including frequent breaks. 
  • Make sure parents and carers know exactly where you’ll be, what people may need to bring, the day, the location, and when and where to drop off and collect everyone. 
  • Have a suitable, well-lit place for drop off and collection, away from any traffic. 
  • Check the weather forecast. Make sure everyone knows to come dressed for the weather and activity, being prepared for the weather to change.  
  • Check the sunset times, making sure that you’ll have sufficient light throughout the activity. It’s best to run this activity on lighter evenings, such as in summer. 

Running this activity

  1. Gather everyone together and explain that you’ll be having a sports day event. You should talk everyone through each activity they’ll be doing and demonstrate what people will need to do.
  2. Ask everyone to get into teams. They could give themselves a team name. You may want to mix older Scouts and younger Scouts to offer a fairer game.
  3. Always encourage everyone to take part in the challenges. While they’re waiting for their turn, everyone should cheer on their team and people giving it a go.
  4. At the end, you could reward the winning team, but also teams who show good teamwork, resilience, those who never give up and those who cheered for each other. You could give them a medal, prize, or certificate.
  1. Everyone should line up behind the start line, balancing a plastic egg (or a tennis ball) on their spoon. They should only hold the handle of the spoon, and they can’t touch the egg or the ball. 
  2. When the person leading the race says ‘go’, everyone should move as fast as they can towards the finish line without dropping their egg.
  3. If they drop their egg, they should stop, pick it up, and balance it back on their spoon before they move again.
  4. To make it harder, if they drop their egg, they should go back to the start.
  5. The first person to cross the finish line is the winner.
  1. Ask everyone to get into pairs. 
  2. Everyone should stand behind the start line with their partner. Someone should tie each pair’s legs together. You could use a necker or a scarf. They could also just hold hands or hold either side of a necker.
  3. When the person leading the race says ‘go’, the pairs should move as fast as they can towards the finish line. 
  4. The first pair to cross the finish line together is the winner. 
  5. You could make it harder by adding in obstacles for the pairs to get through, such as small hurdles.
  1. Give everyone a sack.
  2. Everyone should get into the sack, so their toes are touching the corners, and stand behind the start line. 
  3. When the person leading the race says ‘go’, everyone should move as fast as they can towards the finish line without getting out of their sacks. It’s up to them how they move – they could jump or shuffle. 
  4. The first person to cross the finish line is the winner. 
  1. Line up behind the start line. 
  2. Everyone should take it in turns to throw a welly as far as they can. 
  3. Measure how far each welly went and note it down. 
  4. Make sure no one throws a welly while people are collecting their wellies. 
  5. Once everyone’s had a turn or a few turns, the person who threw their welly the furthest is the winner. 
  1. Set up a safe, stable and age-appropriate obstacle course. You may want to have hula hoops to jump between or a tunnel to crawl through.
  2. Everyone should take it in turns to go through the course. 
  3. Time how long each person takes and note it down. 
  4. Once everyone’s had a turn, the person who did the course the fastest is the winner.
  1. Create a target area, such as hoops, and label them with different point values for different areas. 
  2. Everyone should take it in turns to throw beanbags into the hoops. 
  3. At the end of their turn, add up what each person’s score and note it down. 
  4. Once everyone’s had a turn, the person who got the highest score is the winner.
  1. Set up a row of cones, with one row for each team, and give each team a football. 
  2. Each team should line up on the starting line.
  3. The first person should dribble a football through sets of cones to the end of the course. 
  4. The person should then pass the ball to the next teammate and continue until all their team has finished.
  5. The first team to have all dribbled the ball through the cones is the winner.
  6. You could also do this individually and see who can dribble the ball through the cones the fastest.
  1. Give everyone a skipping rope.
  2. Everyone should stand behind the start line. 
  3. When the person leading the race says ‘go’, everyone should skip as fast as they can towards the finish line.
  4. The first person to cross the finish line is the winner. 
  1. Everyone should get into teams. 
  2. Choose somewhere for the teams to race across and set up cones, one for each team member, at different intervals across the space.
  3. Everyone should stand behind a cone for their team. The first person should have a baton or something to pass on. 
  4. When the person leading the race says ‘go’, everyone the first person should race to the next person in their team and pass the baton on. The second person should then race to the third person and pass the baton on, and so on.
  5. The first team to cross the finish line is the winner. 
  1. Create a target area, such as buckets, and label them with different point values for different areas. 
  2. Everyone should take it in turns to throw Frisbees into the buckets. 
  3. At the end of their turn, add up what each person’s score and note it down. 
  4. Once everyone’s had a turn, the person who got the highest score is the winner.
  1. Create a target area, such as hoops, and label them with different point values for different areas. 
  2. Everyone should take it in turns to throw a pool noodle into the hoops. You could also measure length thrown and see who can throw their pool noodle the furthest from a throwing line.
  3. At the end of their turn, add up what each person’s score or distance is, and note it down. 
  4. Once everyone’s had a turn, the person who got the highest score is the winner.

Reflection

This activity introduced everyone to take part in challenges that developed their teamwork and motivational skills, as well as take part in healthy competition. The tasks encouraged everyone to win and lose graciously, to celebrate others for their successes, and to build their own self esteem and confidence.

Has anyone seen the Olympics on the TV? Do they know what any of the events are called? Did people prefer the individual or the group challenges? What did they enjoy the most or least, and why? How did you encourage each other?

Did people feel good about themselves when they were competing? Why do they think this happened? How did people feel when they celebrated someone else winning?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Outdoor activities

You must have permission to use the location. Always check the weather forecast, and inform parents and carers of any change in venue.

Poles and long objects

Be careful when moving poles or long items. Take care if the ends are sharp. Have appropriate supervision for this activity.

Heavy and awkward objects

Never lift or move heavy or awkward items alone. Ask for help or, if possible, break them down into smaller parts.

Adventure

This activity has specific rules and systems to make sure it’s managed safely. Take a look at adventure activities for more guidance. 

Active games

The game area should be free of hazards. Explain the rules of the game clearly and have a clear way to communicate that the game must stop when needed. Take a look at our guidance on running active games safely.

Contact games and activities

Make sure everyone understands what contact is acceptable, and monitor contact throughout the activity.

Visits away from your meeting place

Complete a thorough risk assessment and include hazards, such as roads, woodland, plants, animals, and bodies of water (for example, rivers, ponds, lakes, and seas). You’ll probably need more adult helpers than usual. Your risk assessment should include how many adults you need. The young people to adult ratios are a minimum requirement. When you do your risk assessment, you might decide that you need more adults than the ratio specifies. Think about extra equipment that you may need to take with you, such as high visibility clothing, a first aid kit, water, and waterproofs. Throughout the activity, watch out for changes in the weather and do regular headcounts. 

  • To make this activity harder, you can choose more challenging events if it’d work for your group).

Choose challenges that will be competitive, while allowing everyone the chance to take part and have fun. You might need to change the activities or equipment we’ve suggested if they wouldn’t work for everyone – you should replace them with things that everyone can take part in.  

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Squirrels Be Active Activity Badge

Why not have a go at competing in challenges with other groups? You could divide everyone into teams of various ages to compete in one huge Olympic competition.

Young people could help to time races, set up games and measure distances.