Well in advance students were assigned (by classroom teacher) a state which was their research project. Their task was to become very familiar with the state in which they were assigned.

Some information from their research was given to the students as they came to that station on 50 states field day. Mr. Carlson and I, physical education teachers, with the help of the NASPE listserv, decided upon an activity for each state. Prior to the field day we taught the activity to the students who were assigned the state.

On 50 states field day, our entire school sang the "50 Nifty United States" song (taught to them by the music teacher). Each student had a name tag which was designed so their state was indicated on the name tag. Each group had K-5 students in it. The groups stayed together all day.

Each station was run by a 5th grade student. First they gave information regarding the state, taught the activity to the group, then played the activity related to the state. In addition, the fifth graders made large signs of their state so at "rotation time" they held their state sign up so people could find them. There was adult supervision with each group as well.

Physical education teachers had all the materials ready for the 50 stations signs with numbers to coincide with the states.

Click here to get the activities for each state