A Feast of Thanksgiving Turkey Trot Ideas for Your School!

Turkey Trot

Looking for a fun and fit way to send your students home for Thanksgiving break this year?  Try a trot, a Turkey Trot that is!

This is a fun event that can be done at any age level and can be done simply, or if you are game, quite extravagantly. Depending on the grade level you are teaching, you can decide the distance your students will run or walk.  You will also need to decide if you want this event to be a true race or more of a fun event.

 Thanksgiving Turkey Trot Ideas:

 1. A True Race

I have done this as a true race when I taught elementary school students for just my 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students and they trotted for a mile.  Each grade raced separately and the first place boy and girl won a frozen turkey, second place won a pumpkin pie, and third place a box of stuffing. Use your imagination to decide your awards!

2. For Fun

If you want this to be a fun event, consider having some of your teachers dress up as turkeys, boxes of stuffing, Pilgrims, or whatever Thanksgiving costume they want, and have them trot along with your students.  Nothing gets kids more excited than seeing their teachers (and administrators) trotting along with them as they participate in the fun!

3. Get Parents Involved

I encourage you to get parents involved as well. Not only to help you with logistics, but also to encourage them to get active with their children.  AND, if you want to make the event really big, parents are fantastic helpers!

4. Trot + Thanksgiving Dinner

While thinking about writing this blog, I had another thought come to mind that I may try to make a reality for Thanksgiving 2017.  I teach in a very rural school district, with a number of economically disadvantaged students, so why not take the last day of school and make it a “Fit Family Turkey Trot and Thanksgiving Dinner?” I know I have students that don’t get the full Thanksgiving feast, so my thought is to get in contact with our Director of Food Service and put together a home cooked Thanksgiving Feast that will follow a Turkey Trot 5k run/walk. This may be a huge endeavor, but with proper planning, it could become a huge success and give all of my students and their families the opportunity to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal together.

I hope that if any of you try a trot, you make sure to keep the event fun for every student and get as many stakeholders involved as possible!  And if you do try a trot, please share how you ran your event!  I love hearing how others do things like this to get new and fresh ideas!  Happy Trotting!

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