What is a Socktober Event Day?
A Socktober Event Day is a great way for your school to celebrate Socktober success, engage your local parish and community and firmly enhance your school’s Catholic identity.
The best event days are a whole of school celebration of mission — the culmination of your students’ Socktober efforts throughout World Mission Month.
The centrepiece of any Socktober Event Day is the Socktober Shootout event. Based on the concept of the soccer penalty shootout, which famously sent Australia to the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the Socktober Shootout allows students to have some fun with the sockballs they have made throughout the Socktober Challenge.
How to make your own sockball
Before kicking your goals, check out our step-by-step guide on how to make a recycled sockball, with Catholic Mission's Dorothy Makasa. Many children around the world play with a ball just like this - even Pope Francis did as a boy in Argentina. Ready to make yours?
There are other activities you can also incorporate into your Socktober Event Day. Here are some tips to run a successful Socktober Event Day:
- Book your Socktober Event Day well in advance. We suggest holding it in Mission Week (25-29 October) along with schools across the country.
- Plan your day using our World Mission Month resources and prepare the activities, including the Socktober Shootout, 360-VR, and liturgy. Recruit some colleagues to help you.
- Promote your Socktober Event Day within your school and, if appropriate, to the broader community. Invite students’ families, your parish priest, and even high-profile community members to the event.
- Set up the day by preparing the liturgy and creating learning spaces (for 360-VR and/or sockball making activities). Position goals for the Socktober Shootout in the playground.
- Run the Socktober Shootout by dividing students into manageable groups and assigning parent or teacher volunteers to ensure everyone can take several shots at goal. Decide early, based on student numbers, how many shots each student can take with the synthetic ball and their sockballs, and ensure they seek sponsorship from friends and family for each shot.
- Work through the sockball script with students after they have completed the Socktober Shootout.
Don’t forget to take photos (with permission) of your Socktober Shootout and share it using the hashtag #Socktober2021.
Tips to nailing the perfect penalty goal
On your Socktober Event Day, you'll be kicking plenty of goals. Here are a few tips from our resident soccer guru to help you match it with the Matildas and the Socceroos and net all your shots.
How to Play
The Socktober Shootout can be the pinnacle of your school's Socktober celebrations, and a fun way to get active, promote teamwork and good spirit, and add to your fundraising efforts. It's easy to set up - you just need an open space, like a field or a court, something to mark out goals, and a few balls for each group of goal takers. Don't forget to make your own sockballs for one of the shots at goal, so you can compare them with standard balls. We have prepared a handy guide for how to set up your Socktober Shootout activity.
Socktober Event Day Run Sheet
Your Socktober Event Day can bring Socktober alive for your students, connect your local community and bring them together, and enhance your school's Catholic identity. But it's a busy day! That's why we have provided an Event Day Run Sheet, so you can focus on having fun and making a difference with your students.
Sockball Activity Script and Introduction
You've learnt how to make them, but the real magic in our sockballs comes out when students realise why we make them. A sockball workshop can be a great way to connect your students with the reality of children in Thailand and around the world and form an appreciation of the "haves" and "have nots". It can be easy to run, using this script and accompanying questions as a guide.
