Poly Spot Tag

Tag games are great warm-up activities or full period lessons. Their objective is often aerobic endurance, but they can also provide excellent skill practice. They can be played as individual or team games. Poly Spot Tag is an orginal game that can be used with or without equipment. It can be a team or individual game. It is not as aerobic as some of my other tag games, but it does require the use of strategy, and it works well when you have limited space. You can find many more original and exciting standards based tag games in my book: Fun, Fitness, and Skills - The Powerful Original Games Approach.Powerful Original Games

The Game - Grades 3 and up -

• Spread poly spots throughout the play area so that the students will be able to stand on one spot and leap to another spot. I don't make a big deal if they don't quite reach the spot in one leap. The poly spot's distance apart depends on the age and ability of the class. The spots do not have to be the same distance apart, and they can be arranged so that the students often have a choice of which way to go. Some distances can be more challenging than others.
• Begin the game with each student standing on a spot. You may choose their spots or they may choose their own spot.
• Use a pair of different colored dice. Half the students are designated as one color and the other half are designated the other color. You may also use only one die and simply alternate which group moves. One group may be designated as 1 or A and the other group as 2 or B.
• Roll one die. The students aligned with that color die leap that number of poly spots. If they land on another student's spot (must be exact number on the die), a tag is automatically made. Then roll the other die. Those students now leap. Keep alternating the die rolls.
• When a tag is made, the student who made the tag receives one point. The tagged student steps off the spot and is frozen until any other student lands on his or her spot. She or he is then free to return to the game. As an alternative, you can have the frozen students do some exercises in place. The student who freed him or her also receives one point.
• Play for about five minutes. Students see how many points they have acquired and then try to beat their previous score in the next round.

Variations:

1. Instead of everyone able to tag, designate three or four taggers. Give each tagger something that identifies them as a tagger; for example, they can tag with a foam ball or foam Frisbee. Each tagger has a hoop home outside the play area, but near at least one poly spot. When a tag is made, the tagged student must go into that tagger's hoop home. The students in that home may be freed if any student lands inside that home. The home counts as one leap. For example, if the number on the die is five, the last poly spot before the hoop home must be the fourth leap so that the fifth leap lands inside the hoop. All students in that hoop are freed and may leap out on the next roll. Alternate rolls - one for the taggers and one for the rest of the students as in the above game. After five minutes, change taggers. See which group of taggers had the most caputured students at the end of the game.
2. Players manipulate a piece of equipment while leaping from spot to spot. For example, dribble a basketball, tap a volleyball, toss a tennis ball.
3. Use four different colored die and create four teams. Give each team something to designate which team they are on. For example, use different colored pinnies. On the command "roll", one student from each team rolls his or her die outside the play area. This student is not actually playing this round. She or he calls out the number on the die. Every player must move the number that his or her teammate rolled. Everyone moves at the same time. In order to insure that everyone moves at the same time, do not allow anyone to move until you (the teacher) gives the command to go. Each team must only be allowed to chase one of the other four teams. For example: red chases blue, blue chases green, green chases orange, and orange chases red. If anyone on one team overtakes someone on the team they are chasing, a tag is made (does not have to be exact roll). That student is frozen until someone on his or her team lands on his or her spot (must be exact roll). At the end of five minutes, see which team has the least number of frozen students. Change the rollers and play again.
4. Try some of the above variations without using dice. This will make the game more aerobic and certainly more hectic. The students keep moving continuously.