Welcome to Mr. Maier's Gym: Tag Games

Dicken Activities Site

scooter scoopball

jurassic park

Jurassic Park Tag

Choose one person to be the Tyrannosaurus Rex and give that person a red nerf ball. This dinosaur eats meat but has bad eyesight. If a "person" is standing still they can not be tagged by the T-Rex. This dinosaur may only tag their prey. Choose one person to be a Diloposaurus. This dinosaur spits!! Give this dinosaur a different colored ball. They may throw the ball and hit a "person" below the shoulders. They have good eye-sight so if their prey is standing still they can "get" them.
Choose 2 people and give them each a colored ball different from the others. These are the Vilocoraptors. They hunt in twos or in packs. They can only tag their prey together at the same time. They eventually (especially the older ones) figure out they have to corner their prey or follow the T-Rex around and wait for their prey to stand still. If you are tagged by any meat eating dinosaur you sit down. Choose two people and give them each a scooter board. They are the Brontosaurus which are plant eating dinosaur. They do not eat the "people" and will unfreeze those who have been frozen. The Brontosaurus can’t be tagged by the meat eating dinosaurs.

Ghost Busters Tag

Set up a square in the middle of the gym using cones. This is the Haunted House. You are going to pick 5 students to be Ghostbusters. The rest of the class are ghosts. The game starts with the ghostbusters inside the haunted house. When the music starts, the ghostbusters run and try and tag the ghosts. The ghostbusters will use the small gator balls to tag with. Make sure they don’t throw the balls. When a ghost gets tagged they go to the Haunted House. To get free, another ghost must come and give them a high five. Try and give everyone a chance to be a ghostbuster.

Fire and Ice

This is a tag game. There will be 3 students who have blue balls (which represent ice) and 2 students who will have red balls (which represent fire). Everyone else is free and can run wherever they want. The game begins when the music is turned on. The ice people try to freeze the free people by tagging them with their blue ball (no throwing the balls!!) When students get tagged by an ice person he/she becomes frozen (standing still with both hands on head). The fire people (who can’t be tagged by the ice people) try to then free all of their frozen teammates. They do this by handing the fireball to a frozen person. The person receiving the fireball must say “thank you”. If he or she doesn’t, they stay frozen and the fire person then goes to free someone else. If the person does say “thank you” they then take the ball and become a new fire person; the person who unfroze him or her becomes a “free person”. The fireballs keep getting passed on and on, but the ice people stay ice people until you stop the music. Play for 2-3 min., then have the ice people give their balls to someone who hasn’t been an ice person.

Skunk Tag
•    Pick 5 students to be skunks
•    If you get tagged by a skunk, the skunk hands you the ball and you have to go to the skunk house (Small middle circle)
•    When in the skunk house, you have to say “I’m a smelly old skunk”, then you go chase someone else.
•    You can play this game for 5-10 min.

Pattern Tag
•    Pick 2 students to be taggers- Use same colored gator ball.
•    Pick 3 students to be rescuers- Each rescuer wears a different colored jersey. (Red, Yellow, Blue)
•    When you get tagged, you have to spread your feet apart and wait for all 3 rescuers to go through your tunnel in order. If your order is Red, Yellow, Blue, then that’s the order they must go.
•    I have the students who get tagged, hold up 3 fingers. This lets the rescuers know that they need all 3. Once the first rescuer goes through the tunnel, they then hold up 2 fingers. When 2 rescuers have gone through, they hold up one finger.
•    Let the students know that they won’t have time to be both rescuers and taggers.
•    When its time to switch, I let the rescuers and taggers pick who they want. The only stipulation is they have to pick someone who hasn’t had a turn at either a rescuer or tagger.

Fox and Squirrel
This is a tag game. To start out you have 4 students stand on dots (Look at Diagram). These are squirrels. You will also have a student stand in the middle of the gym. This is also a squirrel. The foxes are in a line against the wall. The object of the game is for the fox to tag the squirrel. At any time the squirrel can go to any of the squirrels standing on the dots and tag them and then they trade places. Now the fox would be chasing a new squirrel. If the squirrel on the dot leaves the dot before being tagged, that person has to go to the back of the fox line. When the fox tags a squirrel, the squirrel goes to the back of the fox line and the fox becomes the new squirrel. At any time you can yell switch, which means now the squirrel chases the fox. I do this if the fox is having trouble catching the squirrel. The students have played this before, so if you have any questions, they should be able to answer them.

SHARKS AND SEALS

Sharks and Seals is a tag game. You will pick 3 students to be the sharks. Each shark will have a small gator skin ball. You will pick 3 students to be the Dolphins. Each Dolphin will have a scooter. The rest of the class are Seals. You will unfold 2 mats and place one on each side of the gym. The mats represent islands. The gym floor represents the ocean. Only the Seals may go on the islands and they can only stay there for 5 seconds before they have to leave. They also may not leave a mat and get right back on the same mat. Sharks may not stand and wait in front of the Islands. Make them move around. The object of the game is for the Sharks to try and tag (Sharks may not throw the ball) the Seals while they are running around the ocean (Gym Floor). When a Seal gets tagged, they must lie down and wait for a Dolphin to come rescue them. Dolphins must sit on their scooters! (No other way) The Dolphin will scoot over to the Seal that is lying down and they will switch places. The Dolphin will push the Seal on the scooter to the closes Island (Mat), where the Seal will stand up and is back in the game. Seals that are being rescued are to sit on the scooter as well. Sharks can’t tag the Dolphins or the Seals that are being rescued. Have them play for about 3 min. and then pick new sharks and dolphins. Tell the kids that they will get a chance to be either a shark or a dolphin, but they probably won’t get to be both. When switching, have the kids pick people who have only been seals. Remind them before playing, that they need to look in the direction that they’re running, so as to not run into or trip over someone.