Fun at Saint Marys!

Tag in Phys Ed

One of the highly controversal games listed in the game hall of shame was the beloved game of Tag. Yes, there are some tag games that involve eliminating students by making them sit down after getting tagged by the "it" person. That also leads to less participation and activity for students. However, tag can be performed in so many variations that there is no need to play elimination style tag. Any good Physical Educator should be able to quickly think of different ways to play tag.

If I were to bring this into the class room I would first make the playing feild for the tag game rather small. This is because, if you play it using the whole gymnasium then you get the kids who stand on the out skirts or hide in the corner not being super active. Therefore, if you make the space rather small then the kids have to be activily moving around and be aware of other students at the same time to avoid bumping into eachother. Simple tag games such as Partner Tag can keep kids very active. Each student gets a partner and one of them is declared "it." The other partner gets a 3 sec head start to run away, after the 3 secs the "it" partner chases after the other. Once they tag the other person they must, do jumping jacks, spin around, push ups or any other form of activity then chase after the other partner. The game goes back and forth and ends when the teacher decides. Having a partner also cuases them to be more active because they are focused on one person and chasing only that person. You can also make your students do different kinds of locomotion, such as skipping, hopping or galloping to work on their skills. Another variation is have partners tag eachother with a certain body part, like the elbow or foot, so they are able to learn different body parts.

Therefore, I believe tag can be active, benificial and used to learn if the correct tag game is selected.

PED 201 Lab 1

Wednesday was our first official lab at Saint Mary's school. We first began by playing tag games with the kids. I noticed that the children really didn't listen very well and it was very hard to get them to sit down. At first the kids were really into the tag games. However, as soon as they started to get tired or bored, you started seeing kids sitting on the side lines or hiding behind the matt on the wall. Tag games such as Chinese temple tag or freeze tag where fairly easy for the 2nd graders and younger to understand. As soon as we tried to play blob tag, a partner tag game, the kids didn't seem to understand and we had to quickly switch the game. After a few games, almost none of the children were participating in the tag games. Therefore, my group asked them what they would like to do and they said "Duck, Duck, Goose!" So we played duck, duck, goose until they went down stairs to play board games. Down stairs, I played chess with a Kindergatner named Sage. I was actually suprised with how much he understood of the game and he actually had to explain some of the rules to me. I thought that was really awesome that he was so knowledgable at such a young age. However, after awhile he would make up new rules as the game went along to make sure he won, which was funny. I helped another kid, Anthony, make paper airplanes. Which is also, when I learned the rule that were not suppose to throw paper airplanes unless it's in the gym and only if it's ok with the people in the gym. My group then went back upstairs and it was free time. Most of the younger kids were playing tag, where as the older kids were playing more Basketball, Volleyball and other sports. One girl Reagan was bouncing a ball all by herself, so I went over and we played, bounced the ball back and forth and played catch. She had a little trouble catching the ball, but she is young. I tried to get her to join the other young kids in tag, but she seemed really shy and a teacher near by comented that she doesn't like to talk much. Reagan went home, then I joined the tag games with the younger group. Lastly, we did a dance in the middle of the gym with the few kids left, which they seemed to enjoy a lot. I had fun this first lab.