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.
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