Tunnel Tag.
Tunnel Tag.
Oct 15Two days of rain. Two days of inside recess. One of those days with no special. I’m convinced Mother Nature is a cruel, evil, spiteful lady… Of course, with no recess and no place to take the class, by the end of the day Friday, things were looking grim. To be clear, in our class we move a LOT. We move, dance, jump, stretch, and bop about every ten minutes or so. Thing is, kindergarteners need to RUN. All the moving inside doesn’t really replicate the same outlet being outside and RUNNING does. What to do?
In a moment of desperation (or perhaps insanity), Mrs. D. suggested we play Tunnel Tag… inside. Now I’ve played Tunnel Tag outside before, but never inside. We modified the rules so there was no running, only FAST WALKING. Something we modeled and had them practice first. After that, we set boundaries, modeled how to play (if your tagged, you freeze, put your arms in the air, spread your legs and wait for someone untagged to crawl through your legs). We then played in our room for about twenty minutes or so.
After a few sprouts had turns to be taggers, the teachers had a turn. Of course, with our long legs and crafty herding techniques, we tagged all the children quickly. As we fast walked around the room, all you could hear was the sound of huffing, puffing, and giggling. A good sign we were wearing them out.
We modified the game to include hopping instead of fast walking and then the sweat really started. We tired those kids out. We took time for everyone to get a long drink and then sat in a circle on the carpet for some alphabet bean bag tossing fun. The mood of the entire group had changed. Kids need to move… and by move I mean RUN. If you can’t get outside to run, try a little fast walking Tunnel Tag inside. What do you do when weather prohibits outside recess?
We get up and dance to several songs, especially Wee Sing’s Willowbee. We have to hop, slide, gallop, twirl, & skip. they are worn out by the time that song is done!
I’ve found that Duck Duck Goose is a great way to wear out kids as well… we’ve had some pretty wild games of it in my day! Are you allowed to take them to the gym at all? Tunnel tag looks like fun… I’ve never played it before!