Dragon Tail

  • Any Size

  • Ages 3-5

  • None

  • 10 minutes or more

Development Goal

To learn tagging skills while working on teamwork.

Before You Start

  • Demonstrate safe tagging:
    • Light touch, like a butterfly wings, on the shoulder
    • Unsafe tags: hard contact that might cause the person being tagged to fall
  • Review where players should go when they’ve been tagged.
  • Review how to safely and gently touch someone’s shoulders as part of the Dragon’s tail.

How to Play

  • One player, the Dragon, can only tag other players.
  • When a player is tagged, s/he becomes part of the Dragon’s tail by gently placing their hands on his/her shoulders and following him/her around the play area.
  • The Dragon continues to tag players until everyone is part of the tail.
  • It is important to play the first round walking, and work your way up to faster speeds depending on players’ abilities at playing safely and the space available.

Variations

  • Allow the person at the end of the tail to tag players along with the Dragon
  • For advanced groups, let everyone start off as a Dragon. When a Dragon is tagged he/she joins the tail of the person who tagged him/her. Keep going until there is only one giant Dragon (works a little like Ro-Sham-Bo Rockstar).