Frog Catcher
Any Size
Grades 1-2
Bean Bags
10 minutes or more
Development Goal
To develop body and spatial awareness
Before You Start
- Tell a story about frogs. Frogs like to hang out on their lily pads when they are not looking for insects to eat.
- Scatter the beanbags around the playspace; place hula hoops at random around the play area.
- Practice safe hopping to and from their lily pads.
- Demonstrate safe tagging:
- Light touch, like butterfly wings, on the back or shoulder.
- Unsafe tags: hard contact that might cause the person being tagged to fall.
- Review counting down from 5 seconds.
Set Up
Small area with clearly marked boundaries or classroom
How to Play
- The objective of this game is to avoid being tagged by the frog catcher.
- The leader starts as the frog catcher, waiting for the frogs to get off their lily pads.
- At your signal, have children hop to gather insects (bean bags) and have them leap back to their lily pad.
- While kids are leaping around to catch insects, pretend to try and catch (tag) them.
- If a frog is tagged, the frog must drop the “insects”, go to the shore banks (on the side of the playspace) and perform a task (i.e. 5 jumping jacks, sit-ups, etc.) to get back into the game.
- The frogs are safe and cannot be tagged while on their lily pads. However a frog can only stay on their lily pads for 5 seconds before the lily pad gets too heavy and starts to sink.
Variations
- Have kids share some of their insects with a sick neighbor frog by taking them to the other side of the pond (across the room).
- Have multiple frog catchers.