In honor of Halloween, it’s fun to add variations to games that add a holiday-twist. One coach suggested on our Facebook page renaming ‘Duck, Duck Goose’ to ‘Trick or Treat’. Today we share one game that may be played any time of the year, but can be special this holiday season. The Game of the Week is… Blob Tag!
Group Size: Large group (10 or more)
Age Group:
Grades 1-2
Grades 3-5
Length of Activity:
10 minutes or more
Developmental Goal:
To develop eye-foot coordination and cooperation.
Equipment:
None
Before You Start:
- Ask for two volunteers. Assign both of them to be ‘it’. They become ‘The Blob’ and must link elbows.
- Demonstrate safe tagging:
- Light touch, like a butterfly wings, on the back or shoulders.
- Unsafe tags: hard contact that might cause the person being tagged to fall.
- Demonstrate with volunteers how to move with a partner–working together, moving safely–how to link when you are tagged–at the elbows–and how to separate when there are four people in ‘The Blob’–splitting into two separate groups of two by the two players in the middle releasing elbows.
- Make sure the students understand the rules, boundaries and the importance of safety.
- Spread students out within playing area.
Set Up:
Designate a playing area large enough run in.
How To Play:
- When play begins, ‘The Blob’ moves together–keeping elbows linked–and trys to tag the rest of the players.
- When someone is tagged, s/he links elbows with the tagger, becoming part of ‘The Blob.’
- When a fourth player is tagged, ‘The Blob’ then separates into two separate Blobs.
- Every time a Blob becomes four players it splits; two players detach creating two separate Blobs.
- Play continues until all of the players become part of Blobs.
- If a player runs out of bounds while trying to avoid ‘The Blob’, s/he must then connect with the nearest Blob and continue to play.
- The last two players can then become the first Blob for the next game.
Variations:
- If everyone is playing safely, the ‘The Blob’ can stay connected and continue to grow bigger and bigger until all the players are tagged. Challenge the class to stay together when they move.
- If linking elbows is too challenging, consider linking hands. (Note: some students may perfer the term ‘linking hands’ to ‘holding hands’.)
Find more new and exciting games in our games database!
*Photo by hkboyee
