Rocks

Summary

Students will practice dodging, evading, running and strategy in an engaging activity.

Materials

20 Frisbees, yarnballs or beanbags and 2 hula hoops.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to practice strategy and multiple movement techniques, while receiving the benefits of light aerobic activity.

Instructional Procedures

• Divide the playing area in half, with half the students on each side of the court.
• Place the "rocks" evenly inside a circle or hula hoop on each end of the court.
• The object of this activity is to gather all of the rocks from the other end of the court and place them inside your own rock pile.
• Players cannot be tagged on their own side of the court as well as when they have one foot placed inside of the rock pile on the other end of the court.
• When you say "go" students attempt to enter the other side of the court without being tagged upon the shoulder.
• Once a player enters the other side of the court they can be tagged, if this occurs you sit down where you were tagged and await a teammate to apply a tag to your shoulder.
• Once you're untagged, both players must return to their side of the court before being tagged again as well as before they can attempt to steal a rock.
• If you successfully steal a rock then you simply place it in your hoop on your end of the court.
• If you steal a rock but you are tagged before you make it back to your side of the court, the rock is returned and you sit down where you were tagged.
• Players may guard their rock pile, but establish some boundary, for example, five feet away from the hoop at all times.
• This activity can be continued until you complete it as a warm-up, until one team obtains all of the rocks or as time allows.
• If too many students are tagged and sitting, call out an "all-in" this enables everybody to re-join the activity.

Strategies for Diverse Learners

The following are ways to modify this activity:

1. Increase/decrease the distance to the hula hoops.
2. Add more hula hoops
3. Make end lines "safe zones" on the opposite ends of the court.
4. Eliminate any guarding of the rocks.

Bibliography

This activity is adapted from John Nachtigal who was my Elementary P.E. teacher in Kansas from 1978-1979.