A Fun Game We Tried at PE

Working in a small school often means I am it in terms of electives or specials. This year, we are helping each other out and are taking an elective each, but when it comes to PE, we do our own. 

In PE, I try to have a focus on a certain game or type of game for each month. I found that a lot of students did not know basic games like kickball or many dodgeball. So, doing a monthly focus, has helped them learn many more games. 

This month, I ran across a super cool and fun game that I had my students play last week. They have been playing at recess on their own the last couple of days. The game is a tag game (our focus for the month is tag games) and it's called Secret Agent Tag. It is different than many other tag game I have tried and the students LOVED it. 

To start with, students meet in the center of the gym and must close their eyes. I go through and tap certain students. If they get one tap, they are the "bad guys." They will be the ones to try to tag other students. Anyone who gets two taps are the "secret agents." They are the ones who can rescue the other students if they get tagged. The rest of the students who are not tapped are the "citizens." I only have 11 students, so I chose two for each of the bad guy and secret agent roles. But the game suggests about 10% of your class for each.

The fun of the game is that each player is unaware of who holds each role in the game, but it becomes evident after a bit. Students play for three minutes. If there are no more citizens, the bad guys win. If there are citizens left, they win. Then we go back to the middle again to choose the next players to be bad guys or secret agents. 

Try it out if you get a chance. I'm sure your students will love it as much as mine did.