9-1-1 Tag Game

Cooperation Hoops

To have students cooperate and understand the concept of inclusion and that no one person matters in the situation.

Cones to define general space, a hoop or bicycle tire for each student in the class, appropriate space for class size.

Beginning- Each child has a hoop and his own personal space. Give children plenty of room to run between each other back to hoop. Give enough space between groups so children can return to without injury.

2nd and Up

Each student has their own hoop to stand in the middle of at the beginning of the game. Hoops should be spaced safely throughout the playing area. On the signal (i.e. teacher signal or beginning of song) students begin to move randomly throughout general space avoiding the hoops. For younger students you probably want to have them move in different locomotor pattern (i.e., walk at a low level).

When the music stops (or on the teacher signal) students must get back into a hoop as quickly as possible (only one student per hoop). Now you are going to make this harder by removing 2/3 hoops. Before playing the game ask the students what they are going to have to do to make this successful. You may want to talk about helping each other out and emphasize why you are doing this.

Play the game again but now when the music stops or on the teachers signal the students have to get into a hoop but they are going to have to have more than one student in the hoop to be successful. Continue removing hoops until you have 5-7 students having to share one hoop.

Take time at the end to talk about the strategies they used to help each other out. Emphasize the good things that you saw when they helped each other out.

Important Note:

Please encourage students to invite "stragglers" (students who wonder around who aren't inclined to get in the hoops) into their hoops. This needs to be an inclusion activity and sometimes there are students who don't like to be close to others in such a small area.

Note:

This activity is best used with students who have a good understanding of pathways and moving easily in general space.

You can have different colored hoops and children have to return to a specific color. You can also have them return to a hoop that's color starts with the same letter as their last name, an animal, etc.