Team tag

Students communicate, collaborate, and commit to their team and to the team's strategy. A team's desire for hard work and unselfishness makes for their success.

A lesson plan for grade 3 Healthful Living

By B.A. Byerly

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Related topics

• Learn more about communication skills, exercise, health, physical education, and team sports.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• demonstrate group decision-making skills in pre-game discussion
• use age-appropriate conversation skills to generate team name and game strategies
• work together using group dynamics to implement team strategies
• reflect on the success of the team’s strategy and analyze methods for continued improvement

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

45 minutes

Materials/resources

jerseys of various colors

Pre-activities

Students will receive instruction on basic locomotor and non-locomotor skills, such as safe “tag ups.”

Activities

1. Warm-up.
2. Students will be divided into groups containing 4–5 students, depending on the size of the class. Jerseys will be distributed to teams, each team having its own color. Teacher will model appropriate language and group interactions needed in the team meeting phase of planning. The teacher will model sample strategies.
3. Students will meet in their teams for a predetermined period of seven minutes. They must decide on a team name and develop specific strategies.
4. Teams are then introduced by the teacher and cheered for by the other teams.
5. The object of the game is to tag members of any other jersey color. If opposite jerseys tag each other simultaneously, both are considered frozen and must sit on the floor. The tagged person sits down on the spot where he/she was tagged. He/she is able to tag any other jersey color from the seated position and may be “tagged up,” or released from his/her “frozen” position by any other member of his/her team. The person who “tags up” a teammate must take his/her position on the floor. The strategy phase of the game is critical here in that a fatigued player may opt to put a fresh player back in action. It is the responsibility of the team to ensure that there is a constant rotation of players in action.
6. In the first few attempts at this game, the teacher will take responsibility for stopping the game to have the team members check for this rotation.
7. The game continues until one person is left standing. Teams then reform, analyze successful and unsuccessful strategies, and then go back on the floor for the second round.
8. Cool-down.

Assessment

Students will self assess by the analysis stage of the game. They will determine if they have continually improved in their strategies at each team meeting. The teacher will assess team and individual success by using visual observation and anecdotal records achieved by informal monitoring of the group meetings.

Supplemental information

Comments

I use this plan with third, fourth, and fifth graders in the first nine weeks of school as a team building activity. It promotes better group dynamics, communication, sportsmanship, and unselfish team play.