Dragons and Polar Bears | Fantastic Warm Up Game

This is a simple tag game that can be used for all ages, ensuring that every participant is able to be active and engage in the game at their level. Due to its simple nature, it allows for a very easy set-up, due to this it’s a great game to play if you’re short on time or want an easy but engaging warm-up activity for your students. This game can also be a fun brain break, that can be used to break up long chunks of in-class learning to allow students to move around and be active.

What do you need?

A soft blue ball
A soft red ball
Playing area (Indoor or Outside)

What is the goal of the game?

To avoid being tagged by the polar bears!

How do you play?

This is a whole class game where the class has to avoid being tagged the students who are selected to be the ‘Polar Bears’.
The teacher will identify the boundaries of the game and all students are to start the game within those boundaries
The teacher selects 3 students to be ‘Polar bears’. These students have a blue ball and their job is to try and tag as many students as they can. When Polar bears tag a student, they become frozen and have to stay lying down frozen on the floor.
The only way a frozen student can rejoin the game is if they get tagged by the ‘dragons’. The teacher selects 2 students at the start of the game to be dragons. Dragons tag students and play the game whilst holding a red dodgeball. Dragons can only revive frozen students and can not tag anyone else.
If a dragon becomes frozen by the polar bear, they have to lay down and place their red ball down and any other student can pick it up to become a ‘dragon’.

How can you modify it?

Make it easier!

Less taggers more dragons
Bigger playing areas

Make it Harder!

Polar bears can get tagged also, if they get tagged the same process that happens to the dragons happens to them!
Smaller playing area
More taggers
More dragons

What are the main skills being utilised?

Fundamental Movement Skills:

Locomotor- run, jump, dodge, lunge, side step, leap
Stability- turning, balance, stopping, bending, stretching

Tactical Skills:

Scanning the field of play to make decisions
Looking for gaps on the field to avoid being tagged
Working together defensively
Cooperative play, supporting teammates
Following rules and structures of a game
Critical thinking through decision-making

What Does The Evidence Say About Tag Games?

Physical Fitness: Tag games promote cardiovascular health, strength, and endurance, contributing to overall physical fitness in children. Regular physical activity helps maintain a healthy weight and reduces the risk of chronic diseases .
Social and Emotional Development: Playing tag fosters teamwork, cooperation, and communication skills. These games improve social behaviours and emotional well-being, enhancing peer relationships and reducing anxiety .
Cognitive Function and Academic Performance: Physical activity, including tag, boosts cognitive function, leading to better concentration, memory, and academic performance. Active children tend to achieve higher grades and test scores

Sources:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2010). “The Association Between School-Based Physical Activity, Including Physical Education, and Academic Performance.”
Durlak, J. A., et al. (2011). “The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions.” Child Development, 82(1), 405-432.
Institute of Medicine. (2013). “Educating the Student Body: Taking Physical Activity and Physical Education to School.” Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.