Ball Tag (modified for rugby)
Description:
In this game, students are placed within a grid. Two students are it and must work together using a rugby ball to tag all of the other students. Students who are it are not allowed to move with the ball and so must pass and then move in order to chase down other students. Students who are it cannot throw the ball to tag another student but must tag them with the ball while they still hold possession of it. If a student is tagged, they join the it team and help chase the other students. Once enough students have been tagged, another ball can be introduced to keep everyone involved and to make it harder for the evading players. The game ends when everyone has been caught.
Modifications and Learning Objectives
Modifications:
Depending on age and skill level, a number of different changes can be made to the game in order to keep a high success rate and fun environment.
First, if the "it" team is struggling to tag someone at the beginning, you could change it so that you have more students starting as "it" and also introduce another ball right away. This gives the tagging team more options to pass to and allows them to cover space more easily.
Secondly, the grid size can be adjusted depending on which team is struggling. If the runners are struggling, make the grid bigger and if the chasers are struggling make it smaller.
Learning objectives:
This is an awesome game that helps to teach some key rugby strategies as well as core skills to kids in a fun and active way. Some of the strategies include, space control and communication. Skills include, passing, evasive running, and movement off the ball.
The It team, simulates the defensive side of the game as the students must work together to close down the "attackers" space in order to tag them.
The other students must work on keeping space and not being cornered, a key concept in playing offence in rugby.
Play Sport
Description:
Play sport is a website that is a great resource for any prospective PE teacher. Play sport has videos and descriptions of a wide range of TGfU activities and games that focus on all of the key principles of TGfU learning! It is super easy to navigate and allows the user to find specific games that will help teach any concept they want. For example, if the unit is basketball, and the focus is dribbling, the teacher can search for a territory/invasion type activity that focuses on dribbling skill acquisition.
Reflection
I think that both the Play Sport website and the modified ball tag activity, are great teaching resources that tie heavily into TGfU teaching. Both have a great emphasis on play centred activities that maintain high engagement throughout the entire activity. For example, in the ball tag activity, the kids can be very involved in making the rules. They can try the activity and see what is working and what needs improvement. It wont be long before they make suggestions such as adding another ball or more chasers, in order to make the game more engaging and exciting. Additionally, all of these activities are quite similar to real game play. Rugby can be a extremely difficult game to teach to younger students. The large number of rules as well as all the new skills required can be overwhelming and can often make it impossible to pick up right away. By playing this simplified game of ball tag, the kids are able to work on some of the key concepts of rugby such as communication and space management without having to worry about all of the complex rules. They also work and their passing and running skills in a fun and active game. I believe that the PlaySport website is such an invaluable resource because it has games, such as rugby ball tag, that are game like and play centred for all sports and catered towards all different age groups.