Rats and Rabbits
Skills:
Physical: dodge the person trying to tag you, reaction time, upper and lower limb coordination, agility
Cognitive: selective attention, visual processing
Social: awareness of personal space
Number of participants:
2 or more
Equipment:
none
Description:
- assign children to be a rat or rabbit
- when the coach calls rats, the rabbits chase the rats
- when the coach calls rabbits, the rats chase the rabbits
Adaptations for Wheelchair Users:
Children who are using wheelchairs can also play this game and wheel when itâs their turn.
Modifications to make the activity easier:
Change the environment: increase the space between the rats/rabbits to decrease physical demand
Change the equipment: have the taggers wear some sort of âmarkâ (i.e., pinny) so the dodgers can see them easily to decrease cognitive demand
Modifications to make the activity harder:
Change the environment: have the leader elongate the âRâ sound before calling âratsâ or ârabbitsâ to increase cognitive demand
Change the equipment: use equipment/cones as obstacles that children need to dodge as they are running to increase physical and cognitive demand
Goal examples:
- I will be able to dodge my friends’ attempt to tag me, 2 out of 3 tries
- I can switch from chasing to running when I see that the coach has held up his arm to show it is time to change roles