Categories: |

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:

  1. assign children to be a rat or rabbit
  2. when the coach calls rats, the rabbits chase the rats
  3. 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 it’s 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 “mark” (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 “R” sound before calling “rats” or “rabbits” 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