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

Wheelchair friendly?

Yes

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