Sharks and Minnows

Skills:

Physical: gross motor skill, lower limb coordination, agility

Cognitive: Visual processing, selective attention, sustained attention, divided attention

Social: Teamwork

Number of participants:

5 or more

Equipment:

none

Description:

  1. one child (shark) is in the center of the room
  2. others (minnows) are on one side of the wall and must run across the room
  3. if tagged, the child becomes a tagger (shark)

Wheelchair friendly?

Yes

Modifications to make the activity easier:

Change the equipment: give child a pool noodle to increase reach to decrease physical demand 

Change the environment: decrease the distance child has to run to decrease physical demand

Change the task: have child alternate between walking and running to decrease physical demand

Modifications to make the activity harder:

Change the environment: increase duration of the game to increase physical and cognitive demand

Change the task: have the child dribble a ball while running to increase physical and cognitive demand

Goal examples:

  • The child is able to run without getting tagged, 3 out of 5 times
  • I can run and tag my friends gently