Wolves and Caribou
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:
groups of at least 5
Equipment:
- cones
- soccer balls
Description:
- scatter cones with soccer balls balanced on them around the playing area
- children draw straws to determine who will be the wolves (taggers)
- children run around the playing area while dodging around the cones, and the designated wolves run and try to tag the caribou
- if a child knocks a ball off a cone OR if a child is tagged, the child becomes a wolf and chases after the remaining caribou
History:
Within the First Nations culture, tag games were thought to link closely to hunting activities. Common parts of these games included a wolf, moose or caribou, and hunters. In one version of this game, players selected sticks to determine roles. The player who picked the shortest stick was the wolf and the other players were caribou. The wolf looked to capture or “tag” all caribou to end the game.
Wheelchair friendly?
This activity might not be suitable for people who use wheelchairs. “Wheelchair Friendly Activities” has a list of activities that are easy to adapt for wheelchair users. This list isn’t exhaustive, so we invite you to come up with your own creative ideas to make any activity work for you. If you have an idea on how to make this or any other activity more accessible for wheelchair users, We’d love to hear your ideas on how to make this or any other activity accessible for wheelchair users. Thank you for helping make play more inclusive!
Modifications to make the activity easier:
Change the environment: remove other obstacles (i.e., soccer balls) from the field of play to decrease physical and cognitive demand
Change the equipment: have the wolves wear some sort of “mark” (i.e., pinny) so caribou can see them easily to decrease cognitive demand
Modifications to make the activity harder:
Change the environment: increase the number of children who are wolves to increase physical and social demand
Goal examples:
- the child will be able to dodge 3 cones before getting tagged by friends
- I can run with my friends
