Color Touch Race
The teacher calls out a color or shape, and everyone races to touch something that has it, like a cone, a line, or a wall, then returns to the center. It warms up with short sprints and sharpens awareness of the surroundings.
How to play
- Spread 16 cones in four colors around the space. Students gather in a marked circle in the center.
- First, spend 1 minute walking among the cones and saying out loud the colors they see.
- The teacher calls: Touch something blue! Everyone runs to touch something blue, like a cone, a line, or a shirt, and jogs back to the circle.
- Add body parts: Touch something red with your elbow! Something yellow with your knee!
- Then use shapes and materials: something round, something wooden, something up high. Make about 12 calls in all.
Rules
- Don't touch the same object as a classmate at the same time: if it's taken, find another.
- Only touch safe objects, never people without permission or equipment that could tip over.
- Run looking ahead and slow down before reaching walls.
- Everyone returns to the center circle after each call.
Variations
Easier
Call only colors, and students power walk.
Standard
Colors combined with body parts and a jog back to the circle.
Harder
Chain two targets, like something green and then something red, before returning.
Adaptations
- Limited mobility: place cones of every color near the route of a student using a wheelchair.
- Color blindness or visual impairment: use cones with different shapes or textures, or call the shape instead of the color.
- Fitness level: a student who needs less effort walks to the closest targets.
Learning goals
- Identify colors, shapes, and materials in the surroundings.
- Perform short sprints with changes of direction.
- Touch targets with different body parts.
Equipment for a class of 25
- colored cones: 16
Teacher tip
Move the cones between calls so students don't always run to the same spot. Avoid targets near doors or unpadded wall bars.
PatioLab has "Color Touch Race" and 1299 more activities ready to drag into your lesson and run from your phone in the gym.
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