Heat Illness: Relay to the Shade

A relay where each runner brings back a card and the team sorts it as heat exhaustion or heat stroke, then puts the response steps in order. It teaches students to tell an uncomfortable situation apart from an emergency that needs a 911 call.

How to play

1. Short explanation: heat exhaustion brings heavy sweating, fatigue, dizziness and headache; heat stroke adds confusion, odd behavior or passing out and very hot skin, and it is an emergency (4 min).
2. Relay 1 in teams of five: bring symptom cards one at a time from the center hoop and place them in the 'exhaustion' hoop or the 'stroke' hoop (5 min).
3. Break in the shade to drink water and check the sorting together (3 min).
4. Relay 2: bring response cards and put them in order: move to shade, call 911 if confused, cool with water and fanning, offer sips of water only if fully alert (5 min).
5. Review: how to prevent it on hot days (water, hat, timing, shade, lower intensity) (3 min).

Rules

• Run only in your team's lane.
• One card per trip.
• On very hot days, do the activity in the shade or walking.
• Water is available to everyone for the whole session.

Variations

Adaptations

• Students with visual impairments: large-print cards read by the team; run with a guide.
• Limited mobility: be the one sorting cards at base and directing the team.
• Students with asthma or heat-related health conditions: help sort and set their own running pace.

Learning goals

• Tell heat exhaustion apart from heat stroke.
• Know the correct response for each.
• Apply prevention measures for exercise in the heat.

Equipment for a class of 25

• symptom cards: 40
• hoops: 6
• cones: 10

Teacher tip

Teach this in spring, before the real heat arrives, and in a shaded area. Common mistake: thinking heat stroke always means no sweating; it doesn't, and the key sign is confusion.

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