Ladybug Spots Clothespin Tag

Each ladybug wears their spots (clothespins) on their shirt and tries to steal everyone else's without losing their own, in short spring-themed rounds. Students practice dodging, agility, and deciding when to attack and when to protect.

How to play

1. Mark a 65 x 65 ft garden with cones. Hand out 3 clothespins to each student, who clips them on the shoulders and back of their shirt (2 min).
2. On the whistle, all the ladybugs try to take clothespins from others and clip them onto their own shirt. Stolen pins must be clipped on before you keep playing.
3. Each round lasts 90 seconds. At the end, everyone counts their spots: anyone with 7 or more is a seven-spot ladybug and gets a round of applause.
4. If you run out of pins you are not out: go to the flower shop (a cone in one corner), get 2 pins from the teacher, and rejoin the game.
5. Before each round, everyone resets to 3 pins. Change the round rule: back pins only, power walking only, or partners holding hands.
6. Play 6 rounds with 1 minute of rest between them to reset pins (12 min).

Rules

• Touch only the clothespin, never a classmate's clothes or body.
• No covering your pins with your hands or lying on the ground.
• Pins go on the shoulders and back only, never in the hair, on the neck, or near the face.
• Run in the garden watching others and stop in time.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: a student using a wheelchair clips pins on the shoulders and the chair back, with a classmate as a teammate.
• Autism or touch sensitivity: let the student wear pins on a pinnie or belt instead of their own shirt.
• Fitness level: create a calm ladybug zone where students only walk.

Learning goals

• Dodge and protect an object while trying to collect others.
• Make quick decisions between attacking and defending.
• Follow contact rules and play safely.

Equipment for a class of 25

• clothespins: 100
• cones: 8

Teacher tip

Use plastic clothespins without sharp edges and count them at the end so none go missing. Remind students that a quick open-hand grab at the pin works better than grabbing a shirt.

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