Tag Train: New Engine Every Catch
A tag game with trains of three students holding shoulders: only the engine can tag, and when it does, the tagged player hooks on at the back and the engine goes free. Everyone rotates through every spot. Students practice group coordination, communication, and dodging.
How to play
- Mark a 20 x 20 m area. Form 3 trains of three students in a line, hands on the shoulders of the person in front; the engine wears a pinny (2 min).
- Practice for 1 minute walking and jogging as a train, turning left and right without letting go, while the engine calls out each turn.
- On the whistle, the trains chase everyone else. Only the engine can tag, with a gentle hand touch.
- When the engine tags someone, it takes off the pinny and goes free. The second car puts on the pinny and becomes the engine, and the tagged player hooks on as the caboose.
- If a train comes apart, it stops, hooks back up, and counts to three before chasing again.
- Play 3-minute rounds with 30-second breaks, about 4 rounds; in the last one, use trains of four.
Rules
- Only the engine tags; tags by the cars don't count.
- Cars hold shoulders without pushing or pulling.
- Trains move at a jog, never a full sprint.
- Runners may not cut between the cars of a train.
Variations
Easier
Trains of two that speed-walk.
Standard
Trains of three jogging, with positions rotating after every tag.
Harder
Trains of four where the caboose can also tag, but only with a free hand.
Adaptations
- Limited mobility: the student can be the engine with a classmate pushing the wheelchair as the car, or a runner with their own rest zone.
- Visual impairment: the student rides as the middle car, the safest spot, and the engine calls out every turn.
- Fitness level: build balanced trains, and students with lower fitness may ask to stay a car for a round.
Learning goals
- Coordinate movement with other classmates.
- Communicate turns and speed changes as a group.
- Dodge a chaser that keeps changing.
Equipment for a class of 25
- pinnies: 3
Teacher tip
The usual mistake is an engine that runs too fast and breaks the train; praise trains that stay connected. Rotation means everyone gets to wear the pinny.
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