Three-Color Chase Cycle
A team tag game where everyone chases and flees at once: red tags blue, blue tags yellow, and yellow tags red. Tagged players wait in a hoop until a teammate frees them. Students practice decision-making and scanning their surroundings.
How to play
- Make 3 teams of 8 or 9 in red, blue, and yellow pinnies. Mark a 30 x 20 m field and place a hoop in three corners as each color's jail (2 min).
- Explain the cycle and have the class repeat it: red tags blue, blue tags yellow, yellow tags red. Everyone hunts one color and runs from another.
- On the whistle, everyone plays at once. A tagged player walks to the hoop of the team that tagged them and waits inside with one hand raised.
- A teammate of the same color frees them with a high five; while rescuing, the rescuer can still be tagged by their hunter.
- Each round lasts 3 minutes. On the final whistle, the team with the fewest players in jail wins.
- Play 4 rounds; before each one, teams get 30 seconds to decide who hunts, who defends, and who rescues.
Rules
- You can only tag your target color; tagging any other color doesn't count.
- Gentle tags on the shoulder or back; no grabbing pinnies.
- Walk to jail along the edge of the field.
- No one may stand guard next to a jail for more than 3 seconds.
Variations
Easier
Use only two colors, one chasing and one fleeing, and switch roles every minute.
Standard
Three colors in a cycle, jails in the corners, and high-five rescues.
Harder
Call "Switch!" mid-round to reverse the cycle: red now tags yellow.
Adaptations
- Limited mobility: the student guards their team's jail and frees anyone who reaches their hoop without moving, or plays with a support buddy.
- Hearing loss or autism: each team gets a card with the color-cycle arrows, and a switch is signaled by holding up the new color's pinny.
- Fitness level: students with lower fitness can take the rescuer role, which needs fewer long sprints.
Learning goals
- Make quick decisions between chasing, fleeing, and rescuing.
- Pay attention to several things happening at once.
- Create and carry out a simple team strategy.
Equipment for a class of 25
- pinnies (red, blue, yellow): 27
- hoops: 3
- cones: 8
Teacher tip
The first minutes are chaotic: stop play after 60 seconds and ask each color who they hunt and who they run from. A big poster of the cycle in the middle of the gym helps a lot.
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