PE Activity – Catch the Mythological Creatures

This PE activity from Brian Kampper is inspired by the popular Pokemon app that gets students outside and active! He created the lesson plan and had his campers play it at summer camp. With school starting now for most PE teachers, it’s the perfect game for the first week! Here is his activity:

In my attempts to keep up with the latest trends and incorporate them into my Physical Education lessons I’ve looked to technology, music and TV. Naturally when all of the buzz about the new app came about I wanted to find a way to capture that enthusiasm and incorporate into a physical activity. The app involves the simple benefits of kids getting up and moving around while adding my own twist. With the added bonus of math skills that could take place in the gym, I created the following technology free game that still allows students to catch them all!

Here is the equipment I used to set the game up (you can modify to fit what you have in your gym)

Equipment:

• 30 Bean Bags (3 sets of 10)
• 18 Small Cones (3 sets of 6)
• 12 Medium Cones (3 sets of 4)
• 9 Large Cones (3 sets of 3)
• 6 Frisbees (3 sets of 2)
• 3 Poly Spots
• 2 Rubber Chickens
• 1 Rubber Duck
• 12 Hula Hoops

Set -Up:

Here is a diagram of how I set my gym up. NOTE: The suns are the rubber chickens and the lighting bolt is the duck.

1. Spread all of the equipment out on your gym floor. I would recommend placing the rubber duck, chickens and poly spots towards the middle of the gym (these will represent the more rare creatures and will help increase the difficulty in catching them)
2. Spread 12 Hula Hoops around the side of the gym (the diagram has 3 on each side but you can adjust based on your gym and class sizes)

Rules: 

1. Set a boundary line for each team (the out of bounds line on the basketball court works for my gym).

2. Teams should consist of 2 players to maximize opportunity for MVPA during the activity. One player will serve as the tosser; the other player will serve as the retriever. Players will switch roles with each turn.

3. Once the game starts, the tosser will pick up the hula hoop and attempt to catch a creature by throwing the hula hoop around one of the objects on the floor.

• If the player successfully captures a creature (the entire object is inside the hula hoop) then the retriever runs out grabs the hula hoop and creature and brings it back to their team. They then switch roles with the tosser.
• If a player does not capture a creature, the retriever runs grabs their hula hoop and switches roles with the tosser
• If a player captures more than one creature on a throw, they can only choose one to bring back to their team.
• When retrieving their hula hoop, the player may not attempt to block or move any other teams hula hoops.

4. The game continues until the allotted time is over or all the creatures are captured.
5. Once the game is over, the team must calculate their score using the Point Sheet (see below)
6. The team with highest score wins!

Modifications:

• You can modify to allow students only to catch one of each and see which group can catch the most.
• Create an outside boundary so students who would like a challenge can toss from a further distance.
• Have one student close their eyes while their partner directs them where to toss or walk through the play area to retrieve a character.
• Create lists for students giving them a challenge to what character they must catch and in a specific order.

Below is the score sheet I created for this PE activity which allows a cross-curricular element to be added to the game, such as History, English, and Math. You can click the image to download the sheet as a PDF.

I had the opportunity to play this game with some of students who are participating in summer program at my school, and since I introduced this activity it has become the game of the summer. Here are some pictures of my students in action.

About the Author:

Brian Kampper is a Health & Physical Education Teacher at Samuel Slater Middle School in Rhode Island. He is also a member of SHAPE America.