Kevin Tiller has a book called Phys. Ed. Fun & Fitness with several PE activities in it. One activity that caught my eye in it was called The Robo Tagger. Students are avoiding a remote-controlled car with noodles on the top, trying to tag them. If a student gets tagged, then they must flip their scooter over and jog two laps around the gym. Kevin also added an inflatable shark on top and called it The Robo Shark. This activity is also in the book.
There have been many modifications to this activity. I have done this activity for years, and students love it! This year I decided to change it up a little bit and that is how I came up with the activity called Scooter Swimming.
Video:
🦈With Spring Break approaching, Ss got to go Scooter Swimming in #physed today. Little did they know, they weren’t the only ones in the water.🦈 @physedreview pic.twitter.com/XgATNVsm3R
— Drew Burris (@projectphysed) March 11, 2020
Materials:
- Scooters
- Pool noodles
- Remote control car
- Shark (or any other fun characters like frogs or rubber chickens)
- Large rubber band
Pre-Instructions
We’ve worked with scooters in PE and talked about the safety of how to ride (pockets/belly/knees/hands positioned/seating), and also needed to provide protocols for COVID.
You will need a remote control car to drive around and “tag” students. Use a rubber band to secure the noodles and the shark to the scooter.
How To Play
Students had to stay in their lanes by going down and back on their scooter, so no driving around the whole gym. I decided to switch the inflatable shark for Baby Shark. It is relatable to the students. Students know they are playing a game of tag, but I didn’t tell them who the tagger is. I instructed them to practice swimming for a few minutes, then they would find out who the tagger was. Excitement screeched out when they saw it was baby shark on wheels! For the younger students, if they got tagged or fell off their scooter, they had to freeze for three seconds, and then were able to keep swimming. Older students had to do an exercise of their choice (for example, jumping jacks) then were able to resume swimming.
Staff and students love this yearly activity!
Try this activity out, you won’t regret it! Kevin’s book Phys. Ed. Fun & Fitness can be bought here. His Twitter handle is @physedreview. He’s a legend in the profession and always has creative ideas.
About the Author:
Drew Burris is in his 11th year of teaching Physical Education at Ridge View Elementary in Warrensburg, MO. He has been published on PE Central, published in The Great Activities Magazine, won the 2015 Star of the Classroom, won the 2016 CTA Teacher of the Year, won the 2018 MOSHAPE West Central District Elementary Physical Education Teacher of the Year, and presents at MOSHAPE (Missouri SHAPE Convention) every year. Drew says the best part of his job is seeing the students learning and also having fun being physically active. Drew has a website: projectphysed.weebly.com with all his and other physical educators content on it. Twitter handle is @projectphysed.
Hi. My name is Genni and I have been doing that activity for years now. I’ve gone through a couple RC trucks/cars. The students do love it. I play on 1/2 of the gym so they don’t have as much room to go. Once tagged, they lay the scooter over like you do, but I have them do jumping jacks or some other exercise on the other half of the gym. Thank you for sharing.