NAME OF ACTIVITY: Capture the flag

GRADE LEVEL: grade 3-12

EQUIPMENT NEEDED: flags and belts for each player, two rags or similar objects to use as flags.

HIGHLIGHTS:  Safety in large group running, dodging, eye-hand coordination, grabbing skills, strategy skills.

INSTRUCTIONS:  Divide the class into two teams, one on each half of the playing area.  In the back of each teams playing area place a flag.  The object of the game is to get the opposing teams flag and return it to your side of the field without having any flags removed.  The first team to do this is the winner.  A player that has a flag removed while attempting to steal the opponents’ base flag is sent to a designated area (dungeon).  That player remains in the dungeon until touched by a teammate that has both flags on and escorted back to his/her own territory.  Once a player is released from the dungeon he is entitled to a free walk back to his own territory as long as his/her hands are joined with the rescuing player.  A player released from the dungeon must go to his own territory before attempting to capture the opposing teams flag.  A player may not have his flags removed while he is in his own territory.

VARIATION - Add a guard for each team to guard the base flag and the dungeon.  When I do allow guards, I will designate an area around the flag in which the guards cannot be inside unless an opposing player is in the area first.  I do this for safety reasons as it reduces the possibility for collisions at the flag.  This area is approximately an 8 x 8 square. 

     For the dungeon, I Velcro two mats end to end and use them to seal off a corner of the playing area.  Opposing players are not safe until they are behind the mats and in the triangle created in the corner.  Players are not allowed in their own dungeon or on their own mats.  Since students are not safe on the mats, this setup has almost totally eliminated any arguments over weather a student was in the dungeon when their flag was removed.  I tell the students this rule prior to the start of the game “If the player who removed your flag was not on the mats, then you could not have been in the dungeon, as it would be impossible for students to reach from the floor outside the mats to the floor behind the mats”

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