Setting: DPA
Season: Winter
Activity Goal
Participants engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity in a winter environment to enhance their fitness and overall health and wellness. Participants reflect on ways to be active in winter and engage others in activity to build a habit of engaging in outdoor activity throughout the year.
For participant safety, please review the contents of the Beyond the Walls: Safety Considerations page for information on Safety Standards, Winter Safety Considerations, and Outdoor Playing Areas and Surfaces.
Equipment
Pylons
Before Play
- Review the safety rules and activity instructions with participants before starting. Remind students that for tag games, a tag is a touch on the back or arms, not a punch, push, slap, or grab.
- Establish the boundaries for the designated play area and share them with participants.
- The objective of this activity is to assist other participants who have been tagged and are “frozen” by mirroring their frozen shape for five seconds to free them.
- Participants will play Frozen tag. When they are tagged, they freeze, taking on the form of a person in the midst of completing a skill or participating in an activity (e.g., a downhill skier/snowboarder, skater, football player, soccer kicker, swimmer, dancer, a yoga move, a squat or lunge).
- Have participants practise freezing in their fun, active poses before starting.
During Play
- Choose one participant to be “it.” Have the other participants spread out within the playing area.
- When the “it” participant tags a participant, they must “freeze,” assuming their fun active pose. Participants are “thawed” when another player mirrors their pose for a count of five.
- Participants attempting to unfreeze another participant cannot be tagged while mirroring the pose.
- After a designated amount of time, choose a new participant to be “it.”
After Play
Use the following prompts for participants to reflect on ways to be active in winter and engage others in activity to build a habit of engaging in outdoor activity throughout the year.
Question prompts:
- How is participating in this type of daily physical activity outside different from completing the same activity inside?
- How does physical activity outside in the cold make you feel?
- What did you enjoy most about this activity? How can you encourage others to join you in this activity to help them stay active outdoors in winter?
- What other fun activities can you do to enjoy daily physical activity outside in winter?
Adaptations
Consider these tips to maximize the challenge and the fun for participants.
- Add more “it” participants to the game.
- Have participants guess the activity of the frozen pose to thaw other participants.
- Have participants create a pose that connects them to the frozen person (e.g., mimicking going up a chairlift, another yoga pose, playing a goalkeeper defending against a kick).
Modifications
Consider these tips to maximize inclusion and fun for all participants.
- For participants with physical disabilities with challenges in combining more than one movement skill and concept, designate them as a tagger and provide an implement, such as a pool noodle, to help tag.
- For participants who depend on accessible playing surfaces, play the game on a smooth surface, free of obstacles. Consider ways to slow down the movement so that all participants can be successful and engaged.