Bear/Salmon/Mosquito

Setting: Curricular

Season: Fall

Activity Goal

Participants practice various movement skills and apply tactical solutions to increase their chance of success while engaging in physical activity in a fall environment.

For participant safety, please review the contents of the Beyond the Walls: Safety Considerations page for information on Safety Standards, Fall Safety Considerations, and Outdoor Playing Areas and Surfaces.

Equipment

Cones/plylons to mark safety zones and a dividing line in the centre of playing area (optional)

Before Play

• Review the safety rules and activity instructions with participants prior to the activity.
• Establish the boundaries for the designated playing area and share them with participants.
• Explain to participants that we all need food for energy. Most creatures have to catch their food in order to not go hungry. A predator is an animal that hunts, catches, and eats other animals. The animals that the predator hunts are called prey. Although it might seem savage for animals to eat each other, it is essential for the delicate balance of nature. Discuss the food web or eating relationship between bears, salmon, and mosquitos. In the fall, animals are increasing their food consumption to prepare themselves for winter.
• Divide participants into two equal teams.
• Establish a safety zone behind a marked line for each team (safety zone lines should be parallel and about 40 feet apart).
• Establish the stance and sound of the bear, salmon, and mosquito (bears put their arms up and growl, salmon put their hands together and mimic swimming, and mosquitos point their index finger from their nose and buzz). Have students practice each stance and sound.
• Explain to participants that bears eat salmon, salmon eat mosquitos, and mosquitos bite bears.

During Play

• Each team huddles up to decide if they want to be a bear, a salmon, or a mosquito. Everyone must do the same stance.
• Each team then comes up to face the other in two parallel lines close to the centre of the playing area.
• On the count of three, each team then holds the stance of the creature that they chose (bear, salmon, or mosquito).
• If both teams selected the same creature, they start over.
• If one team selects a creature that would eat the other, the team that loses are the prey, (e.g., mosquito) who then try to get back to their safety zone before being tagged by the winners, the predators (e.g., salmon). If a participant gets tagged before making it back to safety, they leave their team and join the other team. Remind participants that a tag is a touch on the back, shoulders, or arms not a push, punch, or grab.
• Play a practice round with participants to ensure that instructions are clear and understood.
• Continue play until one team has no more players or until time runs out.

After Play

Use the following prompts for participants to reflect on ways to be active in fall and engage others in activity to build a habit of engaging in outdoor activity throughout the year.

Question prompts:

• What did you enjoy most about this activity?
• How is participating in this type of daily physical activity outside different from completing the same activity inside?
• How did your team come to a consensus about which creature to choose?
• Can you think of three other creatures who could replace the bear, salmon, and mosquito? What would their pose be? Who would eat who?
• Where else or when could you play this game with family or friends to help everyone stay active?
• How did your bear/salmon/mosquito population change throughout the game? How does this reflect what actually happens in nature?

Adaptations

Consider these tips to maximize the challenge and the fun for participants.

• Change the locomotor skills used to return to safety (e.g., galloping, skipping, hopping, shuffling, etc.)
• Play bear/salmon/mosquito baseball - Place 4 cones/pylons in the shape of a baseball diamond. All participants begin at home plate and play bear/salmon/mosquito against another participant. Suggest to participants to say ‘1, 2, 3, go’ and then do their stance for bear/salmon/mosquito. The winner advances to first base to play against another participant at first base, and the other participant remains at home plate and plays against another participant at home plate. Each time a participant plays and wins at bear/salmon/mosquito, they advance to the next base. Each time a participant crosses home plate, they score a run.

Modifications

Consider these tips to maximize inclusion and fun for all participants.

• For participants with mobility challenges, play bear/salmon/mosquito with a partner. The participant with the mobility challenges will show a bear, salmon or mosquito pose and the other partner will act as the runner. For baseball, the participant may remain at home plate. For every 4 wins, they score a run.
• For participants with mobility challenges, adjust the game's rules and invite the whole group to think of a way to make the game more static, so everyone is playing at the same level.
• Consider inclusive approaches to increase or decrease the challenge to find a role for every participant and to encourage full participation.