EQUIPMENT
20 dots (different colors/equal amounts of each)
Optional: 4 hula-hoops
STORYLINE
Today we are playing Lily Pad. In this game, you are frogs that have been hopping all day. Your goal is to use your leaping skills to get to a lily pad (dot) in order to rest.
INSTRUCTIONS
- Before the game begins, everyone must line up along the pond (baseline) shoulder-to-shoulder.
- At the beginning of each round, I will say which lily pads you need to hop to using two feet or one foot.
- If the dot you are standing on is the same color as the one said, you still need to find a new dot.
- When you get to the correct dot, raise a quiet hand to let me know you are ready.
- If you need to share the lily pad with other frogs, place one foot on a part of it so you can share.
- No more than two of you may be on a lily pad at one time.
- We will begin a new round when all of you raise your hands to indicate that you are ready for the new instructions.
Game 1: A certain number of dots (i.e. “hop forward one lily pad,” “hop forward two lily pads and back one”).
Game 2: Incorporate colors (“hop to an orange lily pad and share with other frogs”).
Game 3: Use directions- (“hop to a lily pad… on this side of the pond,” “at a corner”).
Variation: Alternate rounds of hopping on two feet and hopping on one foot.
Variation: Consider using hula-hoops as very big lily pads.
TEACHING TIPS
- Approach: Use your grid dots. Have students (by color or individually) bring their grid dot over to the field. Do the same for restoring the grid, when the game is over.
- Safety: Students should be aware of the other moving students and avoid bumping into one another.
- Discussion: Ask students to share what was easy or difficult about landing with their knees bent when hopping to a lily pad.