Category: No Equipment!

Here Come The Bears


Grade level: K-4
Equipment: None
Game Description: Here Come The Bears is a chasing and fleeing tag game where the bears try to run to the opposite side without getting tagged by the catchers. The trick is that the catchers can only run left and right along lines in the gym. When tagged, the bears join the catchers on the line.

  1. Players line up along one edge of the gym. They are the bears.
  2. Two catchers start on width-wise lines as the catchers who will try and tag the bears as they run across.
  3. The catchers yell ‘Here Come The Bears’ and the runners run.
  4. The catchers can only move left and right along their line.
  5. Any bears who are caught then become catchers and join them on the line.
  6. Play until all have been caught!

Hop, Skip, Gallop


Grade level: K-4
Equipment: None
Game Description: What are some ways to move from one end of the gym to the other? Walking, running, jogging, hopping, skipping, galloping, jumping, lunging, knees-up, etc, etc. Practice basic transportation skills in this simple physical education game idea.

Blob Tag


Grade level: K-4
Equipment: None
Game Description: Blob Tag is a tag game – chasing and fleeing – that has players join together to form blobs once they’re tagged. When blobs get too big, they break off to form smaller blobs. The game continues until all players have been caught and have formed blobs.

Ollie-Ollie-Octopus


Grade level: K-4
Equipment: None
Game Description: An all-time classic. Ollie Ollie Octopus gets students saying a rhyming chant, and then running across to the other side without getting tagged by the Octopus. Players who are tagged sit down where tagged and become ‘Seaweed’ – they wave their arms and can try to tag other players as they run by. Perhaps one of the most popular early year level games.