Grade level: 3-8
Equipment: None
Game Description: Hourglass Relay is a continuous running and cardio-building activity that gets students moving in the shape of an hourglass. Depending on the group, you can adjust speed of the activity – slow, medium, fast. With a sports team, it might be a great sprinting activity. With a physical education class, it might be a great jogging activity or student choice for speed. Simple yet effective.
- 4 lines form in the corners of playing area (can be indoors or outdoors).
- On the signal, the first person in one of the lines will start by running to the next line of the hourglass formation. In this example, the bottom right runner runs up to the top left line and high fives the first person in that line, and then goes to the back of that line.
- The person who was high-fived continues onto the next line (in this example, runs to the bottom-left group). Same idea continues on and on, so that the entire pattern of running forms a continuous hourglass shape!
- Eventually send more runners at a time.
This was a great activity for MS! I turned it into a competition between classes. They were timed and had 3 attempts. (the very first attempt was a walk through) Then 3 full run attempts with 90 second rest/water. I posted all three times for each class, circling the best time. The reward was a Free Choice Day. 🙂