Everyone needs a couple of games in their back pocket that don’t take long to explain and they can play with kids quickly if they have little time at the end of a lesson or as a warm up at the beginning. For me one of those games is Noodle Dance Tag – It’s a classic freeze tag game except instead of being frozen you dance in place and do a fist pump.
See an explanation of the game below:
You can see how I explain the game to my students below:
Game Description:
For every group of 20 you should give 2 half noodles out to designated “taggers”. When the music starts they will run around and try to freeze as many people as possible. Nobody can be unfrozen, but when you are frozen you must do a designated dance (side step and fist pump), pick an appropriate one you already know or choose one from the screen of Dancing GIFS
Rules:
- You can become frozen 3 ways
- Getting tagged by a noodle
- Going out of bounds
- Falling down or sliding (stay on your feet)
- No screaming
Safety Points:
- Look where you are going, never look behind you while someone is chasing you
- Move to open space
- Do not tag people on the head
Management:
- After 45 seconds, give a freeze signal and stop the music and have the noodle taggers hand their noodle to a player who has not been a tagger yet, student’s who haven’t had a turn can designate this by raising their hand quietly.
- Continue play until everyone has had a turn to be a tagger, or until time runs out
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A Quick and Easy Tag Games Tip
This is a rule that I implement with almost every tag game that I got from Adam Metcalf at the National PE Institute during one of his sessions.
He simply said “taggers, before you tag anyone else, you have to come tag me first” 💡
It’s such an easy rule to implement, but it does a great job of giving the rest of the kids a few seconds to find some space away from the new taggers and also provides a quick connection between you and the taggers before the game starts.
Give it a try!
Game Variations:
- Allow students to make up their own dance.
- Hand out more noodles to designate more taggers
- Shorten the time limit or extend it
- If you have a screen – throw up some “Sample Dance Moves” by copying this dance moves slideshow to give students some ideas for what to do when they are frozen (Warning: They might get SUPER excited about this… proceed at your own risk)
The kids love this game and request it all the time. It’s a great cardio game that leaves kids breathing heavy and smiling from ear to ear.
Have fun and download the free Game Sheet for your lesson plans below.
Pro TIP for Safety with larger numbers or younger students
A fellow Phys Ed Teacher Sara Wood came up with an awesome modification to slow your kids down if you want to check it out in her tweet below – just have all your kids balance bean bags on their heads – if they drop the bag – they must start dancing – Thanks Sara!
If you like Noodle Dance Tag – make sure to check out FIRE AND ICE TAG it’s a great follow up game once your students understand Noodle Dance Tag.
Modifying the Rules to Create a Skill Specific Tag Game
Modifying a tag game like Noodle Dance Tag to bring in some specific skill practice can turn a fun game into a more purposeful warmup or instant activity and allow your kids to practice a skill they will be using during the rest of the lesson or unit that you’re teaching.
For example, if you’re in the middle of a Soccer Unit and working on footwork or soccer skills, you can change some of the rules of the game to allow students to get practice with some footwork skills. Check out the post below for a fun tag game using foot dribbling skills.
Or maybe you are in the middle of a Basketball Unit and want to give your kids a chance to warmup with a tag game and work on their dribbling skills at the same time?
Check out Dribble Noodle Tag for an Example of how you could do that below:
Thankful Tag
Another fun variation that I usually play around Thanksgiving, but is still a fun one to play anytime is “Thankful Tag”
Instead of dancing, I have kids come and tell me one thing they are thankful for to get back into the game
As always, thanks for stopping by and have an awesome day!
Have Fun and Teach On!
Thank you for the ideas and I am a first year pe teacher and watching your videos and reading your blogs have really helped me this year.
That’s so awesome Mary!
Glad you’re enjoying the resources!
Hope you’re having a great First Year!
Hey Ben! Having trouble downloading the Noodle Tag Game Sheet. I was able to download Fire and Ice! Any ideas?
Thank you SO much! Love your games and resources.
Hey Mary Jo,
Sorry about the issue!
Usually, this issue is related to a school filter, pop-up blocker, or browser caching issue – so we’d recommend trying from another computer, switching browsers, clearing your cache and making sure all pop up blockers have been turned off.
As a another option you can also find some of our products on our Teachers Pay Teachers Page Here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Pe-Specialist
Just search “Noodle Dance Tag” in the search box!
Hope this helps!
Thank you for this game! I use it in my basketball unit & call it “The Noodle pivot Dance” Once kids get “noodled” they do a pivot dance. This has been a fun way to encourage pivoting.
You’re welcome Mary! Glad your students are enjoying the resource!
I haven’t tried the Noodle Tag Game with my students yet, but I’m sure they would enjoy it. I like the idea of the “frozen” students (who have been tagged) as having to dance and keep moving as opposed to being still. There are a lot of creative ways to modify this game in small ways so that it never gets old, the students stay engaged and constantly active/moving, and the activity remains relatively low-prep! Thanks for the idea!!!
Hey Teresa,
We love noodle tag. There are so many adaptations to that classic game!
Glad you’re enjoying the resources!
After 20 years of teaching secondary P.E. I am now teaching K-5 P.E.
My first day of the year I followed your first day protocol (with a few minor adjustments to suit my style). At the end of the day I felt that I had my best first day of school ever! Thank you P.E. Specialist.
haha – Great news! So pumped to hear it went well
Hi Ben,
What song do you use for the noodle dance? I remember reading about it last year somewhere on your website. It was a background song, pretty groovy too.
Hey TJ – I don’t use any specific song, but I have all my music playlists at: https://www.thepespecialist.com/music/
Do the students that are tagged do the designated dance until the music stops and I switch taggers?
Yep – that’s how I play it, you can of course modify it however you want though
Hi, I’m a student in physical education. I was just curious to know which program or website you use to do your diagrams?
Thanks!
I used to use Microsoft Publisher, but lately I’ve been using Canva.com – it’s a great free online design site. Sometimes I also use Keynote
I need a quick playlist, please! anything on youtube that has decent words for elementary?
thanks
Only problem with that… our wifi is sketchy until they do some updates… we are a small rural community.
And I don’t have a speaker system… just a ghetto blaster.
Guess I’d have to purchase some music…
😛
CT
Hey Cheryl – You can see my music playlists here: https://www.thepespecialist.com/music/