WOW Game Title: Fish Gobbler/Shark Attack
Physical Education Game: Tag Game
Content Area: Science
TEKS Focus: Ecosystems Support Life
Energy Flow in Ecosystems
Inherited and Learned Traits in Aquatic Environments/MARE
Physical Education Unit: Cooperation, Locomotor, Cardiovascular Endurance
Grade: 5
Resource: Seaside Naturalist by Deborah A. Coulombe
Fish Gobbler/Shark Attack by Pam Atkins
Equipment/Materials: Drum and Mallet (or a whistle may be used), 10 cones
Set Up: Flat rectangular coned area (4 cones on points of rectangle), large circular coned area in center of rectangle (6 cones used to make a circle in the center). Teacher designates one endline of the rectangle as the OPEN OCEAN and the other endline as the SANDY BEACH. Teacher designates several students to be predator SHARKS (taggers) which stand inside the “shark” circle within the rectangle. Other students represent the DOLPHINS in the ocean and scatter between the open ocean endline and the sandy beach endline, but do not get into the “shark circle.”
Teacher will instruct dolphins drum beat cues: 1 beat = jog toward the open ocean endline; 2 beats = jog toward the sandy beach endline; Lots of consecutive beats = fish gobbler= predators=Shark Attack (where sharks come out of the circle and try to tag a dolphin) Note: If shark tags a dolphin, then the dolphin becomes a shark for the next game and stands in the circle. The shark then becomes a dolphin for the next game.
Activity:
The game begins with teacher beating the drum one or two beats. When dolphins are “swimming back and forth between “open ocean” and the “sandy beach”, this is when teacher may designate different locomotor skills for students to do such as walking,
jogging, skipping, galloping, hopping, jumping, sliding or grapevine. When the teacher begins beating the drum with consecutive, rapid beats, sharks come out and try to tag a dolphin. During this part of the game, all students may jog and utilize agility movements to get away from sharks and do not have to remain doing the locomotor movement designated earlier. Once each shark has tagged a dolphin to become a shark for the next game, the teacher “freezes” all activity getting students set for a new game.
Variations:
Camouflage: A great deal of sea life uses camouflage as a way to “blend in” with other sea life to save themselves. The way camouflage works in this tag game is if 2 dolphins do a stationary elbow hook-up when the shark attack is occurring, the dolphins are camouflaged and are safe.
Dolphins travel in pods: During the shark attack, dolphins traveling in a pod of 3 or more may tag a shark. The shark is automatically changed into a dolphin for the remainder of game play.
Review Questions:
Skill Focus: Was your heart rate beating rapidly or slowly at the end of each game? What was the locomotor skill that got your heart rate up into the target heart rate zone? Is this game considered aerobic or anaerobic exercise? Did you play the game honestly and safely?
Academic Focus: What is a predator of the dolphin? What can dolphins do to defend themselves when attacked by a predator?