Mannequin Tag

  1. Recess Games
  2. Tag Games
  • Large Group (10 and up)

  • Ages 6-10

  • None

Play this fun group game to help develop cooperation and listening skills.

Development Goal

To develop cooperation and listening to directions.

Before You Start

  • Demonstrate safe tagging:
    • Light touch, like butterfly wings on the shoulder
    • Unsafe tags: hard contact that might cause the person being tagged to fall
  • Review how to give a double high-5
  • Select two players to be ‘it’

Set Up

Open area with boundaries.

How to Play

  • To begin, the players spread out within the open area, and the leader designates what movement everyone should be using (i.e. running, skipping, hopping, walking, etc.).
  • If a player gets tagged, s/he immediately becomes a mannequin.
  • To bring a mannequin back to life, another player must give the mannequin a double high-5.
  • Neither player may be tagged while bringing a mannequin back to life and taggers cannot stand around waiting for them to finish.
  • The leader should switch taggers and styles of movement.

Variations

  • Tunnel Tag: When a player gets tagged, s/he freezes with their legs spread shoulder-width apart on the ground. To ‘unfreeze’ a player, another player must crawl through the player’s legs from the front.
  • To unfreeze a player, another player must shake hands with the frozen player and both must share their favorite cartoon, favorite food, what they want to be when they grow up, etc.