Bandage Tag | Playworks

This is a great game for large groups at recess. In this game, players try to avoid getting tagged and getting sent to the care zone.

To tag others while avoiding getting tagged yourself.

Demonstrate safe tagging:
- Light touch, like butterfly wings, on the shoulders, upper arms or upper back.
- Unsafe tags: hard contact that might cause the person being tagged to fall.
Review what to do when you get tagged. Players go to the care zone to heal themselves after being tagged.
Review the boundaries of the game, where the care zone is and how to heal yourself.

Designate a clear playing area large enough for the group size using cones to mark visible boundaries.
Designate a Care Zone outside the play area using cones to mark visible boundaries.

Everyone is it! All players can tag others and be tagged.
To start the game, have all players do six jumping jacks inside the Care Zone before moving into the main play space to try and tag as many others as possible.
Players can get tagged up to three times before needing to return to the Care Zone.
- When tagged once, players place one hand directly in the area they were tagged, like their hand is a bandage. They can still tag others with their free hand.
- When tagged a second time, players place their other hand in the area they were tagged. They can still run around, but are no longer able to tag others.
- After a third tag, players must go to the care zone and do 6 jumping jacks (two jumping jacks per bandage) or another predetermined action to get back in the game.

Allow players to go to the care zone at any time to heal themselves. They do not have to wait until they are tagged the second or third time.
Allow players to heal themselves by stepping anywhere outside the boundaries to do jumping jacks or any other predetermined action.
Modify the player’s movement in the game by trying different footwork, such as walk like a zombie, hop like a bunny, move like you are walking through glue, or skipping.