The Supersized PhysEd Podcast

My 5 Favorite Invasion Games for PE!

• David Carney

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Welcome PE Nation!

Today I share my five favorite large group invasion games that develop strategy, tactics, and skill development for PE classes of all sizes, whether teaching inside or outside.

1. Crossover - teams try to get all players across to the opponent's side while avoiding taggers with pool noodles

2. Capture the Flag- features three jerseys (flags) per team on tall cones that must be retrieved from opponent territory

3. Capture the Football- requires teams to retrieve the football from opponent's box and either run or throw it across midline to score

4. Hunger Games- includes immunity jerseys, tennis balls for points, and strategic items like safety hoops and extra noodles

5. Save the World- challenges teams to knock down pins in opponent territory using dodgeballs while avoiding being tagged


• All games can be modified with different tagging methods: simple tagging, pool noodles, or flag belts for increasing difficulty

Try them out!

Dave

Article with every link and graphic: https://medium.com/educreation/my-favorite-large-group-invasion-games-bc89e729aba4

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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to the Supersize Fizzhead podcast. My name is Dave and today I want to talk about my favorite large group invasion games. Games you can play, especially if you have large groups and you're teaching outside, like myself, or even if you're inside with one class. It's all good. These games are great for your students. They're great for tactics, strategies and skill development. So let's talk about it now Without further ado. Here we go. All right, welcome in PE Nation. Thank you for joining me today.

Speaker 1:

So for the past 14 years I have taught large groups and I've taught outside in Florida, in the heat, in the sun, in the lightning and rain and all sorts of craziness that goes on with the weather. And, just for context, I teach in Fort Myers, florida. Actually, I live in Fort Myers, florida and I teach in Estero, florida, which is right next door. So you know there's a lot of things that we deal with in the in the heat, in the rain, in the sun all that stuff that other people don't. If you're in a gym by yourself with one class, I envy you, but at the same time I try to use this to my advantage. You know, I don't want to just stick my head in the sand and say, well, I can't do anything. No, that's not true. Use these games, use these things to your advantage. I like having large groups because we can play these big games and we get all the kids moving. You know we do teach regular. You know games like soccer, skills and hockey, basketball, football, but these invasion games are games that I just love, and there's two classes we have at a time that are playing these games, usually with two coaches, one on each side of the field where we can do team huddles, talk about strategy, what worked, what didn't work. You know everything that you can do in other games, but on a bigger scale.

Speaker 1:

As with all these games I'm going to mention, there's different levels and complexities with the tagging. You can do tagging just by tagging. You can use noodles, which we mostly do, and you can add flag belts, which is, I guess, for me, the higher skill level, the more strategic level of gameplay where everybody can tag. It's not just set taggers, that kind of thing. So all these games I'm not gonna say it each time, but all these games can be modified with different ways of tagging.

Speaker 1:

So let's make this a boomer. Let's go to number one. Here we go. All right. Number one is Crossover. Now I learned Crossover from Joey Feith, thephysicaleducatorcom. Definitely go to his website for just a ton of information. I mean everything you ever wanted to know about PE. He's got it and I will link the video to this game called Crossover in the show notes as well as my article I wrote on these five invasion games, which has all the links, everything you need to know, the PDFs, everything. I wrote an article for Medium so I'll link that in the show notes as well. So definitely check those out for the visuals on all these games.

Speaker 1:

So Crossover is the first game we usually teach students. When it comes to these large group invasion games, it is a two-class game. Again, it doesn't have to be. We do a two-class game on a big field and with a divider in the middle so you can separate your team zone versus the other team's zone. Let's say it's blue versus red team.

Speaker 1:

We don't usually wear pinnies for this, you can or flag belts. We just start with noodles. We usually have three to four noodles per team to tag and everybody else has to try to make it across and the goal is to get your whole team across first. And it sounds really easy, but it's not. So if you enter let's call it enemy territory or the other team's territory you can be tagged. We say knees are lower If you do noodles or flags, anybody can tag. If you do flag belts, so we'll talk about noodles right now. So the taggers tagging the knees are lower. If you get tagged, you raise your hand and you're frozen. Another player can come and get you. If they high five you first, before they get tagged, they can unfreeze you and you walk back safely to your side of the field and restart.

Speaker 1:

Now again, the goal is to make it all the way across and if you do make it across, you can go rescue somebody if there's time. So that's another strategy type thing to talk about with the students is when is it time to take a risk? I usually play four to five minute games, sometimes three minute games. It depends on how much time we have. I try to get a few games in during the session and we always save time at the end to talk about it or do a team huddle with, like the coach. One coach will take one team, one coach will take the other team and we'll discuss different tactics and things we can do differently the next time. So the way to get your whole team across obviously is just get across. So the way to get your whole team across obviously is just get across. If you want to save somebody and you come, if you take the risk to come out of the scoring zone and go get somebody, you have to go all the way back to your side and start over again at the midline. So again, these are risk-taking and strategically thinking uh-huh kind of tactics we have to talk about.

Speaker 1:

And it's rare that one team just wins right away. It usually goes on for a few minutes and sometimes we just end it at the three or four minute mark or whatever and I'll tell them okay, one minute left, 30 seconds left, and then each person counts as a point. So if they're standing in the scoring zone, in the end zone, when I blow the whistle, time is up, they have to freeze, we count and see who's the winner and then we replay. There are times when teams win outright, but it's kind of rare. I've seen some pretty epic battles where there's two kids trying to make a cross on each side in the final minute. It's kind of back and forth, back and forth between being tagged or unfrozen. Kids trying to figure out if it's risk worth taking.

Speaker 1:

So Crossover is a great game, just to start, start these invasion games with. So that's number one Crossover. Number two is capture the flag and we play it maybe a little differently than other people, but I'm not sure. We have three quote-unquote flags, which are just jerseys, pennies. They're on top of some tall cones in the end zone on both sides, and the object is to get all three flags back to your side before the other team does. And again, any of these games can be timed where the winner's decided. If you just can't decide a winner in five minutes, you give them an extra one minute or whatever, and whoever's the most wins, or it's a tie. So I always try to time these games just in case it comes down to that. Or just back and forth, back and forth can't decide and we just want to restart the game.

Speaker 1:

So in this game there is a jail. Now I know some people don't like to call it a jail anymore. I don't know, call it whatever you want. Okay, I'm not going to get on that train today, but we do have a jail. And if you get tagged, you go to the jail and people can unfreeze you, or unfree you by running in the box in the corner and tagging you and then bringing you back out of bounds to your side, and there is a picture of this in my again in the show notes. In the article there's a PDF.

Speaker 1:

It's a whole setup of how we do it and everything else is about the same. You have to run it across the jersey and put it on your team's cone. So it's just a back-and-forth game. The kids really, really enjoy it and it leads up to the next game, which we'll talk about in a moment, which is Capture the Football. So that is number two Capture the Flag. Number three is capture the football. This is by far the favorite game of my fourth fifth graders, probably third, but they don't play it as much because they have to lead up to this and it takes a little while.

Speaker 1:

So there's one ball in each box and again, this is all in the show notes, if you want to check this out. There's a jail and there's a box and there's one ball. It's a football in each box and I try to do them separate colors so we can distinguish the teams. So if it's a blue team, they have to get the blue ball, red team red ball. It makes it a lot easier and I've learned over the years to put uh, I put three poly spots in each one, each box scoring box, so only three people can be waiting at a time. They can't have like 10 people in there, because that's when they start fighting over the ball and who's first. So what they do is they get on the poly spot and then, when the first person takes the ball, they move up a dot and then the person can come in to number three.

Speaker 1:

So again, the first person will grab the ball and they can run it or they can throw it, but they have to get it across the midline to score. Now they can do a little of both. They can start running it and then they can pass to a teammate and if they catch it they can run in the end zone, or if they're already in there or in their zone, they catch it in their zone. It's a point, and it depends on the arm strength of the students or how fast they are, what the strategy is. They can pitch it to a friend, they can do a lot of things with it, but if they drop it they go to jail, or if they're tagged and if they throw it to a teammate and the teammate drops it, they both go to jail. Or if they're tagged and if they throw it to a teammate and the teammate drops it, they both go to jail. And I've seen people like three people go to jail at the same time because they'll throw a ball, it'll tip off of one teammate, hit off of another teammate's hands and they all three of them go to jail if it hits the ground.

Speaker 1:

So everything else is about the same as capture the flag, except there's only one ball. So I try to tell them the students they can't all get the ball. Okay, they can go save people from jail. They can tag. If they're doing flags, you know, everybody can be a tagger. I do have a defensive zone so you can't have everybody guarding the box. Okay, we only pick a few people that can guard the box and if they're doing flag belts they have to wear pennies. I guess the other thing I'd caution about is if I see one person scoring all the time, I'll tell them they can't score anymore Like they're done, or I'll give them a limit. You can score three times, either by catching, throwing it, running it and that's it. So you get three chances and then you need to save your teammates. You need to play defense, because I want other kids to get a chance, not just one kid dominating everything and that does happen, by the way, but that is their favorite. That is number three, but that is their absolute favorite and it's Capture the Football. Number four is Hunger Games, and it's a game that I want to give credit to Jorge Rodriguez.

Speaker 1:

We collaborated on this a long time ago on Voxer. I don't really use Voxer as much anymore, but that was a big thing for us about 10 years ago that we collaborated. That's where I met so many people Awesome physical educators. We just talked a lot about strategies and games and everything PE. It was awesome. So we came up with this because I was trying to figure out a new game, a new invasion game that my kids would enjoy and could add different elements of strategies and really add that thinking piece, because there's so many different things they could do in this game. So we just kept adding to it. On Voxer, he's like how about we do? How about do this? And I'm like that's a great idea, let's add this and, at the time, the hunger games. I still like the hunger games, but that was a big deal the movies, the books and uh, so we? I just named the Games, or maybe he did.

Speaker 1:

I guess the reasoning behind the name of the game is because, like the Hunger Games, they have to go to the other side and they get to choose from a variety of things to grab. I guess in the movie it's like the cornucopia, it's kind of like crossover to some degree. If they cross over, they can grab either a tennis ball there's tennis balls for points and that's what really matters. In the end. I put a certain amount, I think 20 to 25 on each side. So it just depends on the length of the game you want to make and the number of students you have. So 20 to 25 tennis balls on each side and the number of students you have. So 20 to 25 tennis balls on each side.

Speaker 1:

There's an immunity jersey, which means you can't be frozen. I think I use the what do you call it? The referee jersey from when we did like jukeball. So there's one jersey per side. So they can't be tagged if they wear the immunity jersey, which that's a big one, and they can share it. By the way, if they get tired, they can give it to somebody else. They can also grab noodles more noodles for tagging. They can grab hula hoops for safety that they can kind of place in the enemy territory.

Speaker 1:

There was an agility ladder per team. They could do the same thing where it's like a safety ladder that they can walk across. So it's just a lot of different things going on. You could add different things like buckets to stack, buckets to stack. You know, I think we used, instead of tennis balls, we used those pins that are like. They're like I don't know what you call them. They're like the really thin pins, but I, one of my students, got a little aggressive with those and hit somebody with them. So I'm like, okay, we're not going to use those anymore. Any of those things you can add. Anything with your imagination you can add. But at the end of the day it's about points. So they do have to get points by getting the balls across or the pins across, but the way they do that is very strategic.

Speaker 1:

And all these rules again are in the show notes. So I'm not going to go through every single rule. But that is Hunger Games. It's fantastic and I haven't played it in a while, so I'm going to bring it back and as well as the next one I'm going to bring back. So that's number four is Hunger Games. All right, the final one is Save the World. I need to bring this one back too, so I named it Save the World, based on a Fortnite game that my kids were into.

Speaker 1:

And in this one, again, it's a lot like Crossover, where there's no jail. I guess when I say it's like Crossover, it's the same thing with Hunger Games there's no jail, or you could make one, but it's more about being frozen in place. And in this case we have three hoops in the enemy territory with pins, and each team gets a certain amount of dodgeballs or gators or ginnballs, whatever you want to call them, and they have to knock down the pins. But it's not that easy. If they get tagged or flag belts pulled, they have to. You know they're frozen or go to jail and the goal is to you know, obviously, knock those three pins down and once they're down, they're down Again.

Speaker 1:

I haven't played this in a long time and I haven't played this a lot, but the kids really enjoy it and I want to bring it back because it adds that throwing and target element to the crossover-type game. So again, all these rules are in the show notes, especially in the article I wrote. If you want to grab that, get it in the show notes. That is Save the World and there's a picture of it in there. So that's number five Save the World, let's go.

Speaker 1:

And now it's time for your cowbell tip of the day RAP Nation. So your tip of the day is to grab that. At least take a look at the articles and the links, the things I post in the show notes, because these have all the visuals and videos that go along with these games. But definitely try them out. At least give one of them a try. And again, if you're inside with one class, you can still do these games. It's just on a smaller scale. They're just great games for strategy, skill development, tactics, team talk, just going over different rules, strategies, things you can add to it, different ways you can work as a team. So definitely give these a try and check out everything in the show notes. And that is your cowbell tip of the day.

Speaker 1:

Thank you everybody for tuning in today. I really do appreciate it, as always. Go to supersizephysedcom for more information and check out the new course I put out. It's called the PE9. It is nine essential principles to take your phys ed program to the next level, and it's based on the book I wrote called High Fives and Empowering Lives of Physical Educators Quest for Excellence, and I'd love for you to check that out as well and definitely check out my sub stack. So I'm giving a lot of things to do today. Check out the sub stack. You can be part of my just email list of things I sent out twice a week between podcasts and articles of different things you can use in your PE program. So, with that PE Nation, have a great day, week, weekend, whenever you listen to this, and let's keep pushing our profession forward. Thank you.

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