Cupid Tag is a Valentine's Day-themed chasing and fleeing activity for physical education. The Roman gods Somnus and Cupid are working against each other. Will love prevail?
The teacher marks out an open playing area with clear boundaries. Students begin in a scattered formation inside it. Cupid works from outside the boundary rather than within the playing area.
Somnus works to put the whole class to sleep. Cupid works to wake them up and pair them off, until the entire class becomes one giant Love Squad.
Students should keep their eyes up at all times to avoid accidental contact with others.
Love Squad players should not pull too hard on each others’ hands to avoid accidents.
Cupid should be mindful of running players when throwing arrows (foam balls) into the playing area.
Builds allow you to increase the game's complexity, one layer at a time.
The teacher has all students get into a scattered formation within the playing area.
On the teacher's signal, players move around the playing area while avoiding contact with one another.
The purpose of this build is to let students explore the boundaries of the game and get their heart rate up, since it is a Valentine's Day game after all.
The teacher selects one player to play the role of Somnus.
Somnus attempts to tag players during the game. A tagged player falls asleep, standing on the spot and making loud snoring noises.
The teacher selects one student to play the role of Cupid. Cupid stays outside of the playing area and sends Golden Arrows, which are colourful foam balls, to sleeping players in order to revive them.
A sleeping player who receives a Golden Arrow holds it up high for all to see. Once two sleeping players are holding Golden Arrows of the same colour, they fall in love and become a Love Squad, holding each other's hand with their arrow in their free hand.
Love Squads attempt to tag running players. A tagged player also falls in love and joins the squad, so Love Squads get bigger and bigger as the game progresses.
In this build, Somnus is no longer part of the game.
Cupid is given another set of arrows, but this time they are made of lead. Cupid uses the Lead Arrows to split any Love Squad that has grown too large, breaking it into two smaller squads and giving an arrow to the new ends of each one.
Once Cupid has distributed all of their Lead Arrows, they join the game as a regular player.
Love Squads continue to play and can tag each other, forming larger and larger squads, until the entire class is one giant Love Squad.
The Lead Arrows exist to keep the game playable. A single squad of twenty cannot move, so split them before the game grinds to a halt rather than after.
Print the game sheet, leave it on your desk, and your sub has everything they need: the diagrams, the builds in order, what to say, and what to watch for. This one is $4. #PhysEdU Plus members get all 39, free forever, for $49 a year.
Games that build on the same tactics.
