Playworks Playbook

Readiness Game
Home Run Tag
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Group Size: 15-30
Age Group: K-3rd
Length of Activity: 10+ minutes
Developmental Goal: Running. Help students understand the base paths for kick ball, baseball, and
whiffle ball. Help improve spatial awareness and proper tagging techniques.
Skills practiced: Running, tagging, swinging a bat.
Equipment needed: Half cones or actual baseball gloves to designate the taggers. Bases to create a
square boundary.
Set up: Create a square area with bases similar to that on a baseball field. Make sure you address that the
imaginary base paths from base to base are the boundaries. Have gloves/cones on hand ready to designate
the taggers.
Before you start:
Demonstrate how to hit a make believe homerun at home plate.
Review running through the bases.
Make sure the students know the proper way to do a homerun trot, which should be a fun jog.
Review the use of butterfly tags in the tag game.
Let the students know not to run outside of the base paths and to be cautious around the base path
area.
How to play:
Designate a small number of baseball taggers.
Everybody will spread out inside of the baseball diamond.
On the magic word or whistle students begin running away from the fielders or “taggers”.
• Make sure students run inside the designated boundaries.
If you are tagged by a fielder you must run to home plate and line up a pitch and pretend to hit a
Home Run.
After you hit your home run you begin your homerun trot around the bases, waving to the crowd,
tilting your cap doing whatever it is your favorite big leaguer does.
After you have made your way back to home plate you are allowed back into the game.
After a designated amount of time, choose new field taggers and restart the game.
Variations:
Instead of using actual tags have the taggers partner up and roll soft foursquare balls through in
the diamond. This will help avoid so many people running the bases at one time.
Have the students hop around the bases after they are tagged. This makes it more difficult and
gives another form of exercise besides running.
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