The purpose of an instant activity is to keep the students moving. You want to involve students in an activity as quickly as possible. The criteria for an instant activity is that it involves every student, there is little teacher involvement, it is safe, there is no elimination and it maintains a high level of activity for all students. After a few minutes of vigorous activity, students are ready to listen for instructions about the day's lesson. Here are some instant activities you might like to try in your class. Also, some of these instant activities can be modified and used during an in-line skating unit.

In-line Skating Scarf Tag

Students are only allowed to participate if they have all the proper safety equipment (helmet, pads, and wrist guards).  Have each student place the scarf in a back pocket or tucked into the back of their sweats or shorts.  Make sure they are not tucked in too far as then it will be too hard to "steal."  The students then begin to skate around the gym and try to take the scarf ("tag") of another student.  When a student takes a scarf they are to leave it on the floor very near where they took it.  The "tagged" student must stand by their scarf until they "tag" another student that skates by them.  They can then pick up the scarf, tuck it back in and begin to "tag" other students while skating around.

Foot Tag

Children are partnered (or in 3's if necessary), each child with a yarn ball (teacher may choose bean bag, foot bag, or other piece of equipment). On the signal from the teacher, partners attempt to throw their yarn ball at their partner's feet (FEET ONLY!). In the meantime, the partner is jumping, dodging and running to avoid being hit and throwing their own yarn ball at their partner. The only limitation is to require that each child recovers his/her own yarn ball. They can't pick up any ball that is handy. They must retrieve the same ball that they threw.

Jewels In the Crown

Four hoops are set up in the four corners of the activity area. At each hoop there are 3-4 children, and inside each hoop there are the same number of yarn balls as there are children at that hoop. On a signal from the teacher, all the children begin to travel to other hoops and pick up yarn balls (one at a time) and place it in their "home" hoop. No guarding of hoops is allowed. Activity is continuous. On a stop signal from the teacher, all children return to their "home" hoop and a count may be taken of yarn balls at each hoop (scoring is optional). Yarn balls may be redistributed if necessary. The game resumes on the signal from the teacher. Have two or more games going on at once.

Everyone For Yourself

Cones are used to mark off a large rectangular area or an entire gym floor may be used, but stay away from the walls. There will also be a corner marked off by cones. Three students will have a nerf ball. The student with the ball is allowed only three steps and then must throw it in any direction at another student. The ball must hit the player below the waist. If you are hit, then you need to run to the marked off corner and do the designated exercise given by the teacher before the activity begins. Some exercises may be jumping jacks, sit-ups, push-ups, mountain climbers, etc... After the student does the exercises, he/she may joing the game again. A loose ball may be picked up by any student. The focus is running, throwing, dodging, and staying alert.

Pacman Tag

This is a game where the students have to stay on the lines of the gym floor. Designate which color lines are considered in bounds or that they must stay on. You can use all or some of the lines. The "it" person must stay on the lines also. Everyone moves around the gym on the designated lines trying to not get tagged. You can play it where the person who gets tagged becomes "it" or each additional person that it tagged joins the original "it" person and teams up to get the rest of the class. Remember all this is done on the lines only. You can start out and only let the students walk and then work up to running.