Group Size: Large Group
Age Group: K-2nd grades
Length of Activity: 10 minutes
Developmental Goal: To develop cooperation.
Equipment Needed: None (chalk, or cones if no lines are available)
Set Up: Designate a large play area with clear boundaries that has room for players to run.
Before You Start: Demonstrate safe tagging (light touch - like a butterfly landing on back or shoulder, "butterfly wings"). Remind students not to use unsafe tags, such as hard contact that might cause the person being tagged to fall. Demonstrate that when you get tagged you turn into a magic wand. Then demonstrate how you turn the magic wand back into a person. Designate three magicians to start the game and review the boundaries and the consequence for going outside them (you automatically become a magic wand).
The object of the game is to avoid being tagged by the magicians who are trying to turn everyone into magic wands.
If you get tagged by the magician you turn into a magic wand and freeze.
You stay a magic wand until two people join hands creating a circle around you and say “Abracadabra!” to undo the spell.
If you are not tagged you are avoiding the magicians and undoing the spell for the magic wands.
Rotate the magicians so that everyone has a chance to be the magician.
Variations:
You can make undoing the magic wand sillier with a dance and a song.
Pre-K: Instead of joining hands to create a circle around a magic wand, two players must simply shake hands and say the magic word, abracadabra, to undo the spell.