If you are dealing with a bunch of balls of fire and you have no clue how to entertain them, well, my friend… you might have a problem. But we’ve got you! Toilet tag is a great way to please and humor kids.
Materials and equipment
Fortunately, for toilet tag you won’t be needing anything else than the participants themselves. It can be an indoor game, or an outdoor activity that can be played during team buildings or campings. All you need is enough room for them to move around.
Skills and abilities
In this game, there are a few skills that are being tested:
- Agility
- Spatial awareness
- Locomotor and non-locomotor skills, such as running, fleeing, chasing, dodging, and balancing
- Teamwork
Players and purposes
- If you are a “tagger”, an “it”, or a “toilet”, you have to tag the entire team and turn them into toilets. This is also known as “freezing” the others.
- If you are a “runner”, you have to avoid being tagged. If you are tagged, you must pretend that you are a “toilet”. To become one, you have to kneel on one knee and put an arm outwards. You will be able to rejoin the game only if someone “unfreezes” you. That means someone who currently isn’t frozen, sits in your lap and uses your hand as a handle to “flush” you.
Toilet tag rules
- First, the “taggers” or the “toilets” are decided. You can either name them or ask them to volunteer. Usually, there are 3 “toilets” to begin with, but this number can vary according to how many players you’ve got.
2. Then, you say “Go!” and the toilet tag begins. The taggers try to tag as many runners as they can.
3. Once a runner is tagged, he/she immediately becomes a “toilet”. That means kneeling on one knee and putting an arm outwards. Runners can be unfrozen only if another runner comes and “flushes” them by pushing their hand to the ground. Then, in order to get back in the game, the player who was tagged must also spin around 3 times.
*Note: No one can tag the person who is on the “toilet”.The toilet tag game is over when the taggers freeze all the runners. If at least one player remains unfrozen after 5 minutes, the runners win and you can start all over again.
4. The toilet tag game is over when the taggers freeze all the runners. If at least one player remains unfrozen by the end of 5 minutes, then the runners win and you can start all over again.
Toilet tag for students
This can be a great indoor game for youth. If you are a teacher and your class is full of energetic kids, you can split your class in 2 – taggers vs. runners – and designate a playing area with clear boundaries.
You can make it even more challenging by naming only 3 or 4 children to be “it”. This means a faster pace, but also a more enticing game for your active students. Blow a whistle after 30 seconds and choose new people to be taggers.
*Note: Pay attention to how they “flush” each other. You would not want them to get hurt as they tend to bang down on each others’ arm while they are running. A penalty would be “time out” if that happens.
