Description

Have your students play an engaging game while learning more about others.

Supplies

• Cones, tape, or rope

How to Play

1. Prep work: mark off a large area with cones, tape, or rope.  This should be a large enough space where all students can run inside of it and still have space for students to stand on the outside of it.
2. Show the students the space you have marked off and let them know that this is the “ocean.”  All the students are fish and there will be two students who are sharks.  Explain that the fish should stay outside of the ocean until a category is announced, if that category applies to them then they must cross the ocean.
3. Explain that inside the ocean there will be two students who are sharks who are trying to catch the fish by tagging them.  If the shark catches a fish, then that fish turns into seaweed. The seaweed gets on their knees and tries to use their arms to tag other fish as well.
4. Sharks can tag fish as long as they are inside the ocean, so it’s important to try to cross the ocean as fast as possible.
5. Remind the students that you are trusting them to be honest about when they need to cross the ocean and when they get tagged.
6. Example cross the ocean categories: “Cross the ocean if….”

• • You are wearing the color _______ today
  • You like math more than science
  • You have at least one sibling
  • You were kind to someone today
  • You did your homework this week
  • You like football more than basketball
  • You gave a compliment to someone today
  •  Your favorite color is blue
  • You are in _____ grade

7. You can take breaks after each round to ask probing questions to the students who crossed the ocean.
8. The game continues until only two fish remain. Then, they become the sharks and everyone else goes back to being fish.

Activity Prompts for Reflection

• What is something new you learned about someone else today?
• What did you have in common with someone else in the group?
• Was anyone’s answer surprising to you during this activity? Why?
• What is one Cross the Ocean question you wished we had asked today?

Other Ways to Play

• Have fish cross the ocean in specific ways. For example: skipping, hopping, high knees, etc.
• Allow a student who has been making good choices to come to the front and call out the Cross the Ocean categories.

Additional Notes

• Start with a leader being the shark in the middle, so that the leader can model how to be a shark.
• Use the SEL Activity Prompts to tie other SEL competencies to this activity.