Doctor Doctor
Noodles tag below the waist only — never the head or chest. Get tagged, you freeze and shout 'DOCTOR! DOCTOR!' Doctors, you're holding the pinnies — run over, touch them, they're back in. Doctors can't be tagged. Stay inside the cones. 3..2..1..GO!"
Objective
Taggers try to freeze the whole group; the Doctors try to keep everyone alive. The round ends when every student is frozen at once, or when the clock runs out.
Set-Up
Select a handful of students who are designated as taggers. These students hold a pool noodle or other soft item that they can use to tag other students.
Select a few students who are designated the Doctor. These students hold a bib/pinnie in their hands. Their role is to heal any student who gets tagged.
👉 Coach note: Say the safety rule out loud twice and demonstrate it: noodles tag below the waist only, never the head or face. Also point out that Doctors cannot be tagged, or your Doctors will spend the game running away instead of healing.
How to Play
The taggers look to tag students with their pool noodles. If a student is tagged, they cannot move and shout out ‘Doctor. Doctor.’
They hold the part of the body that they were hit, e.g. arm, or leg.
A Doctor runs over to them to heal them by touching the part of the body they were hit with a bib/pinnie. Once healed, the student can continue playing.
The game continues until all the students are tagged and/or a time has elapsed. (A Doctor cannot be tagged).
Then change the students who are the taggers and Doctors.
Progressions
1. SAFE ZONE — "The Waiting Room"
Put hula hoops or cones into the middle of the square. A player standing inside the hoop cannot be tagged — but only for a count of three, out loud, and only one player per hoop.
Two to three safe zones for a whole class means the square keeps moving, and players have to gamble on whether the hoop is worth the run.
2. THREE STRIKES — "Send Them to Hospital"
The first two times you're tagged, a Doctor heals you as normal.
The third time, no heal — run to the hospital yourself, count to five, then run back in. Being tagged now actually costs you something, so players stop taking lazy risks near the taggers.
If tagged 3 times, students go to hospital and count to 5 to be fully healed before returning to the game.
3. EQUIPMENT SWAP — "Medicine Ball"
Swap the bibs for foam balls (a swap — the bibs go away).
A Doctor now heals from a distance by throwing the ball to a frozen player, who must catch it.
Catch it and you're healed — and the ball is now yours, so you are the new Doctor.
Drop it and you stay frozen until someone throws again.
The Doctor role changes hands constantly and nobody holds it for more than a few seconds.
Frozen students are now healed by catching the medicine ball. Once they catch it, they become the doctor and go and heal a frozen student.
The Game Encourages
Participation
Physical activity
Movement, agility, and reaction
Throwing & catching
Group activity
SEL / PBIS: relationship skills (calling for help and answering the call), self-management (controlled tagging with an implement, which is the whole safety rule), and responsible decision-making (a Doctor choosing which frozen player to reach first).
Set-Up & Equipment
x8/10 Cones
Soft noodles or item
Bibs or pennies