How to Play
Here's a quick 1-minute video that shows how to play. It's designed to show to kids so they can quickly understand how to play. Check out this post for more information on my animated games.
Every scooter is called a Hamburger ingredient. If your scooters aren't different colors, you can put colored tape or flags on them.
Red - Ketchup
Yellow - Mustard
Green - Pickle
Purple - Onion
Orange - Bun
Blue - Bleu Cheese
An ingredient is called out as "It". Everybody on that color scooter tries to catch another ingredient. When they do, those two players switch scooters. Now the new person is "It" and the other scoots off.
What makes it so great?
One of the things that makes the game so fun is that you never know who is going to be "It" next. Ketchup is "It" and you're getting away from them. All the sudden, "ONION" is called out as "It" and they're right next to you!
Pro Tip: Find a kid you like and pick on them by calling their color of scooter as soon as they get on it.
Spice it Up!
Playing with a single ingredient being "it" is fun for a while, but then you'll inevitably run into the issue of kids who want to be "It" trying to get tagged or people who are "It" just being exhausted. Since I teach in a smaller space, I found that too many kids were not challenged so I spiced it up using the screen in my gym. I made a video (available here) that shows which three teams are "It" and which players they're supposed to tag. In the image below, you'll see that Mustards are chasing the Ketchups, Pickles are chasing the Buns, and Onions are after the Bleu Cheeses. Every 30-60 seconds, the video dings and the matchups change.
Note about the video: watch the playlist. The individual video is 7 minutes but if you watch as a playlist, it will just play over and over again until you stop it.
Safety Ideas
Here are my scooter rules:
- Sit - Sometimes I'll let them ride on their bellies or knees but most of the time, their job is to sit and never stand on the scooter
- Safe Hands - Putting your fingers on the outer edge of the scooter is the perfect recipe for a bad case of the pancake fingers. Stick your fingers inside the protective "pockets" of the scooter.
- Watch where you're going (or I'll tell the kids "Don't share brains") - When you're not looking where you're going, you'll crash into others or a wall. Typically when this happens, your head is what hits something else. Smashing your head into somebody else is a rough deal (what I call "sharing brains") and smashing into the wall is even worse because the wall doesn't have any brains to share back.
The scooter you choose makes a huge difference too. I've got the Stabilis Scooters from Gopher and they're amazing. They will rarely tip. There's a nice "pocket" for your hands to go in and be protected. They glide across the floor. Check them out!
Musical Suggestions
It's always fun to have appropriate music. Here's a couple songs I throw on when we're playing:
Cheeseburger in Paradise - Jimmy Buffet
His Cheeseburger - Veggie Tales
Recommended Reading
