Students get into a scattered formation within the playing area.
One player is selected to be Somnus, the Roman God of Sleep. Another player is selected to be Cupid, the Roman God of Love.
Somnus moves about within the playing area and attempts to tag players. If a player is tagged by Somnus, they fall asleep (i.e. they stand on place and make loud snoring noises).
Cupid stays outside of the playing area and attempts to send Golden Arrows (i.e. colourful foam balls) to sleeping players in order to revive them.
If a sleeping player receives a Golden Arrow from Cupid, they must hold the arrow up high for all to see. Once two sleeping players have received Golden Arrows of the same colour, they fall in love and become a Love Squad (i.e. they hold each others’ hand and hold their arrow in their free hand).
Love Squads attempt to tag running players. If a player is tagged by a Love Squad, that player also falls in love and joins the squad. Therefore, Love Squads get bigger and bigger as the game progresses.
Build One: Moving Around
The teacher has all students get into a scattered formation within the playing area. On the teacher’s signal, players move around the playing area while avoiding contact with one another. The purpose of this build is to let students explore the boundaries of the game and get their heart rate up (it is a Valentine’s Day game after all).
Build Two: Somnus
The teacher selects one player to play the role of Somnus. Somnus attempts to tag players during the game. If tagged by Somnus, a player falls asleep (i.e. they stand on place and make loud snoring noises).
Build Three: Cupid’s Golden Arrows
The teacher selects one student to play the role of Cupid. Cupid stays outside of the playing area and attempts to send Golden Arrows (i.e. colourful foam balls) to sleeping players in order to revive them. If a sleeping player receives a Golden Arrow from Cupid, they must hold the arrow up high for all to see. Once two sleeping players have received Golden Arrows of the same colour, they fall in love and become a Love Squad (i.e. they hold each others’ hand and hold their arrow in their free hand). Love Squads attempt to tag running players. If a player is tagged by a Love Squad, that player also falls in love and joins the squad. Therefore, Love Squads get bigger and bigger as the game progresses.
Build Four: Cupid’s Lead Arrows
In this build, Somnus is no longer part of the game. Cupid is given another series of arrows (i.e. foam balls), but this time the arrows are made of lead. Cupid uses their Lead Arrows to split any Love Squads that have grown too large. Cupid does this by splitting a large Love Squad into two smaller ones and gives an arrow to the new ends of each Love Squad. Once Cupid has distributed all of their Lead Arrows, they join the game as a regular player. Love Squads continue to play and can tag each other (which forms larger and larger Love Squads). The game continues until the entire class is one giant Love Squad!
Students should keep their eyes up at all times to avoid accidental contact with others.
Love Squad players should not pull too hard on each others’ hands to avoid accidents.
Cupid should be mindful of running players when throwing arrows (foam balls) into the playing area.
