Health and Nutrition: Saint Patrick's Day

Members of TEAM avoided leprechauns while stealing from their pots in the downstairs gym of Wilson Elementary School on Saint Patrick's Day.

The after school club played the holiday-themed game as its health and nutrition event, which takes place on Mondays.

A pot of gold

Everyone was divided into four teams with three people designated as leprechauns. Hula hoops were placed in the center of the gym -- designated as the leprechauns' pots. Teams gathered in each corner. When music played, students stole markers -- which represented the gold -- from the center hoops and took them back to their corner. Whichever team had the most markers in its hula hoop by the time the music stopped won.

The ones kneeling down are strategically positioning
 themselves to take a marker and run away before a leprechaun catches them.

 If a leprechaun touched someone who took a marker, that person was required to put it back in the hoop and go back to his/her team's corner before being able to play again.

Cesar Bautista, a leprechaun, is sitting on his pot.
He will not let anyone take his gold.

After each round, Kayla Dinsdale, TEAM's site coordinator who planned the game, would alter the rules, sometimes asking for suggestions on which new rules to use. These included the amount of leprechauns in the round as well as the amount of players that could steal at one time. During the final round, students could even steal from other teams' hula hoops.

"It was intense, honestly," said Phoebe Toledo, a high school student who attends TEAM regularly. "It was just all over the place and the rules kept changing and it was ridiculously fun."

According to Toledo, Monday's health and nutrition games are often played with rule changes to explore different ways of playing them, to learn creativity and practice adaptability.