What's the Time Mr Wolf?
An active game that involves locomotor skills, counting and telling the time.
Set up
Designate a start line or mark it out with markers (shoes/waterbottles etc). Children start side-by-side across the start line. Choose a Wolf and have them stand ~15m from children, standing with their back towards them.
How to play
Step 1:
- Children chant the following as a group; “What’s the Time Mr Wolf?”
- The Wolf then chooses a time between 1 and 12 o’clock and tells the group, for example, "it is 5 o’clock”
Step 2:
- Choose a mode of locomotion e.g. stepping, jumping, hopping, side steps or frog jumps and children must complete the designated amount of steps/jumps in the direction towards the Wolf, i.e 5 o'clock = 5 steps
Step 3:
- Once the children start getting close to the Wolf, the Wolf calls out ‘Dinner Time’ and the Wolf chases the children back to the start line
- The player the Wolf catches becomes the new Wolf
Variations
Make it easier
- The adult is the wolf
- Make the distance shorter
Make it harder
- Make it over a further distance
- Change the locomotion to jumping or side stepping
Activity information
Age: 3-5 years, Kindergarten, Pre-Primary, Year 1, Year 2
Equipment: Markers (optional)
Duration: 5 minutes
Skill focus
Explore these skills for teaching tips
Skill teaching
Use a variety of different locomotor skills with each new round. As an example, try skipping! Use the following teaching cues as a guide;
- Step-hop, step-hop, step-hop
- Step forward and hop up
- Look ahead
- Keep body facing forward
Physical literacy tips
- Let a child be the wolf by asking them to show their scary wolf faces
- Help the wolf choose the time by giving them a choice between two options (two o'clock or five o'clock)
