What's the time Mr. Wolf?

What to do with this activity?

"What's the time Mr. Wolf?" is a chasing game for a group of children that involves a bit of counting and talk of time of day.

1) Let the kids decide which child is Mr. Wolf, and that child stands at one end with their back to the other children.

2) The other children stand at the opposite end and shout "What's the time Mr. Wolf?"

3) Mr. Wolf answers with different times - "one o'clock" or "eight o'clock" for instance.

4) The children take that number of steps toward Mr. Wolf - eight steps for eight o'clock, and so on.

5) The children ask again, "What's the time Mr. Wolf?" and take the right number of steps again, always getting closer to Mr. Wolf.

6) When Mr. Wolf feels like it, he (or she) answers "dinnertime" and starts chasing the other children.

7) The first to be caught becomes the next Mr. Wolf.

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Why am I doing this?

One of the ways children learn is through play. A child who is playing is refining learning skills that continue to develop during childhood and beyond. "Pretend play" is important for developing your child's language skills. Children make up their own games, but playing games with others helps their concentration and social skills. Play can also help to show what children know and understand.
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How can I do more?

Spending time playing with your child is a great way of helping them learn. Games like "Simon says" and "One, two, three red lights" are great fun. There are lots of activities you can do like playing card games or board games when you can have a quiet time together. Your child can learn the rules by watching a dry run first. Then you can play for real. An important thing to learn is that you don't always win. It can be good for young children to win, to give them confidence but learning to lose is important too. There will be many times in life when you don't win and learning to cope with that is a good life skill you can teach your child too.