Top Three Fun Games

1 - The Werewolf Game
The game is great for children as young as three. All you need is a small piece of paper (post-it notes are a good size) for each child. Predetermine how many werewolves you want. If you decide two, then take two papers and draw a wolf on each. Fold all papers twice. Distribute the papers, one for each child. Make sure the children don't show their papers to the others. Once all the papers have been collected, give the signal and let the children run about. The werewolves' task is to go around pretending to 'catch' the other children. The children 'caught' by the werewolves are removed from the game. The werewolves do this without being discovered by the others. Once the werewolves have been discovered or all the children are remove the game starts again. With a group of 8-10 young children each round is about a minute long.

2 - What Time is it Mrs. Wolf?
Have all the children form a line along the wall (or fence) and play the role of sheep. Have the educator stand at the opposing wall (or fence) with her back to the children. The children yell "What time is it Mrs. Wolf?" Mrs. Wolf answers a time for example: "Eight o'clock." The children take eight steps forward. The game continues until the Mrs. Wolf has the 'sheep' close enough to be able to say "It's lunch time!" to which Mrs. Wolf turns around and tries to touch as many 'sheep' as she can. If the sheep touch their wall (or fence) they're safe and the touched sheep go and now become Mr. and Mrs. Wolves. The last sheep not touched becomes the next Mr. or Mrs. Wolf.

3 - The Sock Hop
All you need for this activity is an orphaned sock, some sheets of newspaper and a skipping rope. Crumple some sheets of newspaper and stuff the sock. Tie the sock to the skipping rope. Get children to form a circle and have the educator (in the middle) turn the sock so that the children can jump over it. Once the children touch the rope and/or sock they remove themselves from the game until there's only one child standing.

NOTEAlthough I don't really like competitive games with young children, these games are very short and most children handle the 'out' part fairly well. Make sure you play more than one game to give all a fair chance to all to experience the games.

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