Tuesday 30 April 2013

ESL Variation of What's the time Mr Wolf for the classroom


I am currently teaching grade 4 about telling the time and needed a fun game to play.
I remember playing   What's the time Mr Wolf   at school, as a child.  

I would love to take the kids outside and play this as a class activity, but I think my co-teachers would explode in shock at such a radical suggestion (this is Korea, after all)

If you don't remember how to play, here is a link :

This classic English playground game involves a lot of running around and chasing and is 

not suitable for a classroom... 

However, 

I have found a way that we can play this in the classroom.

The teacher or one pupil is the wolf, facing away from the group.
(easy version) 
The students pick a time andhold up 1 to 10 fingers, 1 arm in the air for 11, two arms in the air for 12 or 
(more difficult version) 
make their arms in a clock position. e.g. right arm up left arm to the side for 3 o'clock.

The class say "What's the time Mr Wolf?"
Mr Wolf says a time, e.g. "It's 3 o'clock".  Anyone who made 3 o'clock becomes the wolf.
Then either those students have to sit down and are out - or we swap the wolf, wolf can choose who will be the next wolf if there is more than 1 person out.

I will blog again about how well this works as a classroom activity.