A favorite tag game among many early elementary school students is Mr. Fox. In “Mother May I?” spirit, the students ask the leader what time it is and practices their numbers with that many steps. But… they must watch out for lunch time when Mr. Fox gets hungry! To avoid gender confusion, we've changed the name of Mr. Fox here. The Game of the Week is Hungry Fox!
Group Size: Large group (10 or more)
Age Group:
Pre K/K
Grades 1-2
Length of Activity:
10 minutes or more
Developmental Goal:
To develop body and spatial awareness.
Equipment:
Chalk or Cones
Before You Start:
-
Demonstrate safe tagging:
- Light touch, like a butterfly wings, on the shoulder.
- Unsafe tags: hard contact that might cause the person being tagged to fall.
- Practice with the players asking the Hungry Fox “Hungry Fox. Hungry Fox. What time is it?”
- Demonstrate what happens when you get tagged, you freeze and become a Hungry Fox’s helper.
- Show the players where the safe line that they need to pass so Hungry Fox can not tag them.
- Review the boundaries, the safe zone and the consequence for going outside them.
- You automatically become a Hungry Fox’s helper.
Set Up:
Designate a large rectangular play area with clear boundaries and enough room for students to run. On one end of the rectangle have an end zone that will be the designated safe zone.
How To Play:
- The object of the game is to avoid being tagged by the Hungry Fox
- The players will start at the beginning of their safe zone ask “Hungry Fox. Hungry Fox. What time is it?”
- Whatever time Hungry Fox says the players will take that number of steps towards Hungry Fox, leaving their safe zone.
- If Hungry Fox says “it's lunch time,” the players must run back to their safe zone without getting tagged.
- If you get tagged, you freeze until the Hungry Fox turns you into one of his/her helpers.
- When you are a helper you begin to tag other players when Hungry Fox says it's lunch time.
Variations:
- Also called Mr./Ms. Fox or Mr/Ms. Clock.
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