Where The Wild Things Are - Games - Playworks

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Where the Wild Things Are

1. Tag Games

• Large Group (10 and up)

• Grades 1-2

• None

• Less Than 10 minutes

Development Goal

To develop eye-hand coordination, creative thinking, and a sense of boundaries

Before You Start

• Review safe, butterfly tagging
• Identify the boundaries
• Review a quick version of “Where the Wild Things Are” – ask students questions about the book.
• Review how Wild Things act (with their terrible teeth gnarling, their terrible claws showing, and their terrible eyes rolling).

Set Up

• Have all of the players line up on one of the boundaries. Select one player to be “Max.”

How to Play

• King/Queen Max has arrived on a mysterious island filled with random creatures (who are moving around the island however you wish – hopping, running, skipping, etc.).
• If Max tags a creature, s/he goes to the boundary and moves around the outside of the playing area acting like a Wild Thing.
• Students also become Wild Things if they go outside of the boundary before being tagged.

Variations

Players could start out as Wild Things and can become tame creatures under the leadership of Max when tagged. Tame creatures can then link arms to create a team, similar to blob tag.

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