What time is it, Mr. Wolf?

Activity Description:

Mr. Wolf stands at one end of a large area and students stand on the opposite side in a long line perpenticular facing Mr. Wolf. The is the "starting line." The students all ask in chorus "What time is it, Mr. Wolf?" Mr. Wolf then answers with a time such as "It's 8 o'clock." The students walk forward that many steps toward Mr. Wolf. Repeat this call and response until students are close to Mr. Wolf. Students ask a final "What time is it, Mr. Wolf?" Mr. Wolf then says "It's DINNER TIME." When dinner time is called out Mr. Wolf chases the students back toward the starting line. If the students make it back past the starting line without being tagged by the wolf, they are safe. However, the first student tagged becomes the next Mr. Wolf. Start the next round once everyone lines back up at the starting line.

There are variations that you can play. For example, instead of just having one wolf change every round, you can have every student tagged become a wolf. This way, more students get to participate in the chasing. If you do this, you'll still have to have a "Main Wolf" who answers when the other students ask "What time is it?"

Notes:
- Use a large space for this game to reduce the risk of kids bonking heads or running into walls. Give your homeroom teacher a couple weeks notice and they can reserve the gym.
- When I was a kid in Mid-west America, we called this game "What time is it, Mr. Fox?" Apparently it's known more commonly across the world as "What time is it, Mr. Wolf?"
- I like to use this as a final fun activity for Let's Try 2 Unit 4 What time is it?
-Some students like being the wolf and so they'll take massive steps. Some students hate being the wolf so they take little baby steps. I sometimes will ignore the やんちゃkun who runs to the front every time and I will tag the kids more toward the middle.
- You can change the dialogue to fit whatever call and response dialogue you want to do. Instead of answering "It's 8 o'clock," you can say "It's eight," or "It's 8 PM." I've never tried it, but you could probably do this with other dialogues that use numbers as well. Let's Try 1 Unit 3 uses the phrase "How many?" If you were really desparate for an activity, you could have the students ask "How many (steps/hops/skips), Mr. Wolf?" When the kids get close, Mr. Wolf could just say "I'm hungry," and chase the kids.
- Obviously this is not limited to just Mr. Wolf. You could do Mrs./Ms. Wolf or Wolf-sensei or Wolf-teacher to fit whatever title you feel most comfortable using. You could change Wolf to any type of predatory animal. I bought a hand puppet shark and have used that before to chase the kids - they loved it!

Here is a link to a Japanese description --> https://eigoasobi.com/whats-the-time-mr-wolf/

Please comment with any ideas, variations, or success/non-success stories you have in regard to this activity!