This is a great variation from traditional hide and seek. It’s best played outside with a lot of room, but can also be a lot of fun in a big old house. It can be a lot of fun at an extended family gathering.
Number of people: 5-30
Ages: 4+
One player is chosen as the wolf, and this person goes off to hide. The rest of the players are the sheep, with one of them as the leader. Choose a place to function as a “pen” where all the sheep stay and blind their eyes while the wolf player hides. The leader counts to one hundred to give the wolf time to hide. The pen could be a tree or rock, square, or circle on the ground, or if in a big house, a couch or bed.
The sheep then start out to look for the wolf, but they all have to follow the leader (like sheep!) This game is different from most other hiding games because the searchers are the ones that have to run for safety when the hider is discovered. As soon as the group finds the wolf, the leader says
“All my sheep
Gather in a heap;
For I spy the woolly, woolly wolf!”
The sheep stand still until the wolf has taken one jump toward them, and until they hear the leader say the word “wolf”. The sheep all run for the sheep pen, presumably with the wolf following. The leader can throw off the wolf by saying something other than “I spy the woolly, woolly, lamb!” or something else.
Any sheep the wolf tags become wolves and join the wolf the next time, hiding either in the same den with the original wolf or in a separate place. When there is more than one wolf, the leader halts his sheep whenever he spies a wolf, whether it be the original wolf or not, and all of the wolves join in the chase when the sheep run back to the pen. The game ends when all of the sheep have been caught.
The wolf can use a lot of different tactics to catch the sheep. If at any time in hiding he spies the sheep before they spy him, and considers their position, he may call “Stand your ground, three feet!” at which point the sheep must stand still and then take three steps toward the wolf and stand again until he jumps toward them, which is when the chase begins. The wolf can also position himself close to the sheep’s pen, and try to tag them as they come in. The sheep can also use some strategy by having one of them work as a decoy to draw the wolf away from the pen.
A great variation for young children is to have them make the appropriate animal sounds while they play.