How to Play What's the Time, Mr Wolf?
The Chasing Game With a Delicious Twist

How to play

You need a clear stretch of grass, yard or hallway, ten to twenty paces long, with a start line at one end: a skipping rope, a stick on the grass, or the edge of the patio all serve. The other thing you need is a wolf, and there is never a shortage of volunteers.

1. Set up. The wolf stands at one end of the pitch with their back to everyone. All other players stand behind the start line at the opposite end, facing the wolf's back.
2. Ask the question. The players call out together, as loudly as their nerve allows: "What's the time, Mr Wolf?"
3. The wolf answers. Without turning round, the wolf calls back a time: "Four o'clock!" Every player takes that many steps forward. Four o'clock means four steps, one o'clock means one step, and nothing higher than twelve is allowed, because there is no such thing as thirteen o'clock and children will tell you so.
4. Creep closer. The question and answer repeat. The players inch nearer with every round, and the closer they get, the quieter the asking becomes. The wolf, meanwhile, is judging the moment.
5. Dinner time. At a moment entirely of the wolf's choosing, the answer is not a time at all. The wolf bellows "DINNER TIME!", spins round, and chases. Everyone flees for the start line.
6. The catch. Anyone tagged before reaching the safety of the line is caught. In the most common version, the first player caught becomes the new wolf and the old wolf joins the creepers. In the team version, every caught player joins the wolf's side, the pack grows round by round, and the game ends when the last free player is run down. Both are traditional. Agree which you are playing before you start, not after.
7. Touching the wolf. Many playgrounds add a bonus rule: if a player creeps close enough to tap the wolf's back before dinner time is called, the wolf must chase immediately. Use it if your players are old enough to enjoy the risk.

The creeping rules

Steps must be taken, not leapt. A step is one foot in front of the other at a walking stride; giant moon-jumps are the biggest source of dispute in this game, so settle it up front. Timid players may take three tiny shuffles for three o'clock. Once dinner time is called, all stepping rules are off and it is a flat sprint.

Common disputes, settled

Caught on the line counts as safe: the line is home, and a toe on it is enough. If two players are tagged in the same chase, the first one touched becomes the wolf. And the wolf may not peek. Everybody knows when the wolf is peeking. The penalty, by ancient convention, is loud collective outrage and a restart.

A brief history

What's the Time, Mr Wolf? is a playground chasing game documented across Britain and the Commonwealth for generations, a piece of children's lore that no adult invented and no adult maintains. The folklorists Iona and Peter Opie, who spent decades writing down the games children actually play, recorded versions of it among the chasing games in their collections: you can read more about their remarkable work elsewhere on this site. Like all the best playground games it exists in countless local variants, every one correct in its own playground, and the version in this guide is simply the one most families will recognise.

What it builds

For a simple game, there is plenty going on underneath.

• Counting made physical. Three o'clock means three steps. A child playing this game is matching numbers to quantities with their whole body, counting aloud while their feet keep the tally. For a three or four year old this is embodied maths of the best kind: no worksheet, just numbers that move you across a garden.
• Delicious fear in a safe container. The game is engineered around one glorious jolt: you know dinner time is coming, you do not know when, and the not-knowing is the point. Researchers who study thrilling play, notably Ellen Sandseter, argue this kind of self-chosen scary fun has an anti-phobic function: children dose themselves with fear in manageable amounts and come out braver. The wolf always turns, the children always scream, and everyone is laughing by the line.
• Self-restraint during the creep. Every fibre of a small child wants to charge the wolf. The game says no: take exactly four steps, then stop and stand still with your heart thumping. That is inhibitory control exercised in the open air, the same stop-yourself muscle that classrooms will later ask a great deal of.
• Turn-taking the starring role. Being the wolf is the best job in the game, and the rules hand it round. Children learn that power is temporary and that being chased is nearly as good as chasing.

Playing with under-5s

Three year olds adore this game, but they need it tuned down a notch. Very small players cannot yet count steps reliably, do not always grasp that dinner time means run away rather than run towards, and can find a full-speed chase more frightening than fun. The fixes are simple:

• Walk-only rule. Nobody runs, not even at dinner time. The chase becomes a fast, giggly waddle and the catching still feels like catching. This one change makes the game safe for the smallest legs.
• Shorter pitch. Halve the distance. Eight paces is plenty for a three year old, keeps each round under a minute, and keeps the counting within numbers they actually know.
• An adult wolf who telegraphs generously. A grown-up wolf can answer in low numbers, build suspense with theatrical sniffing, and signal dinner time with a slow, roaring turn that gives everyone a sporting two-second start. Let them escape almost every time at this age: the skill being practised is the creep and the count.
• Count out loud together. For four o'clock, the whole group chants "one, two, three, four" as the steps are taken. It keeps the littlest players honest and turns the maths into a chorus.

The kit

Here is the lovely thing: this game needs nothing at all. No board, no bats, no batteries, just space, legs and one willing wolf, which is precisely why it has travelled so far and lasted so long. If the wolf has whetted the family's appetite for garden play, our outdoor games collection is full of things to play once everyone has their breath back.

Common questions

What age can children play What's the Time, Mr Wolf?

From about three, with the walk-only rule, a short pitch and an adult wolf. By four or five most children play the standard game happily, and it stays popular to eight or nine, especially in mixed-age groups where bigger children make magnificent wolves.

How big should the steps be?

A step is one normal walking stride: one foot placed in front of the other, no jumping, no lunging. Step small if you are nervous or large if you are bold, but a step that leaves the ground is a jump, and jumps do not count. Agree this before the first round and you will prevent most arguments.

Can the wolf say dinner time straight away?

No. The wolf must answer at least one genuine time first, and a good wolf waits considerably longer, because the creeping is the game. A wolf who calls dinner time on the first question gets a very short chase and a very unimpressed line of players.

What happens if the wolf catches more than one player?

In the standard version, the first player tagged becomes the new wolf and everyone else returns to the line. In the team version, all caught players join the wolf's pack and help chase in later rounds. With six or more players the team version is worth trying at least once: the sight of four wolves turning at dinner time is one of the great moments in garden games.