HT Games
Wolf's Dinner Time
Wolf's Dinner Time is a good chasing game, which will help to develop motor coordination in little ones. One person is chosen to be the wolf. You'll have the wolf go to a nearby tree or pole and face away from the group, about 15 feet away from the others. Have the other children line up side by side (this point will be the starting line) and call out, "What's the time Mr. Wolf?" The wolf turns and faces the other children and calls out a time, such as "5:00." The children then take five steps (or whatever corresponds to the time; 9:00 equals 9 steps, 10:00 equals 10 steps, etc.) toward the wolf, and then the wolf turns back around, again facing away from the children. The children repeat this process two or three times, until the wolf surprises them and says, "It's dinner time." At that point, the children turn around and attempt to run back to the starting line without the wolf grabbing them. The first child the Wolf grabs is the new wolf. This is a great game for reinforcing counting and number skills with younger children as they'll have to think about the number the wolf calls out and count that many steps.
Tied In Knots
This is a great game to play at the beginning of the school year, when you're looking for games to help children get acquainted with one another. You'll show the children how to stand in a circle, then instruct them to reach out with their left hand and take hold of someone else's left hand (just someone nearby is fine). They'll do the same with their right hands, so that everyone is holding hands with two different people. (Once they're holding hands with two different people, it will be very evident that the children in have formed a "knot.") The object of the game is to see if they can work together to undo themselves into a circle. You may want to keep the groups limited to three or four children at a time because little kids may instinctively let go of each other's hands.
Popcorn
This is a great movement game for little children to play. You'll have the children all moving around the playground. You can have them move to music, but make sure they're moving. You'll call out a number and an object (for instance, "2, table") and then the children will need to find a partner (since the number was two) and work with their partner to form a "table." If you were to call out, "5, school bus," the children would form groups of five and each group would need to create a "school bus." When you call out numbers, make sure that the numbers are divisible by the number of children you have (e.g., if you have nine children, don't call out "5" since nine children cannot divide into equal groups of five). Creative Kids At Home suggests an old oak tree, an elephant, a waterfall, a hot air popcorn popper and a rocking chair as some possible objects, but depending on your children's abilities, you may want to stick with items with which they'll easily be able to do, such as popcorn or a table.