What Time is it Mr. Wolf?

Green group, boys 8-9, entered the gate all in a perfect line, their hands on each others shoulders singing with their leader:
Leader - "Agoch!"
Green group -"Adwat"
Leader - "Agoch!"
Green Group - "Adwat"
Together - "Goch, dwat, goch, dwat!"

As their head jr. counselor passed me he tipped his imaginary hat and called out "Mesye di bonjou a madame Hope"(Sirs say good morning to miss Hope) "Bonjou Madame Hope!" they all cried, some giving me high fives, others leaning in quickly for a kiss on their cheek as they passed by and four boys in particular broke the line to give me a hug and say "Good morning Hope, how are you today?" and a couple more sentences that they learned in english class from Miss Sarah. Their head counselor had them all make a circle and stand quietly, I was SO impressed! And told them all how proud I was of them and thanked them all for listening and obeying their jr. counselor.

"Are you ready to play Twizzle?" I asked "YES!" resounded from inside the carport and I couldn't help but let out a laugh and smile as I began to call out "March, march, march" and the boys joined in; a couple adding "et" (and in Kreyol) I waited a little bit as I watched the anticipation building on their faces "annnnd sit down!" they all squatted looking around to see if everyone had done the same "stand up!" again they scanned their group to see if anyone was out yet. "sit down, stand up, sit down, sit down!" we all laughed as several of the boys stood up instead of staying seated and were tickled out of the circle to stand outside of it and help me watch for others that would be out. We played this for a while; I added different movements and whenever I said "Twizzle" the boys had to jump and do a 180 turn. Anticipation grew as the circle became smaller and smaller until there were just two boys left, I began doing a pattern "Sit down, stand up, jump, twizzle" I repeated this until the boys had figured out the pattern, then... with a slight smile I called out "Sit down, stand up, jump, twizzle, stand up!" one continued the pattern while the other had listened to what I said and remained standing! "Li genyen!" (he won) we all shouted and as I lifted the boys arms and congratulated him.

"All right, go touch the wall" I called and 39 pairs of feet went racing away to the wall opposite the carport. "Ok, ok?" I called their attention to me "Ok!" they called back, "Today we're going to play..." cheers erupted into the summer heat as I announced their favorite game; What Time is it Mr. Wolf? Since we had a new child in the group I explained it for him and just as a refresher for the rest, "You children are the sheep and your jr. counselors and leader are the wolves... especially this one" I said pushing a jr. counselor off of his perch on the small wall in the carport "ale jwe" (go play) I encouraged him. I continued to explain that after I counted to 3 they needed to ask "What time is it Mr. Wolf?" and then I was going to say a time (e.g 4 o'clock) they would need to take that many steps towards the wolves, they should continue asking and moving forward until I called out "LUNCHTIME!" when I yelled this they needed to run back to the wall before the wolves could snatch them.
"If a wolf catches you, you're out!" I explained "Are you ready?" laughing I climbed up on the little ledge to be out of the way of stampeding children as I'd been asked/told to take it easy having been down the day before with malaria.

"1, 2, 3!!!" I called out

"What time is it Mr. Wolf?"

"10 o'clock!"

"1, 2, 3, 4..." with every number they took a step until they reached 10 and then it began again; closer and closer they came to the waiting wolves, "5 o'clock, 3 o'clock" until they were all nervously standing in front of them, knowing that I would call lunchtime soon, the anticipation was killing everyone as I chuckled to myself "1 o'clock" one step closer "annnd LUNCHTIME!!!!!" I nearly fell off of the ledge laughing as I watched "organized chaos" take place before me.

The children went racing in all directions, trying to avoid the wolves that surrounded them, there was squealing and laughing as children narrowly escaped fingers that reached out just inches from catching them; as well as some shouts of displeasure followed by laughter as those that were caught were tickled by the captures before they were released to watch the game from the benches.

We played this until there just a handful of kids left. I watched as the Jr counselor I'd pushed off the wall to play; dove to catch a child, barely missed him and slammed his head into the door of one of the port a potties. He popped right back up though! "oh" my hand went to my mouth in shock, but on seeing he was ok I couldn't help but laugh as what had just happened replayed in my head and all the boys around me, who'd been caught and witnessed what happened began laughing along with me. Checking to see if he was ok (once I got my laughter under control, though he was laughing too) we finished the game and then handed out bags of water before they lined back up and headed to their next class.

These boys continued this awesome behavior throughout the next weeks and earned a pool party on one of the Friday Fun Days for their good behavior in ALL of their classes!

I loved teaching younger p.e during English Camp with Maranatha Children's Ministries, these boys hold a special place in my heart and I already miss seeing each of their smiling faces every morning. Just like these boys all of your hard work will pay off so don't stop working towards the honor and glory of our heavenly Father.