The classic story about the Grinch who steals Christmas is a traditional favorite that makes a terrific tag game. Corral children on one side of the play space and place cones randomly in the play space as far away from the children as possible. Ask the children what happens in the story while you are setting up the cones. Ask them who the Grinch steals presents from and ask them if he was successful stealing Christmas. Then take a moment to talk about why he wasn’t successful.
Next explain that the children are the Grinch and the cones are the presents. To start, you will be the Who protecting your presents (cones) from the Grinch(es). On GO! the children will all run out and try to take one cone back across the line where they started. Each child who gets across the line with a cone without being tagged by the Who (you) will get to keep the cone. If tagged, the child must return the cone to the place where he found it, go back to the starting line and try again. The children can only take one cone at a time. This game continues until all the cones have been taken across the line.
For older children play the game with a child acting as the Who protecting the cones. Make it more fun, and to get it to last a little longer, have 2-3 children act as the Who’s.
