If you’re a fan of Red Light, Green Light, and you want to find out some more games that are pretty similar in every way, then you’ve come to the right place.
Some games just like Red Light, Green Light include:
- Jurassic Park
- What’s The Time Mr Wolf?
- Mother May I?
- Hot Chocolate
- Shadow Tag?
- Floor Is Lava
- Asteroid
- Sharks Swimming
- Freeze (Musical Statues)
- Elsa Tag
- Cats And Dogs Tag
All of these games include some of the main features of Red Light, Green Light, namely:
- There is lots of sneaking up on other people!
- There is lots of chasing involved
- There is a make-believe and imagination in abundance
All of these games are great for children from the age of about 3 to 7. They are great to play in preschool, school, in your backyard, or in the park. It’s just the perfect outdoor game!
They involve loads of skills such as eye contact, turn-taking, problem-solving, and many more.
There has been lots of research done that demonstrates the importance of outdoor games such as these for the development of young children. (Source)
OK, let’s take a look at the games themselves:
1. Jurassic Park
This quasi Red Light, Green Light game is great for all the dinosaur lovers out there.
What you need is some kind of large circle, probably at least 20 yards wide. If you’ve got them you could use something like cones to mark it out, but you could use jumpers if you were in the park.
All the kids stand around this circle wherever they like, apart from one child who is the T-Rex! They come and stand in the middle of the circle.
The T-Rex closes its eyes, and the children start sneaking towards the T-Rex.
At any given moment, the T-Rex will suddenly open its eyes. They may also spin around!
If they see anyone moving, they tell the person, and they have to go back to the outer circle.
The aim of the game is to get to the T-Rex and tag them.
When this happens, everyone is going to try to run back to the outer circle. This is the forcefield that the T-Rex cannot get past.
The T-Rex tries to tag everyone on the way back. If you get tagged, you are the T-Rex in the next round.
If you want to check out lots more tag games like this, then take a look at the ultimate 22 tag games.
2. Asteroid
This is another fun sneaking game. It’s also a fantastic active listening game.
Have some safe zones marked on the floor in some sort of way. It could be with cones, or coats, or whatever else you have. The zones will be boxes a couple of yards wide.
Have a few of these scattered around.
The children are going to be in their pretend spaceships, flying about the area. One child will be ‘it’, and they are the ‘asteroid’.
Whenever they choose to, the child that is ‘it’ will shout ‘Asteroid!’ They will start chasing the spaceships, trying to tag someone.
Everyone will run towards the safe zones before they get tagged.
If anyone gets tagged then they become the asteroid in the next round.
3. Elsa Tag
This game involves tag and make-believe!
Either one person or several are going to be the taggers. They will be the Elsa (or Elsa’s) in this game.
Everyone else is going to be running away from them.
This game works like normal tag, other than there is no touching when you tag someone.
Instead, to tag, the Elsa tagger will fire their magic power at someone near them. Their power will freeze whoever is near them. You could also say a magic word as you fire the power, such as ‘Arendelle’ or ‘Freeze’.
Frozen people must be fixed like a statue until someone saves them by tagging them.
4. What’s The Time, Mr Wolf?
This is one of the most fun outdoor games to play and a classic one that you’ve probably heard of anyway.
The children stand in a line, facing one direction. Often this is next to a wall or fence.
One child is ‘Mr Wolf’. They go to stand about twenty yards in front of the children.
The wolf turns around so their back is turned to the children.
The children all say together, ‘What’s the time, Mr Wolf?’
Mr Wolf turns around, and says a time, such as ‘Six o’clock.’
The wolf turns away, so he can’t see them, and the children take 6 steps towards him.
Keep repeating this process, with the wolf spinning around, and the children asking how many steps to take.
When the children get quite close to the wolf, the wolf can say, ‘It’s dinner time!’
This is the cue for the wolf to chase the children as they run back to the starting line.
If the wolf tags anyone, then they become the wolf.
5. Mother May I?
One person is the ‘Mother’ in this game, and everyone else is the children.
The children start in a line somewhere, often by a fence, or agreed point.
The mother stands about twenty yards in front of them.
Only one person at a time will ask the mother how many steps they can go forward. For example, they might say, ‘Can I go five steps forward.’
It is up to the mother to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
If ‘yes’ then they go forward what they asked. If ‘no’, then the mother can tell them where to go, for example, ‘go four steps back.’
The winner is the first person to get to the mother.
The mother is very much in control of who wins in this game! It is nice to play with an adult as the mother, so you can share around who wins.
6. Hot Chocolate
One child is ‘it’ in this game, and they close their eyes.
The other children will be standing in a line about twenty yards away from the person who is it.
The person who is ‘it’ will also stand with their back to the others.
The idea is that the children will all start sneaking towards the person that is ‘it’.
At any moment, the child that is ‘it’ can spin around and open their eyes. If they see anyone moving, then they tell them to go back to the start.
The winner is the child that manages to get to the child that is ‘it’ and tag them.
7. Shadow Tag
This is a classic tag game, that is best to play on a sunny day (when there are lots of shadows).
Quite simply all you do is play tag, but instead of touching others to ‘tag’ them, instead the tagger will stand in their shadow.
Anyone tagged will freeze until they are saved (often by another child going between their legs, or under their arm).
8. Floor Is Lava
Have some rubber sports (or something similar) on the floor. These are the ‘stepping stones’.
Put them in a random array all over the place.
To start with, the floor is just normal, and not made of lava. The children move about in different ways, e.g. jumping, hopping, skipping etc.
Someone will be ‘on’. At any given moment, they will shout, ‘The ground is lava!’
When they hear this, the children will run to a stepping stone.
They have five to seconds to stand on one, or they will be burned in the lava. The person who is ‘on’ will count down.
9. Sharks Swimming
Draw lots of circles on the ground with chalk (or have circles made out of cones). These are the undersea caves.
In this game, one person is ‘on’ and everyone else is swimming around the sea. The person who is ‘on’ is the shark.
Whenever they like, the shark will shout, ‘Shark!’
They chase everyone as they run to the caves. If they tag anyone before they get to the caves, then they are out.
10. Freeze (Musical Statues)
One child is ‘it’, and the other children are going to be dancing on the spot.
Whenever the child shouts ‘Freeze’, the others are going to freeze like statues.
The child who is ‘it’ will pick who they can see moving.
They are out, and they become the person who is ‘it.’ This is one of my favorite 19 listening games that you can check out here.
11. Cats And Dogs Tag
This is another great tag game.
One child is going to be ‘it’, and the rest of the children are split into two teams. To start with, one team will be the dogs, and the other team will be the cats.
The person who is ‘it’ says, ‘Go!’ The dogs start to chase the cats.
After about a minute or so, the person who is ‘it’ will say ‘Change!’ When this happens, the people who were dogs become cats, and the cats become dogs.
The chasers become the chased and vice versa.
Keep going like this, saying ‘change’ every few moments, and everyone switches between being chased and chasing.