Games People Play

The school year has just started.  While we know a fair bit about what goes on in the classroom, what is of interest to me is what goes on in the schoolyard.  Given that most of us believe that children today spend most of their time in front of a screen - I think it's time to return to the schoolyard.  What is going on there?

Games ar a reflection of the culture in which they are created:  different countries have different games (see below).  I've divided them into to main categories - the ones that cost nothing and ones that needed some money ie for equipment.   Also it depends upon the spread and cost of technology (ie I'm assuming different games are shared today);  money (items that cost more obviously will cause a problem  I don't remember the older students teaching us and so I have no idea how th rules were passed on. Games you had to learn turn taking, rules, coordination and memorising a complex set of rules. No doubt games were enouraged because not only do the keep students busy, the teach many valuable lessons and burn up excess energy.  Weather was not generally a factor in Queensland but obviously for other countries more indoor games were preferred.

Similarly space plays a role.  We've all seen American basketball/school yards, but other schools have basketball courts AND a playground part. 

First my experience of schoolyards comes from a while ago - we had milk delivered and most of the yards were pretty bleak - cement was the preferred material.  Hence we had many skinned knees.  The standard was the monkey bars, a round about and a slippery slide.  And that was it.

I tended to play with the girls - after grade 4 there were no boys - and our games were rather feminine in that there was little hitting.  Most of them involve some type of co operation.  Team sports were fairly rare and we preferred games with about 4/5 people.  They were  usually energetic.

Equipment

We skipped rope,  Some of the rhymes were very complicated.  But nothing like the convoluted skipping I have witnesseed in American school yards.  I had not idea there were international skipping championships.  And boy are some of them fantastic--see this video of the Hungary team.  These are no kids -- the women bounced in places we didn't.  Clearly the sport has become more professionalised: they wear co ordinated outfits, have special music and complicated routines. (There have been teams competing on America's Got Talent).  And it's sexier and showier.  The world's best skipper clearly has a professionally made video.  Little did we realise we were keeping 'fit'- it was just something we did to fill in lunchtimes.  (Ya gotta love Michelle Obama showing how to keep fit).

Elastics.  We swiped some elastic from mum's sewing kit.  Tied it into a loop.  Put around two girls legs and went through a series of increasingly difficult "jumping" tasks.  I loved elastics and was good at it.  This video gives you an idea of how it was played.  It is called "rubber" in Czech Rep and Chinese Jump Rope and French Skipping - why the specific nationality names I have no idea.  The image comes from this webpage.

Aussie Jacks

Less energetic was jacks.  Jacks were brightly coloured plastic lamb 'knuckles' that were scooped into the hand.  Australia has a different st of rules to those in other places.  My own knuckles were scrapped for years on end.  As I remember this was a solitary game.

US Jacks

Also some of us had pickup sticks.  But usually too much trouble to bring to school, The USA game and materials are different.  In Ireland it's called gobs and played with pebbles.  For more variations click here.

Marbles - was generally a boy's game.  Though girls did play.  Marbles were kept in a cloth drawstring bag.  Swapping was part of the game.  Great for hand eye coordination  Some marbles were more sought after for some reason the words "tiger's eye", taw and shooter stick in my mind.

We played with yo-yos.  Remember when the Coke Cola guy came around and showed tricks.  Now this KID is the world champion

Hula Hoop.  Ususally we didn't take these to school. 

Ball/wall games.  I cannot remember if it had a specific name but I bounced a ball on a wall and caught it -- again there was an increasing level of difficulty  I know there was clapping and turning around.  I remember bouncing the ball on the house's back wall much to mum's annoyance.  When the Super Ball was 'invented' - wow it really changed the game-smaller and faster you had to keep up.  Great hand=eye coordination.  Tunnel Ball;  Unders and Overs - if we were allowed to play with the school's ball

Footsie - Skip Ball - Lemon Twist - Leg-a-roo - Bell Hop  - Jingle Jangle - Skip-It????   The photo is not like the one I had.- the one I had was made of hard plastic (and smaller) it could really bruise up your ankles and it was made of a type of skipping rope.  The myriad of names reflect different versions.  Some had bells (Americn show offs).  And later ones had counters so you knew how many times you'd skipped -- we counted in my day.  No wonder we were fit. 

While these games required equipment it was realitvely cheap and reflected the current craze ie yo yo or hula hoops.  There was little jealousy as they weren't worth much and didn't break.  I had the same set of knuckles for years.  I liked getting new sets and laughed at the printed rules.

No Equipment

Handclapping games.  Very popular when very young.  Surprisingly it didn't end up in a slapping match.
What's the Time Mr Wolf.
Hide and SeekFarmer in the Dell
Ring a Ring a Rosy
Oranges and Lemons
Statues.  Sounds boring but you simply swung somone and they had to freeze.
Red Rover is a 19th century game that spread from the UK to the rest of the world.  I remember it well. 

But the most imaginative games were the ones we played and made up as we went.  I remember a game we called Nations...it was a version of gang up tiggy - but everyone had the name of a nation. 

Obviously the games increase in difficulty as you grow up--start with hand clapping, dangling on the jungle gym, hopscotch and moved to elastics and team sports.  The younger games involved rhymes (Farmer in the Dell etc) and thus were good for rote learning and improving speech skills.  But there are clearly unrelated to anything in our "real" lives ie as suburban Brisbane kids -- I didn't even know what a dell is/was.  Similarly Oranges and Lemons....I knew it was about London but that's about it.  What's the time teaches sorta time skills;  handclapping good for coordination and play;  statues - turn taking.  Fairness was always a big part of these games ie not cheating. 

Other Countries

• Conkers, British Bulldog, Please Mr Crocodile  in the UK
• Dodgeball, Two Square, Basketball, Trading Cards in the USA