Play is an essential part of the development of all children. They don't even need toys - watch any toddler unwrap her presents and watch what she plays with first! - and much of their play comes from using their imagination. Once a child reaches school age and begins to play with other children, play becomes a social occasion and games become elaborate ritual: these "playgound games" may have regional variations but there are often similarities in the basic games, which are handed down from generation to generation; essentially the same game may appear with entirely different names in different places.
CHASING GAMES - "TIG" OR "TAG": children the world over play chasing games. Here in the UK it's called "tig" or "tag" (or tiggy, or some similar variant) and the person who does the chasing is "It" or "He." The game is simple but the code of conduct is very complex! First, they must choose who is going to be "It" : usually this is done with one of the time-honoured counting out rhymes : "Eeny meeny miny mo, Catch a (perjorative term which is NOT intended to cause offence!) by the toe, If he hollers let him go, Eeny meeny miny mo. One two three, out goes HE!" and the person counted on "HE!" is "It." A more complex counting out involves the cry of "Spuds up" and all the players will stand in a circle with both hands in front of them, clenched in a fist. The counter goes round the circle, counting the fists as he recites "One potato, two potato, three potato, four. Five potato, six potato, seven potato MORE!" and the "spud" (fist) struck on "MORE" is put behind the back. The rhyme continues round the circle - two "spuds" and you're out, and the last one left in is "It."
It may be possible to pre-empt the counting out by being first to shout "Baggy me it!" or "Bags I it!" but this may be overruled by a majority decision of "No bags." Once the game is underway it is possible to call a temporary truce by crossing one's fingers and shouting "kings!" (unless there has already been ruled "no kings") and the child who resorts to "kings" every time s/he is on the point of being caught will not be popular!
Having chosen who is "It" the rest of the children scatter; the simplest Tig game is simply "Tig-and-you're-it" which is self-explanatory. Variations abound - chain tig (Chainey): if you're "tigged" you have to hold hands with the person who is "it" and continue the chase as an ever-lengthening chain; stone tig or statues tig : if tigged you have to freeze (turn to stone) and can only be freed if another player who is still free crawls between your legs to free you (in both these, the last person to be left free becomes "It" for the next game.)
HUNTING GAMES - HIDE AND SEEK ETC. Plain old hide-and-seek is the same the world over - the person who is "It" covers their eyes and counts to a pre-arranged number whilst the rest of the players scatter and hide; when the count is finished, to a cry of "Coming-ready-or-not!" the hunter goes to look for the hiders. In the version known as "Block," the hunter has a base, or "Block" and, on spotting a hider, calls out their name and where they are hidden, and it then becomes a race to see which can get to the "Block" first - if it is the hunter, then the shout of "Block-one-two-three!" means the hider is caught, and has to remain at the block; if the hider gets there first, then his shout of "Block-one-two-three" sets free all the others previously caught, and the hunter has to hide his eyes and begin another count, this time halving the original number (or "counting in twos" for the more ambitious!)
A similar game, also with a base, allows the captured to be freed if one of the other players can sneak back to the base unseen and set them free with the shout of "relieve - o" or "Relavio" to scatter and hide again while the hunter returns to base and begins another count.
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RING GAMES etc., are accompanied by singing and rhymes and are more usually the province of the younger children although in a mixed-age group you will usually find some of the older children joining in too.
Ring-a-ring-o-roses is the simplest of all the ring games and is played by even the smallest children. They join hands and dance round in a ring, singing
A pocket full o' posies.
Atishoo! Atishoo!
We all fall down!
and on "we all fall down" - we do indeed "all fall down!" to much giggling and laughter. This is a very old rhyme and is attributed to the Black Death of the 14th century : the "ring o' roses" is the rash which was a symptom, the "pocket full o' posies" the herbs carried in an attempt to ward off the disease, "Atishoo!" was the flu-like effects and "we all fall down" - dead!!
Poor Mary has a circle of children with hands joined and walking round another child (usually a girl) who is kneeling in the centre of the circle with her face in her hands. As they sing, she enacts the words:
Poor Mary sat a-weeping on a bright summer's day.
On this carpet she shall kneel
Till the grass grows in the field
Stand up, stand up upon your feet
And choose the one you love so sweet.
At this point "Mary" chooses another child to join her in the centre of the ring and they join hands and walk round in the opposite direstion to the outer circle, who sing
And help your wife to chop the wood
Chop, chop, chop!
and with this ritual completed, the children change places and a new "Mary" takes her place in the centre of the ring.
The farmer wants a wife is another game which starts with a single child - the "farmer" - in the centre of a circle of children, all singing
Ee - I - ally - o, the farmer wants a wife.
Who do you want for your wife, who do you want for your wife?
Ee - I - ally - o, who do you want for your wife?
and the "farmer selects a "wife" from the outer circle, and she joins him in the centre. The children continue to circle in the following verses, the two circles moving in opposite directions and the inner circle growing (and the outer one shrinking) as each verse is sung :
Ee - I - ally - o, the wife wants a child.....
The child wants a nurse....
The nurse wants a dog.....
The dog wants a pat........
We all pat the dog..........
and the "dog" is "patted" vigorously on the back by everyone, and becomes the "farmer" in the next round of the game.
I wrote a letter to my mother: in this ring game all but one of the children are seated facing inwards, with one going round the outside of the circle with a handkerchief in one hand. As the children sing, s/he drops the hankie at random and carries on round the ring:
And one of you has picked it up and put it in your pocket.
Not you, not you, not you, not you.........
and on round until s/he reaches the child who has the hankie behind her, with "....not you, but YOU!!" and a tap on the shoulder. The chosen child then has to jump up and race the child outside the ring, in opposite directions, back to the gap left in the circle - the loser is "it" for the next round of the game.
Woods of bluebells : all but one of the children stand in a circle, hands joined and raised to form a series of arches; the remaining child threads his/her way in and out of the arches in time to the song:
In and out the woods of bluebells,
In and out the woods of bluebells,
My fair lady
and stops behind the next child and acts out the next verse:
Give a little tip-tap upon her shoulder,
Give a little tip-tap upon her shoulder,
My fair lady.
The chosen "fair lady" then joins the first child in threading their way through and repeating the song, collecting another child each time until the line gets too long, the circle is used up, or boredom sets in.
The Illy Ally-O is not strictly a ring game but doesn't fit in any other category either. The children join hands to form a chain, with one end child placing their free hand against a wall or fence and the other end is the "ship." The song goes as follows :
The Illy-ally-O,
The Illy-ally-O,
The big ship sails through the Illy-ally-O,
On the last day of September.
The "ship" leads the rest of the chain through the first arch (nearest the wall) then back in a circle, through the second arch in a circle, and so on through each arch in turn until everyone is turned round. Really ambitious groups will attempt to "unweave" the chain, but it has a tendency to end in mayhem!
Oranges and lemons is a very well known singing rhyme and has a game to go with it:
"You owe me five farthings," say the bells of St. Martins,
"When will you pay me?" say the bells of Old Bailey,
"I do not know," says the great bell of Bow.
Here comes a candle to light you to bed
And here comes a chopper to chop off your HEAD!
Two children decide (in secret) who is "oranges" and who is "lemons" and then form an arch with both hands and the rest of the children dance (or run) through the arch while singing the rhyme. On "Chop off your HEAD" they drop the arch to capture a child, who then has to chose oranges or lemons (again in secret, whispering,) and stands behind the appropriate child. The game continues until everyone is caught and two lines are formed behind the original pair of children, and finishes with a tug-of-war, everyone holding onto the waist of the child in front.
The rhyme is very old, and refers to bells around central London - St. Clement's Dane, St. Martin's-in-the-Field, the Old Bailey and St. Mary-le-Bow (within the sound whose bells you have to be born to be a true Cockney.)
Tee-atcher is essentially played the same as "Oranges and Lemons" but the children chose a pair of names at random, anything they want, and the rhyme is
A candle, a candle to light you to bed.
The one who comes last is sure to be caught,
So bow-wow-wow Wow-wow-wow WOW!
and on the final "WOW!" the arch drops to capture a child, the game proceeding to the inevitable tug-of-war which usually ends in a heap of giggling children.
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BALL GAMES frequently consist of variations on a basic theme of football (i.e. soccer on this side of the Atlantic) with a ball being kicked through makeshift goals (usually piles of jumpers or jackets) or against a target chalked on a convenient wall. Otherwise, simple cricket games are played in the street or playground, with sides of unlimited size and using any available style of bat and "wickets" which may be the bottom of a lamp-post, an upturned box or more unusually someone may even have a set of proper cricket stumps.
Other ball games involve formal rules of play and require no other equipment other than a suitable ball - usually smaller than a football - and plenty of space to play in.
Old favourites such as Donkey and Pig-in-the-middle are for small numbers of children : in the first, two children throw the ball back and forth between them; each time the ball is dropped, the child who drops it gains a letter of the word "donkey" and the loser is the one who spells out "donkey" first. Pig-in-the middle is for three, two who pass the ball between them and the third, "piggy," who has to try and intercept it, changing places with the thrower whose pass he manages to intercept.
Ball Tig or "Dodge Ball" is a variation on the chase game, where instead of actually catching the others, the child who is "It" has to throw a ball to hit them, usually below the knee, in order to catch them; "It" cannot run with the ball but once s/he has succeeded in hitting one of the others, they both become "It" and can pass the ball between them, thus speeding up the game. It is perfectly in order - indeed expected - to dodge, jump over or deflect the ball if aimed at you, but not to throw it, that is only allowed for those who are "It."
One ball game which is most fun with a large group of children rejoices in the name of "Eggety Budge." All but one of the children choose secret names which must form a "set" ( or no-one will be able to remember what they all are!) - colours, months, towns and cities, numbers, football players - it doesn't matter what, and they also add a name for the child left in charge of the ball. One child is nominated to recite the list and the child with the ball hurls it as high as s/he can vertically, at the same time shouting out one of the list of names. The rest of the children scatter and the one whose name is chosen has to try to catch it - if it is caught cleanly then s/he hurls it up again and calls out another name. More often it is not caught but has to be chased; as soon as the child whose name was called has possession of the ball, s/he shouts "Eggety Budge" and everyone else has to stop. The child with the ball then has to try to hit one of the other children (usually the nearest) by throwing the ball at them, often after a pre-arranged number of steps are taken (which may be "giant steps," "fairy steps," or "barrels," or a combination such as "two giant steps, five fairy steps and a barrel" (two strides as long as possible, five heel-to-toe steps, and a leap involving a 360 degree turn.) If the ball hits its target, the game repeats with the children re-assembling and the ball being thrown up by the child who was just hit with the ball; if, however, it misses, the children scatter again until the thrower regains the ball and calls "Eggety" again and repeats the steps-and-throw process as often as necessary to corner and hit a target.
Wherever there is a patch of wall higher than head-height and a child with two tennis balls there will be a game of Double-Ball - this is simply a way of bouncing the two balls off the wall alternately, more or less juggling, while reciting any one of hundreds of rhymes. Whatever rhyme it is, the actions are usually the same, carried out at the end of each line on the rhyming words: "under" (underhand throw), "over" (overhand throw), "upsy" (upward throw - not on the wall), "raindrop" (underhand throw against the wall, allowing it to drop and rebound off the floor before catching it) and "bouncy" (throw down to the floor near the bottom of the wall so that it rebounds against the wall and comes back up to be caught.) After the rhyme has been recited for each different throw, IF the balls have not been dropped (in which case the turn passes to the next player) the whole sequence is repeated with just one hand, then the other hand.
Some Double-ball Rhymes:
First you chew it, then you crack it
Then you stick it on your jacket
P.K, penny a packet
Each peach pear plum, where is Tom Thumb?
Tom Thumb is in the house - where is Mickey Mouse?
Mickey Mouse is in the cellar - where is Cinderella?
Cinderella's in the wood - where is Robin Hood?
......and so on, for as long as anyone can make up the rhymes (..."Robin Hood is up the stair - where is Tony Blair?)
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SKIPPING GAMES played by groups of children (as opposed to solo skipping) involve a long rope with one child turning it at each end and the rest jumping the rope as it turns. The simplest games are in-and-out games, with the children jumping through the rope in succession, first one jump, then two etc. More complex games involve rhymes with actions, but the basic overall rule is the same - stop the rope and you're out, and have to change places with one of the rope-turners.
Rhymes: there must be literally hundreds, maybe thousands, of rhymes with new ones or new variations being added all the time, but the really old traditional ones still continue to be used.
These are the actions I must do:
Salute to the King and bow to the Queen,
And turn my back on the washing-machine.
- not bad considering that the last king died in 1952! The rhyme is recited to the rhythm of the skipping and actions performed for each line - salute, bow, and turn round completely.
Some rhymes are obviously products of an older tradition, recited with little understanding but enthusiastic actions :
Turn it over, turn it over, sausage in the pan
Baby on the po (or floor), baby on the po,
Pick him up, pick him up, baby on the po.
Bailiff at the door, bailiff at the door,
Kick him out! Kick him out! Bailiff at the door.
Charlie Chaplin went to France
To teach the ladies how to dance.
First he did the heel-toe, then he did the kicks,
Then he did the rhumba, then he did the splits.
MARBLES is a seasonal game - in the British climate, the autumn and winter are far too wet and cold to be squatting down and scrabbling around in the mud playing marbles, but the coming of fine weather in spring is marked by a rattling in the pockets and groups of children huddled round preparing for a game.
There is a mystique attached to the marbles themselves, and a great deal of time is spent collecting, swapping and admiring marbles. Certain types are much prized and are "worth" several ordinary glass marbles. "Glass Alleys" have a rarity value and are the antiques of the marbles world - when I was a child we got ours by smashing the necks of the "Cod" lemonade bottles, which used them to prevent leaks. There are still "Glass Alleys" around but they are few and far between, and usually donated by Grandad. "Bollys" (large ball-bearings) are also sought after, particularly for their devastating effect on ordinary glass marbles when fired with any force, and may be banned by mutual agreement if any particularly valued marbles are being played with.
In the simplest game, a circle or "tal" is drawn with chalk. Each player puts a prearranged number of "ordinary" marbles in the tal and stands behind a line drawn some distance away - usually four or five yards. The children then take turns to fire at the tal : the time-honoured way is to rest the marble on the joint of the bent index finger and flick it with the thumb - with practice, quite some force and accuracy can be achieved. The basic object of the game is to drive marbles out of the tal - the player who has fired gets to keep any marbles that leave the circle. If his marble stays in the circle, it has to be left there, if it comes out he may retrieve it and have another go.
In another variation, if the playing surface is soft enough to allow a hole to be dug with a heel, the "tal" takes the form of a shallow hollow in the ground about six inches across. All the players start off ten yards or so away from the tal, behind a start line, and take it in turns to fire at the tal. When everyone has had their turn, if anyone has scored a direct hit they can start to attack the other marbles straight away, otherwise the owner of the marble nearest the tal has a second shot at getting it in. Once a marble has reached the tal, the owner can fire at the other marbles. Any he hits, he wins. After winning a marble, he can continue firing at the others but if he misses, that is the end of that turn and the next nearest the tal has a turn. When a round is completed, the marbles have to be fired back into the tal before any more can be won, and the game continues with marbles changing hands throughout.
JACKS or fivestones is one of the oldest recorded games : sets of knucklebones have been found at prehistoric sites, and the Romans had beautifully-crafted ceramic fivestones. Modern "jacks" are made of lightweight metal alloy, and are designed with six "arms" arranged at right-angles so that no matter how they land, three legs are on the ground and the jack is relatively easy to pick up.
Like marbles, jacks is a fine-weather game which involves small groups of children sitting around playing the game in any out-of-the-way corner of the playground. Two basic variations on the game exist, one which uses a set of five jacks and a small rubber ball, and the other (preferred by the purists as requiring more skill) without a ball. Both start by tossing the jacks into the air and attempting to catch them on the back of the same hand. If any are caught successfully, they are then thrown up off the back of the hand to be caught in the palm - any that are caught this time are then considered picked up and the game continues with the jacks which were dropped. The fallen jacks are then picked up with one hand whilst one of the jacks which was caught previously is thrown into the air with the same hand. (If none of the jacks were caught, the play passes to the next child.) The jacks on the ground are picked up in singles, pairs, three-and-one and all four together, with the jacks on the ground being flicked into position whilst another jack is tossed in the air; any dropped jacks and the play passes on. If a ball is used, it takes the place of the jack being tossed up whilst picking up fallen jacks, and the ball is usually allowed to bounce once before being caught, thus making an easier game suitable for younger players.
HOPSCOTCH used to be played on paving or "flagstones" which were conveniently laid in the correct pattern; nowadays many school playgrounds have hopscotch grids painted on them, otherwise the layout can be chalked on any suitable surface. The squares need to be big enough to accomodate a foot with plenty of room to spare, and are marked out with one square at the botton, then two, then one, then two etc., and numbered (again from the bottom) 1, 2 & 3, 4, 5& 6, 7, 8 & 9, and 10. Each child need a small flat stone - a piece of slate or tile is ideal but a flat pebble will do. Taking it in turns, the children stand below the number 1 square and throw their stone to land in square 1. It must land entirely within the square - on a line, or even touching a line, and it counts as out. If the stone is in the correct square, the thrower then hops in single squares and jumps in pairs (one foot in each) as far as number 10, turns and hops and jumps back again, pausing to pick up their stone without touching the ground with the other foot if on a "hop," or the free hand. Again, tread on a line and you're out, and also you may not hop into, or even touch, the square with your stone in. In the next rounds, the stones are thrown into number 2, then 3 and so on - the higher numbers being harder to hit. Once one of the players completes all ten numbers, he or she may write their initials in any square they choose, then only they may step in it, the others having to hop or jump over it. As the game progresses, and after several of the squares have had initials written in them, it becomes quite a feat of athleticism for some of the children to get from square to square whilst avoiding those banned!
An unusual variant is for the squares to be drawn as a spiral or snail shell, numbered from the outside to the centre, to be got round by hopping on one foot only. Otherwise the basic rules about lines and claiming squares are the same.
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MISCELLANEOUS GAMES
What time is it, Mr. Wolf? amuses the younger children, and is often played with an older child or adult as the "wolf." The "wolf" walks slowly down the length of the field/playground, with the rest of the children following behind, chanting "What time is it, Mr. Wolf?" to which the "wolf" replies "one o'clock" or any other time he chooses, and they carry on down the field, the children continually asking the time, until the "wolf" replies "DINNERTIME!!" and chases the children who usually run away yelling and screaming.
May we cross your golden river? is played across a road (preferably a cul-de-sac!) or playground; two parallel lines mark out the "river" from the "bank." One child is the "crocodile," the rest all stand on one side of the "river." The children on the "bank" all chant in unison, "Please, Mr. Crocodile, may we cross your golden river?" and the "crocodile" will reply with a condition - "Yes if you have blue eyes," or perhaps "Yes if you have a B in your name," or even "Yes if you were born in April" - it is up to the crocodile's imagination. Children who fulfil the condition may cross unchallenged; once they are across the other side, the rest have to try to get across without being caught as if they are they will have to sit out the rest of the game. The game continues back and forth across the "river" until there are no more children left to catch, when the game may be restarted with the last child caught taking over as the crocodile.
Elderida is another "crossing-over" game but with an accompanying rhyme:
Went to see a waterfall
She fell in and couldn't swim,
Elderida Kerb-or-wall.
Big - black - stone - high - wall.
The children all line up on one side of the road or playground (if played in the playground, a line must be drawn to mark the "kerb" with the area boundary as the "wall") and the child who is "It" uses the rhyme as a counting-out rhyme and selects a child on the final count of "wall." This child is then given the option "kerb or wall?" Whichever s/he chooses, s/he must run to first, back to base, then back to the alternative and again back to base, while the one who is "It" races, but in the reverse order : thus if s/he chooses "wall" s/he runs wall - base - kerb - base and "It" runs kerb - base - wall - base. The winner of the race takes over as "It" for the next round.
Sly Fox (Grandmother's footsteps) is another old, well-known one. One child is "It" and stands with their back to the rest, who are at the other end of the playground. The object of the game is for the children to sneak up without being spotted - "It" turns round at random intervals to try to catch someone moving: if s/he spots a a child moving, s/he calls out their name and they have to go back to the start. To win, one of the children must succeed in getting all the way up the field and "tagging" the child who is "It," taking over that role for the next game. There is much scope for cheating on the part of "It" but usually there is enough of a sense of honour for the game to be played fairly.
Puss, puss needs a grid and is easiest to play on a playground laid down in large concrete squares, rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Otherwise, a tarmac surface will do as long as someone has a piece of chalk! The squares need to be large, preferably around 3 yards/metres or more; the children stand at the corners of the squares (more than five players means more than one square, but they need to be connecting squares) with the child who is "It" running free. The children have to change places along the lines, signalling "puss, puss" when they are ready to do so, and "It" has to try to get on one of the vacated corners, the displaced child then taking over as "It."
British Bulldogs is banned in just about every school playground I know, but it is still a favourite of the children despite the inevitable skinned knees, bruises and even split heads and broken bones! It is a game involving pairs of children "piggyback" (one, usually the smaller and lighter, seated on the other's back) played across the width of the playground. "Safe" zones are marked out at either end, but in the middle - anything goes! One pair is "it" and chooses another pair to challenge to get across the playground. The pair who are "it" may use any means except actually holding on with hands to prevent the challengers from getting across; if they are brought down they join the first pair in the centre, making two pairs to prevent crossings, and so on. If they DO succeed in getting across, then as soon as they reach the other side and are safe, everyone else starts to cross, and the catchers have to see how many of them they can bring down. Mayhem is the pretty normal result; the game ends either when all pairs have been captured, or someone has been hurt and a teacher or parent is summoned!
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Some of these images started life as Microsoft clipart images, and have been used to create this backgound set with the aid of Paint Shop Pro.