What an awesome assembly, from a Chinese version of marbles (called "glass ball" because, hey, who but a folklorist would teach the word "marble" in ESL?), to an honest account of a tag game derived in the context of reading Anne Frank's diary, to imaginative scenario games wherein you play the role of a character from pop culture in new forms.
Just in case you were wondering, here is my favourite game, **objectionable material alert: read no further ye of faint heart or strong opinions** called "the cooze game". Take a dirty word (the title of the game is derived from the word we used the first time we played it) and then place it in the titles of songs, movies, albums, tv shows, etc. [You can do it with clean word too, but what's the point?] Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Cooze"; Martin Scorsese's "Last Temptation of Cooze" (a double-whammy because it's blasphemy too); Neil Sedaka's "Put Your Cooze on My Shoulder" AND "Put Your Head on My Cooze". Play until bored. Trust me: hours upon hours of drunk-nerd entertainment.LONDON BRIDGE
Two taller kids are standing, facing each other. Their arms are up and their hands are clasped, forming a sort of gate or an archway. The others children move in line through this gate.
Everyone is sings:
--London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down.
--London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady-oh.
When this part of the song is finished, the two "gate-keepers" drop their hands down and capture a "prisoner".
They shake them back and forth singing the last part of the song.
--Here we go to build it up, build it up, build it up
--Here we go to build it up, my fair lady-oh
After this shake-up, the child is then made to stand behind one of the gatekeepers. They alternate sides until all of the children are standing behind the two gatekeepers.
They then play a kind of tug of war. The gatekeepers mark a line on the ground between the two teams. The gatekeepers hold each other's hands and and everyone else holds the waist of the person in front of them.
They try to get one side or the other across the line.
Like tug of war, the team that is pulled over the line loses the game.
I can't honetly remember who I learned it from but it was usually my older sister and I who passed down these games to younger siblings and cousins.
I don't play this game any longer because it is not a grown up game. I have played a version of the game with my sister when her children were young but all we did was the singing, capturing and shaking of her children back and forth. Very young children like the 'surprise' of being captured and the jiggling back and forth.
When I was probably about 10 years old we played a game in my neighborhood (basically all the kids from 2 blocks) called ‘seek and destroy’. Basically the idea was that there were two teams, one team hides and the other team searches. If a person were caught, they would have to go to ‘base’ where they would stay until all members of their team were caught, then the seekers would have their turn to hide and the hiders would become seekers. However, if one person on the hiding team runs to base and tags a teammate who was caught, that teammate would be able to go free. I don’t really remember the person who I learned this game from, although I would imagine it was one of the older kids in my neighborhood. We stopped playing it after we were all old enough to have our own friends and stopped hanging around with one another. Even though some of us remained friends, most of our group was just brought together because we lived in a certain area, once we got older it mattered less where you lived, so we stopped seeing each other.We grew up in the country. It doesn’t get any more isolated and rural than the Kempt Head Road on Southside Boularderie. When we got older, the bus opened up our territory, by allowing us to go to various houses along the road, and for them to come to us. Our bus would drop us off where ever after school, and later on in the day we could catch the high school bus home. We tended to go fishing a lot, we built tree houses and forts, and one summer made a valiant effort to block the brook hoping the road would wash out and the bus would not be able to take us to school. When there we enough of us to play organized games, we always played obstacle course tag. There are three variations on this game, the first which could only be played at school involved one person being it, and that person chasing the others around the jungle gym equipment. Your feet were not allowed to touch the ground or you were out/it. You had to swing, jump, slide, climb, whatever to keep away from the person that was it. If they caught you, or you hit the ground you would become it. At home we played the same game, only we played it in the barn. There were all kinds of things to climb on, jump from and swing to in the barn, the only added rules were not to spook the cows, and not to get caught running on the rafters. In August, when the hay would be made, we would spend a day stacking the bales (later on they got round, and we rolled them), into obstacle courses. Same idea as before, your feet could not touch the ground and we jumped from bale to bale to keep away from the person that was it. The bales doubled as great hiding spots for when we played tag at night. I remember the nights being really bright with the moon, and we would stay out there for hours playing after dark. Life was good.
When i was a kid the most time i spend the game called "glass ball".This game was played around age from 5 to 12. Usually only simily age people will play together, because of the skills.we usually everybody have own glass ball, the ball cost 1 cent each. so every body no problem get that. The game rule is we first draw a square under one wall. people will play inside the square. How big the square it is, it depends how many people play. First, people will use their own glass ball hit the wall, trying to let the ball go as close the end line as they can, but do not out of the square. Then the ball closest the line and in the square will have right go first. For those balls passed the square, we have special place under the wall ,they will put their and play at last. The first player will use his own ball try to hit another ball, he can make dicision which ball he want to hit first. If he hit one ball, that ball means it was killed and it is out of the game. He had to take it. For the winner , he can hit again. The last one in the square is the winner. And he can hit the wall at last in next game. THis game is the childhood game. Because it played on the ground, it will make hands dirty. And because we have our own groud to play, with the other guys they do not want to play for some reasons. We are slowly out of the game too. Now the glass ball can be found in most of families' fish case for pretty.
I was born in the north of china. In my home town we often play a game when I was very young. We call it hide-and-seek. The place was my uptown. They were my neighborhood or my classmate. We need 5—10 people or more, and we had a “home”. It could be a car, a fireplug, or a bike. Then we choice a people to be seeker, and he or she stay at “home” count the number from 1 to 100. At this time we were looking for a place to hide. I liked to hide myself under the car. I think that was very dangers. After count the seeker started to find us out. If the seeker looked at you, you must run to the “home” if before you got “home” seeker caught you, you will be next seeker. We always forget time. We communicate with each other through the game, and promote our friendship. Now I do not play this game. Because I am bigger than ten years ago, I can not hide under the car anymore. Nobody likes to play this game. All of them have grown up; they do not want to do something childish things. I really I miss those good old days.
A game I liked to play when I was little was Red light Green light...1,2,3. The rules of the game: one person would stand against a wall or some kind of boundary and turn his/her back to the other players. He/She would yell out "Red light Green light...1,2,3" as fast or as slow as they wanted. While this person had their back turned and chanting these words, the other players would move as fast as they could to the wall or boundary. However, if you did not stop and stand completely still when the "it" person turned around after saying 1, 2,3..you were not allowed to continue playing. A variation of the game is the peron(s) caught would have to go back to the beginning. The person to reach the boundary first was the winner, which meant it was that persons turn to be "it". This game was learned via the older students in the playground. I still play it, however its with my nephew.
One the childhood game I play when I was a child called ice cream melting. I used to play it with my friends in the school playground. One of the players is the melter who melts the ice cream who is the other player. When the “ice creams” is moving all have any obvious movement, then the melter should catch him or her. The person who gets caught would be the melter. I learn it from one of my friend in the day care center. Because I am not a child any more, and the peer group around me have the same thought. You don’t want to play and there are no one in your peer group want to play, then that is why I don’t play it now.
When I was little, I often went out to the nearest park and played with my friends or my brothers. I played tag, playground equipment, jump rope, and so on. When I played with my brother, he taught me how to play it, because he is older than me. When I went to the kindergarten, the teacher taught me how to play, I guess. I also did indoor play, like origami, and cat’s cradle. Origami is Japanese play, and we use a paper and make some shape, such as crane, flower, ship, and so on. My mother taught me how to play it. I don’t play them any more now. I am not sure why, but I think one of the reasons is that we grow up and we started to play other game, such as video game, card game, and internet. I seldom go out and do exercise any more, because of I don’t have great physical vigor. Our environment has changed and the technology progressed. There are many interesting things that we can enjoy in the house.
When I was 4 years old, my teacher Miss Li taught us a game in the kindergarten. That game called the “telephone game.” Our teacher organized all of us to play it. You sit in a circle and whisper something to the person to your left, and then they whisper it to the left and so on. Then when it gets around to you, it’s completely changed. Now, I don’t think the game interest like when I was a kid. It is just a childhood game. Through this game, the teacher helped us to know each other, when we just knew a little word. We can use many ways to know the stranger. Not only play games.
When we were small , my cousin, my sister, and myself would play cops and robbers every time we got a chance. We had learned how to play it from my cousins three older brothers. The concept was simple - the cop, who was usually my sister had to find and shoot both me and my cousin with either a water gun or cap gun. If she got both of us before one broke the other out of pillow prison, she won. We played because it was both exciting and suspenseful as well as a good way to spend a rainy day (or a sunny day for that matter). We usually always played at his house because his mother took care of us when we were small. I guess we stopped playing because there were other, cooler things to do which was usually whatever his older brothers were doing at the time. The three of us were heavily influenced by what his older brothers did.
Although I grew up in the city many of my friends grew up on farms. Most of my “childhood games” were games I remember either playing on a farm or learning about them from someone who grew up on a farm. The one I remember most was one we always played out at people’s farms, I think we called it “grounders”. To play it you need a good size group of kids, well at least 5. One person is on the ground and closes their eyes. The rest of the kids go run and get on the farm equipment or the playground that was in the yard. Then the kid who is it has to try and listen for your where abouts and then go and try to catch you. If you get cornered you can jump down on the ground but if the kid who is it yells “grounders” then who ever is on the ground is it. You can also become it if you are tagged by the person who is it. It was taught to me by my sister and her friends on the playground at our school, but the kids who I hung around with thought it would be a little more interesting if we played it on the farm because of all the old farm equipment and old playgrounds that were usually on farms. Plus the animals would usually make a noise if you were on the ground. After we played it a couple times out on people’s farms everybody just started doing it. After awhile I don’t even remember playing it in the city unless we were really bored at school. I don’t play the game anymore because I guess I just grew out of it. Plus by the time I got a little older we thought of more interesting things to do.
Growing up I had 4 sisters and lots of friendly neighbours. We could always be outside creating new and adventures things to do. One of my favourite games to play was house. House would mainly take place in the tree house in the backyard. Who ever wanted to play had to make up their own character to live in the house like the mother, father, kids, animals, and friends etc. When you picked your character you would do different things as that character and just play as a family. I don’t really remember who taught me the games of house but I imagine it would be one of my older sisters who got me hooked on the fun. I was probably playing house since I could walk playing the baby the mother would take care of. I don’t play house anymore because I grew tired of the same thing over and over again moved onto better games. Also I grew to tall to fit into the tree house.
One of the games I remember best from my childhood was spotlight. This game is essentially hide and go seek only played at night with a spotlight. I became aware of this came from some of the older kids that I used to camp with during the summers we used to spend in Ingonish. There would normally be a group of about 15-20 kids around the campground, the seasonal people comprising most of the group but there was always room for other kids who were just visiting. It was a great way to spend the night, we would divide ourselves into teams one team being the 'hiders' and the other team being the 'seekers' than eventually reverse the roles. Its hard to imagine the hours we spent playing this game. It was a rush! Eventually the older kids grew tired of it and when I reached their age the same thing happened to me, it was no longer the 'cool' thing to do. This is usually the case when one hits the teenage years. However last summer, on a camping trip, after an undisclosed amount of cocktails, a group of friends and I made a feeble attempt to reconstruct a game of spotlight, as we used to play in the good ol' days.....we lost a lot of good men that night. That was ofcourse a joke, no one was seriously injured or lost for over an hour or two, but it still was not the same. It is not as easy to hide anymore, and for the most part, the game just isn't as good unless you're a kid. However, when I think back at how much fun we had playing that game, it brings a smile to my face and some good
One childhood game I played was hide-and-go-seek. This game was played with multiple people and one person was chosen to count to an agreed upon number (20 for example) while the others scrambled to find a good place to hide. Once the ‘seeker’ was finished counting, they would begin to search for the others and each time they found a person, that person would continue on with the seeker to help find the others. The last one to be found was the ‘winner’ and the next seeker. I most likely learned this game from my parents when I was a young child. I don’t play it now because it just sort of faded out of the things people ‘my age’ do.
One game that I remember enjoying very much as a child was “duck, duck, goose”. During my childhood, it was certainly a game that I loved to play. “Duck, duck, goose” was played by everyone sitting in a circle while one person, labelled as the duck would go around the circle patting each person on the head saying aloud duck, until the came to a person they chose to label goose. The person tagged goose would get up from where they were sitting and basically race the person who had tagged him/her around the entire circle to see who could land in the goose’s seat first. The first person to land there would win and was able to sit down in the spot while the loser now became the duck, it being their turn to now go around the circle patting each person calling them duck and the whole process would continue until everyone finally became tired of playing the game. This was a game that as a child I learned one summer at camp and continued to play for many years. I loved the game so much that I have even gone on to teach other little children at camp how to play as well. I’d say the reason I have stopped playing “duck, duck, goose” has everything to do with my age. I guess one might say I have somewhat grown out of it although, during the summers at camp I continue to play it with some of the campers. However, overall, it’s no longer a game that I play very often nor do I really find it as entertaining because I feel as if I am now too old to play the game.
A childhood game that comes to mind is "jump-rope". I learned this game back in elementary school when my gym teacher and the older kids taught us how to play. To play, two people each take an end of a jump rope. Then a third person stands in the middle of the rope. Then at the same time the two with the ends of the rope begin to twirl the rope in a circular motion while the person in the middle jumps over the rope as it nears them hence the name "jump-rope". The object is to keep jumping the rope as many continuous times as possible without stopping the rope or without getting caught up in the rope.
A childhood game I loved to play when I was young was called "Lee-Hockers". It's basically a game of hide and go seek except for the fact that the people seeking have a base area. If someone is caught they are taken to the base and if someone from their team can tag them at the base without getting caught they are free. I guess the reason that I have stopped playing this game is because I have matured.
I was a huge fan of hide and seek when I was younger, and I was one of those kids who could make a fort out of anything really. There was one game that stuck out in my mind and I remember I didn’t play it constantly, it was more or less a one time thing. In my grade 4/5 class, the teacher was reading us ‘Anne Frank’s Diary’ and we didn’t understand the whole concept of what Hitler did . So, at recess time, we all went outside and decided to make a game called ‘Nazi’s and Jew’s’ and we would roll around in the grass and try and hide from the “Nazi’s”. If they caught you then you would become one of them until there were no kids left to shoot. I remember the teacher running outside and she got super mad at us, causing us to lose outside recess time. When I grew up and found out what really happened, I totally understood why she was so mad, but us as kids didn’t understand, we just thought we were cool for making up a new game. That always stuck out in my head for some reason. It’s kind of embarrassing when I think about the games we used to play in elementary school.
I used to play this game called marbles with my younger sister. You would lie like 5-10 marbles against a shoe box or whatever you wanted, then you would role 1 marble down to the other marbels. The idea of the game was to hit the marbles that were worth the most, so who ever had the higher score, won the game. All the marbles were worth all kinds of different numbers. The most you could get was 100 points. My mother and father taught my sister and I this game. My parents was taught by their parents, so they decided to teach us. The reason I or my sister don't play this game anymore is because at that time marbles were very popular, so as we got older it got left behind when more tech or just bigger and more exciting games came out. So one day we just completely dropped and started to play new games. It was a fun game at that time though.
A Childhood game I would like to identify is a game called “Flinch.” This game is very basic, yet it was fun and somewhat amusing to me. Here is how the game works. You simply get a group of kids together and form a circle. One person proceeds to go in the circle with a small, soft ball (a form of a dodge ball). This person is given the name the “Flinch Master.” Everyone around the circle is supposed to stand up straight and have their arms straight along with their hands by their sides. The object of the game is to try to maintain at this position without flinching. The flinch master’s job is too tried to make the people around the circle flinch. This person does this by tossing the ball at a person or faking a toss. If a person around the circle puts their arms up or drops the ball when it’s being tossed, the person is eliminated and has to sit down. This game goes on until one person is left and therefore, is the new flinch master. I learned this game in elementary school from my Physical Education teacher. He played this game just for fun as a relaxing game towards the end of class. Everybody enjoyed the game and had a good time. Part of my job today is to play games with elementary school kids and this is one of the games we play. So sometimes I will join in just to remember the fun I had when playing this game. Unfortunately, I do not play the game with my friends anymore just because we are grown up and do not take the time to play these games like when we were younger. There are more important things that we do instead of playing games.
When you first asked us about a game we played as a child it took me a while to decide what game I wanted to use. But when I finally decided I picked good ole fashion freeze tag. I was taught this game while in elementary school, it was used as a warm up activity in our Phys. Ed. Class. The basic rule is you run around like crazed maniacs from a “carefully” chosen tagger, once you are tagged instead of being out of the game like in a normal game of tag you freeze in the exact position when tagged until someone taps you on the shoulder to “release” you from your frozen state. The reason I don’t play this game anymore is because after a while of aging you realize its stupid and boring.
It’s amazing what used to be famous in the past is still popular today!! The question this week is asking about what was my favorite childhood game played back in the 1980’s. I must say that I had many childhood games that I played when I was a child. I am still young at heart and I will nonetheless consider playing some of these same games today as I did when I many years ago. One game that will never come to an end is “Hide and Seek”, the original game that has been played by many people young and old all around the world. The rules to the game are very simple. You and a friend would get together usually play rock, paper, scissors or flip a coin to see who was going to hide first. After the positions are chosen, the person who is hiding would find a really good place and the person who is going to find would count for about one minute. The whole object to the game is to say “Ready or not, here I come” and see how long it takes to find the person who is hiding from you. There are times that this game can last for hours and there are other times that this game would last all of 20 minutes. The more people who join into play, the better the game can be and the longer it lasts for. Simultaneously, Hide and Seek will be played forever as long as at least three or more people are still interested. I learned how the game was played from a group of friends who learned from there friends and the tradition just continued year after year. Just remember, the best part is the weather doesn’t make any difference as you can play inside or out. ”Ready or Not” let’s play!!!!!!!!!!
As a kid, my friends and I used to play explorer games. Since we live on a street that was surrounded by woods and a lake, we would go in the woods and look for things and imagine. Most of the fun of being a kid is that you have a wild imagination. We would climb trees and we made a cabin in the woods that we said was our house and there were swings and ropes hanging from a few trees that adults put there for us. The only problem with this game is sometimes the game would go from being one about exploring to being about finding the lost child. Since kids have a tendency to wonder away, this would happen a lot. Usually we never were too far into the woods that it was a problem, but it still made our parents mad. There was also the problem with stepping on wasp nests; which I did only once and ended up being stung twenty seven times. Who knew I was allergic and would have to stay in bed for a week until the swelling went down? This, for me was the end of playing explorer. There is probably another game I used to play as a kid and probably was a lot fonder of, but for some off reason this one stands out the most in my memory.
A childhood game I played often when I was a child was "Red Light, Green Light". You could play with as little as two people, but the more you had to play the more fun the game would be. One person was designated as the "Traffic Controller" and they had the duty of saying "red light" or "green light". The rest of the players would stand at a good distance across the yard and when the controller said "green light" they would all run towards the controller. When the controller said "red light" they would all have to stop immediately. If any play moved or fell over they would be out of the game. The first person to reach the controller would be the winner and take over the position as Traffic Controller. I learned the game at school from some friends who weren't from my neighborhood. I don't play the game now because it isn't amusing anymore. As a child a game like that was fun and was a great favorite. Now that I'm older playing that game seems ridiculous.
During my childhood I think one of the most memorable games and maybe the most entertaining for me at the time was the game “ duck duck goose”. When I first encountered the game I was probably near the age of five at one of those stupid summer camps that my mom always enrolled me in. I was also convinced that the game was called duck duck moose, until my older six year old friends told me different. It wasn’t a hard game to grasp really, one person basically walked around a circle saying duck duck duck.and finally GOOSE while tapping someone on the head to then race each other around the circle to see who would make it back first. The loser would then become the goose, I’m pretty sure that’s how it went anyway. The downfall of the game was when the two people would run so fast that they would collide in the middle somewhere trying to pass each other. I think that is why this game stands out in my memory because it was the cause of my first nose bleed.(haha) . When I thought about this question it took me a few minutes to even think of a game I used to play and it hasn’t been that long. I guess some things are almost forgotten because they are no longer apart of your daily life like they used to be. As an adult I’m sure I will play some kid games over the years, but just in a different way being that I will be the one teaching them the game and making sure they have fun like I did.
During my childhood I played a number of games: Tag, red Rover, etc. But the game my friends and I played most often was a game I learned from my friend Garrett, called ‘Mixed Up Guys.” I guess it’s not what most would call a “game.” But I was never much into competitive games when I was younger. I met Garrett when I was about 5, shortly after he asked me if I wanted to play Mixed Up Guys. I ask him “What’s that?” It’s basically a game where we each choose a character (it can be from any movie, show, game, etc) and we enact our own stories using each of the characters we chose. It relies more on imagination than any physical skill. This is what my friends and I spent our free time doing for years. (I guess we never quite made it out that “make believe stage” Piaget believes 3 and 4 year olds go through.) I guess after a while I grew out of enacting stories physically, and now I spent my time writing stories on paper. (When I actually HAVE free time that is. Work and school tends to drain it all.)
A childhood game I used to play most was spotlight. When it would get dark out all of the kids used to grab flashlights from home; one group would hide while the other waited, once their time was up the group would go looking for them. A person would be found by shining the light on them, and they would be out. The game wouldn’t finish until all the kids were found and then it would be the other groups turn to hide. I learned it from my older sister and brother. They would be out at night playing with their friends and I eventually went along with them. I don’t play it now because I’m older. It would still be fun to play though!
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