HOME

PROGRAMS

BOOKS & KITS

THINGS TO MAKE

THINGS TO READ

LINKS

My New Book!

Playground Culture
By Kathy Ceceri

Not last night but the night before
24 robbers were knocking on my door...

Red light, green light, 1,2, 3!

A my name is Alice, my mother’s name is Alma, we live in Alabama and we like apples!

Rock, paper, scissors, go!

Eenie, meenie, meinie, moe
Catch a tiger by the toe...

            Maybe I’m dating myself, but do kids still pass on games, songs and stories like they used to? I’m asking because the other day I brought home a box of pastries tied in that once highly valuable childhood commodity -- bakery string. Naturally, I removed the string carefully, tied it in a loop and tried to teach my kids Cat’s Cradle. Nothing. They didn’t get it.
            Back in my time, before afterschool enrichment programs, hand-held video games and 24-hour cartoon channels, kid-only practices and rituals were a part of everyday life. Pacts were sealed in blood, or via the equally disgusting practice of touching tongues. Secrets were communicated in Pig Latin and other strange dialects. Disgusting songs that made mothers turn purple when we repeated them were passed around with abandon. Baroque insults were tossed back and forth. Elaborate role-playing games lasting weeks were invented (the biggest being the modernistic housing development we built out of one family’s leftover paving stones, known as Slaten Place).
             Most memorably, scary cautionary tales were spread, tales which I accepted at face value well into adulthood until stumbling upon the concept of Urban Legends. Along with such classics as the one about Life Cereal’s Little Mikey, who exploded from eating Pop Rocks while drinking Coke, one unique story stands out. As Halloween approached one year, Joey, our street’s de facto leader, began telling us how aliens were planning to invade Earth on October 31 and abduct everyone over 10. Now, at the time I was 10. Joey was a year older than me. It seemed clear to me that if I just bided my time, soon I’d be in charge of the neighborhood. (The fate of the grownups and children whisked away by alien beings didn’t concern me so much.) I remember being bitterly disappointed when this prediction did not, in fact, come to pass.
            The technical term for this phenomenon is Children’s Folklore, and it includes role playing (Cops and Robbers and its contemporary versions); insults and their deflections (“I know you are but what am I?”);  superstitions (“Step on a crack, break your mother’s back”); and gestures (linking pinkies signifies agreement, crossing your fingers behind your back gives you permission to lie). And while it may not be as pervasive as it was a generation or two ago, vestiges of playground culture still exists.
            For instance, last year my younger son came home from day camp with a story about a toddler on a cruise with his family who jumped overboard because he wanted to visit SpongeBob. I explained to him about Urban Legends, looked this one up on the website Snopes.com and found it listed, analyzed, and debunked. (For some reason, he declined my offer to print the webpage out and bring it to camp the next day to show his friends.)
            For my kids, playground culture has been somewhat revived thanks to Outdoor Games Day, a weekly gathering of homeschoolers at local park where the kids organize their own recreation. Ironically, the family that started Outdoor Games Day turned to books of Children’s Folklore to find games for suitable for the group, such as Duck, Duck, Goose, Red Rover and Capture the Flag. My kids also learned to play Marco Polo at the pool, and Ghost in the Graveyard at a friend’s party. At day camp, where there was little else in the way of play equipment besides blacktop and a couple balls, they played FourSquare obsessively. But without school recess or a pack of neighborhood kids to run around with on a daily basis, my kids at least are missing out on a lot of the fun stuff I remember from my youth.
            Experts say playground games are more than nostalgia. In the UK, a study found that traditional games like jumprope and handclapping rhymes can curb bullying, by giving kids more chance to play cooperatively. Last year the British Department for Culture, Media and Sport launched a website called Playground Fun to offer children practical suggestions and ideas for new games as well as old. Teachers at schools where the project was tested said they saw a marked improvement in social interaction and behavior, as well as physical fitness.
            To help stem the disappearance of Children’s Folklore, we’ve put together a sampling of time-tested playground activities from www.gameskidsplay.net that kids will enjoy and adults will approve of. Cross my heart and hope to die!

Spanish Dancer
(This was my favorite jump rope song when I was little. The lyrics tell you what to act out while jumping.)

Not last night but the night before,
24 robbers came knocking at my door
I asked them what they wanted, and this is what they said:
Spanish Dancer, do the high twist
Spanish Dancer, do the low split
Spanish dancer turn around
Spanish dancer touch the ground
Spanish dancer you better get out of town!

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
(Another fondly-remembered quiet game from the old days.)

The group sits crosslegged in a circle and chants “Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves” while the leader does an action (tapping knees, clapping hands, etc). On each repetition, the leader changes the action while the next person in the circle picks up previous action. The action travels around the circle in this way until every person ends up doing a different action. 

One Potato
(One of several rhymes used to pick who is “It.” The players make fists and turn them sideways, then say the rhyme while tapping the other person’s fist and their own on each word, using their chin as a substitute for the fist they’re using. The person whose fist is hit on the last word is out.)

One potato, two potato, three potato, four.
Five potato, six potato, seven potato, more.

Bola
(New to me, but sounds like it’s easy to make and a ball to play!)

© 2006 Kathy Ceceri

BACK TO TOP