Playground and street games

[wolfcubber]

HI everyone
As most of you know the press is always going on about our children becoming a nation of "couch potatoes", watching TV or playing video games. I didn't neccessarily agree with this untill I questioned some children along with my own three what games they played at break times at school. The answers i got were surprising, apart from tag and football they didn't really play any games and they didn't know the rules or names of any other games. So myself along with some other parents at our local primary have decided to do something about it. This is where you come in. We are trying to put together a "games bank" of traditional and not so traditional playground and street games. If you or your children have favourite games let me know what they are along with the name and a quick rundown of the rules. So start searching into the deep dark recesses of your childhood memories. Either post them here or direct to this E-mail I have set up for this. [email protected]
Many thanks
Patrick Christie

[SoupDragon]

There was a sort of hide and eek where you had to get home to base and shout "forty forty home" I think when the seeker spotted you, you had to race each other back to base.

British Bulldog Actually, this site had loads of games an rhymes on it - might save you a lot of trouble!

[Art]

'Stuck in the mud' is a firm favourite of my class. (Not sure if its the same as your tag)Choose a catcher(s) who chases the rest. If you get caught you have to stand still 'stuck' with your legs apart until another player crawls thru your legs to free you, when you can then continue to run around. The catcher has to try and immobilise everyone.

We also play 'dodgeball' where evryone stands in a circle with one player in the middle. You roll a ball to try and hit the person in the middle below the knees. If you succeed you become the person trying to dodge in the middle.
Best in groups of 5-6.

There is also another thread about playground games called 'two balls up the wall' or something similar, you could try looking there.

Good luck with your venture anyway.

Thanks too soupdragon Im going to try that site for myself.

[jodee]

I was going to have a word with you about beating defenceless wild animals about the head with a stick, then I read your nickname more closely and realised it was Wolfcubber not WolfCLUBBER!!

That was a great site, Soupdragon, and my fave playground game was there - What's the time, Mr Wolf? (quite an appropriate one for our poster!)

[SoupDragon]

They were playing What's the Time Mr Wolf on the Tweenies this week and when I picked my 3 year old up from nursery, they were playing it there. So cute!

I've found so many wonderful sites doing "research" to answer people's questions!

[JJ]

We played Pickle, which is explained here . (Thanks SoupDragon!) We played with three people, though and kept score. The runner would get a point for making it to a base.

Other than that, wiffleball (baseball with a plastic bat and holey plastic ball) and kickball (baseball with a rolled rubber ball which was kicked and it was ok to throw the ball at people to get them out). Oh, and Horse. It's a basketball shooting game. Just had a look and kickball and Horse are on the Games Kids Play site . Again, thanks SoupDragon!

[PamT]

We used to play 'kick can and hop it'. One person was 'on' and everyone else had to hide, then whilst the finder was searching for everyone you had to try to kick a can at the base and run away again to prevent being caught. If you were caught by the finder or failed to kick the can, you would be 'on' next time.