I know I'm very old but when I was at Primary school we had 'Marble Season'

[Twiglett]

when kids would suddenly turn up clutching bags of marbles and all these ingenious games would be set up to cries of 'hit it, win it, no nothings' .. and then just as suddenly it would end

I wish they still did those at school

(if you remember this kind of thing do you think it would be mad to have a 'marble' party for a 7 year old?)

yes we had this. boys tended to do the games while the girls did swaps to get the prettiest collection. maybe there's a health and safety problem with it now.

I remember this sort of thing, vaguely. I think it was called 'summer', wasn't it? Not much fun playing marbles in the playground in the pissing rain.

Elf'n'safety considerations have probably put paid to marbles in school - choking and all that (see this afternoon's thread about a six year old not allowed lollipops in case he chokes).

The boys mainly played marbles, the girls played jacks when I was at primary

I loved jacks. Remember that elastic thing where you jumped around the elastic that was around 2 people's legs? That was ace.

We went through phases of bead swapping. All the girls had collections of beads that they would swap. A glass bead was known as a "diamond" and was identified by tapping on the teeth.
French elastic was another craze that used to come and go at my school- havent' seen this for a long time although skipping ropes are still popular where I work

we had like tiny russian dolls on string that we attatched to zips and button holes they were 5p each and pe day was hell none of us could undress cos our zips were stuck and button holes were jammed-other crazes were conkers ....not very good and those jelly bean sand shoes your mum bought them on a friday and by wednesday they started splitting- adventurous (or poorer mums like mine) would cut the plastic away where the jelly had split forming intricate jelly patterns that she could never duplicate the exact same pattern on the other shoe!!!

two ball was fantastic i can actually juggle 3 and my kids are amazed at my ability to juggle 2 balls with 1 hand

ohhhh yeah we did finger knotting too

yes nowadays it would be mad.
my kids are not even allowed effing footballs in school. ...
ds1 and his friends used to play footie at every availabel oppourtunity, breaks, lunch, after school etc etc.
ds2 and his friends have to make do with some discarded bit of rubbish. they are not allowed to play with balls because they are considered dangerous by the school.
wtf?

Marbles got banned at my primary school because boys were throwing them at each other's heads at close range.

We had these 2 ball things on a string but were banned at my school as they had heard reports of kids breaking their fingers.

ALso remember some strange thing called a squirmal which as a sort of small furry snake thing on a very thin string that you could twirl round your fingers and make it lk alive.

yes!!! and then seamlessly, without any formal agreement, skipping rope season would arrive. Then Bouncy Ball season etc. And ElaSTICS. aNYBODY ELSE have elastics? Or was it a purely local thing??

(A LENGTH Of elastic tied to make a long loop, worn round ankles of two girls. Then there were intricate, dancey, ritual steps involving toes like cats cradle but with toes!)

We played marbles on man-hole covers. Couldn't remeber the rules if you asked me.

Also making mazes for the ants in the dusty mud in the summer, and nests for birds out of grass clippings.

Yoyos from sprite and fanta etc were massive when I was in primary - when you could walk the dog and go round the world etc

Adored elastics

I wish I could remember all the steps and stages for elastics - I'd love to start a playground revival!

I loved marbles! They're probably considered dangerous or something these days.

I loved marbles I loved my frenhies and gobbies

catseyes, bloods and chinas.

French skipping.

Conkers.

Oh yes

peanut bear......your marbles sound very ermmmmmm suggestive lololol

My mother knitted my DS a proper marble bag. He loves it but the Aussie kids don't get it

Ohhh yes, we had 'american elastics' which I think is French Skipping. the elastic bands would pull the hairs out of your legs.

and jacks.

and there was a wild time when we had 'clackers' but they were banned, because they were shattering....H and S in the 1970s!!!

FullMoonFiend does this mean anything to you? I don't know if these things were regional.

England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, inside, outside, over and IN.
England Ireland, Scotland Wales, inside, outside, over and OUT
England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, inside, outside, over and LINES.

Start at the ankles, then knees, then hips then waists then ?

That's what we did.

We had skipping ropes. The dad of one of the girls worked in one of the local mills and he got us this big long rope about 10ft long. We would end up with about 12 of us in teh middle jumping.

We had

England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, in, out, twist [a 90° turn which twisted the elastic round your ankles] and shout [a jump out of the elastic].

I adored French skipping with the elastic and the group skipping rope! Our children use individual ropes but I rarely see the long ropes. That was such fun. And very good coordination training.