Tell Unicef UK the playground games you loved as a child - £300 voucher to be won!

[EmmaMumsnet]

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Unicef UK are launching this years Soccer Aid Playground Challenge and would love to hear about the playground games you used to play at school and what games your children play now. The playground is the highlight of the school day where children can burn off all their energy and play with their friends; share below what you loved to play when you were at school and if any of the games have passed down generations.

Here’s what Unicef has to say: “This year, we’re asking all schools across the UK to join us for the Soccer Aid Playground Challenge to help raise money to help give more children around the world a childhood full of play. The idea is simple – teachers team up with their pupils, design an obstacle course that they will take on together, and fundraise to help children in danger in June 2019. Ask your school to sign up here and we’ll send everything you need for kick off - including fundraising and teaching resources to bring Soccer Aid to life for the whole school.”

Alex, Head of Sports for St Dunstan’s RC Primary School, Manchester says: “The Playground Challenge was the perfect way to get the whole school together for a great cause. Everyone (including staff!) had the best time raising money to help children all over the world.”

So what playground games did you love as a child? Were you Queen of hopscotch? Or perhaps you practised your circus skills with stilts? Maybe you created your own playground football league or were seriously skilled at skipping? Do you know if your children still play the same games now at school?

Everyone who posts below will be entered into a prize draw where one Mumsnetter will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list)

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Terms and conditions apply

We used to play Save All. The premise of the game is like hide and seek however the seeker has to tag the person they find and they both run to a safe location and depending on which returns first the seeker gets them out or if the runner gets there first they can 'save all' i.e the others that are already out of the game. At my son's school they are not allowed to run on the playground after each other incase they knock over the smaller children!

Skipping with elastics we called French skipping
Normal skipping with a rope either alone or with two people holding the rope for others to jump into.
Two balls up against a wall with rhymes to sing to see who got furthest before the ball was dropped and then would have to start over again.
One ball in a stocking /leg of a pair of tights with similar rhymes
Hopscotch with a flat tin to skim across the playing surface.
Rings of children holding hands and singing too many songs to remember.These were often 'seasonal' with different songs in favour at different times.
Whats the time Mr Wolf was more of an organised game .

In the street we played with marbles and jacks
We made 'stilts' with tin cans and lengths of string
We tied rope around lampposts and swung out into the street- fewer cars to impede our play.
Some boys/Dads made Guiders ( go-carts Ive heard others call them) out of the wheels of old prams and wooden crates.
We knocked doors and ran away - since the kids were all out in the street making noise usually no-one bothered answering the doors anyway but for some reason that didnt put us off.

Ooh skipping ! Both rope and also elastic, french skipping. We also played Bristish bull dog, what’s the time Mr Wolf, that ball game when you had to throw the ball against the wall, let it bounce, turn around etc. Spent loads of time on different clapping games too.

It has to be the elastic game.
One on each side looking at each other with the elastic on the angle. Then another jumping.
You did so many tricks and if you got higher without mucking up, the elastic went to the knees and so on to the thigh?

If you did a mistake it was to change places with somebody who had the elastic round the ankles.

But I remember the skipping ropes. Where two where moving the rope and you jumping. 😂😂😂

DID ANY BODY PLAY HAND STANDS AGAINST A WALL?
THEN ANOTHER OVER YOU AND ANOTHER?

It was. handstand sand which???
I was infants back in 1984.

Skipping, tag and marbles. I still have an impressive collection somewhere...

We used to play elastics a lot.Also skipping,one of the rhymes was under the moon,over the stars,where you had to run under the rope one way then jump over it.Also tiggy it,clapping games & ball games singing rhymes.Am glad I went to school in them days before health & safety took over & spoilt all the fun.

‘Two ball’, literally hours spent perfecting routines throwing balls against a wall. Under your leg, round the back, one-handed, endless incremental steps. The songs changed for each level of difficultly. I would practise all weekend at home as well.

Hopscotch, British bulldog, (not sure if this is how you spell it but) acky 123, duck duck goose, tig

I used to love hide and seek, and I still do. From playing this hiding from my brother, in his wardrobe until he'd get bored and go and have a sandwich, leaving me dripping in the condensation caused by my own breathing for hours, to playing with my friends as a teen in the woods where we'd scare ourselves by sneaking up on each other or getting lost, to occasionally feeling cheeky and young again, and hiding under the bed or behind the door when I hear my husband come upstairs! I suppose the latter isn't hide and seek, but it definitely harps back to my youth and I enjoyed the anticipation.

We had a lovely long hill at one side of the playground... it was great to spend endless breaktimes rolling down it then itching for hours due to an undiagnosed grass allergy

Hopscotch and elastics a lot! Remember getting a black eye from that haha!
My little ones now love to play tig and hide and seek!

Loved British Bulldogs, grandma's footsteps/what time is it mr wolf, giant skipping ropes.

Remember the craze for the bouncy balls with the plastic circle on - a bit like Saturn - that you had to jump on.

British bulldog was popular but often banned, normally due to injuries. We got round this by changing the name so that technically we weren't playing that 😂

I loved skipping though, at home and at school

It, stuck in the mud, elastics, kiss chase, 40 40, British bulldog, what's the time mister wolf, red letter, Marco Polo, hide and seek, sardines

Skipping, handstand and cartwheel competitions. I remember teaching the infants to skip when I was in yr 4. Gardening, tools where laid out in the benches, with some plants or seeds and we just got on with it. The teacher would come out occasionally if there was no planting to be be fine to check in weeding. Mud pie making was another game.
But the best had to be bouncy balls, the solid rubber ones which got banned after a dinner lady ended up with s black eye and British bulldog, again banned. I think we were the first generation of teachers and staff using health and safety measures in a playground.

Came A Duke A Riding.
Catch,
Skipping.
Hopscotch.
Marbles.

I remember loving hopscotch, elastic (I called Jingle Jangle, but no idea why!) and rope jumping. The main group game at school when I was a child was British Bulldog - it was banned after a girl broke her arm. My girls seem to play duck duckgoose a lot. It's nice to see they still play hopscotch too!

I come from Scarborough where a local tradition is skipping on the foreshore on pancake day. We always had Feb half term over pancake day so everyone could go. Then all the skipping ropes came out and it was skipping at school playtimes from Feb-July - for some reason come Sept they'd all gone away again until the next pancake day!

We also played a variation of British Bulldog called 'Red Rover' where one player from one team tried to break through the other team who all stood with arms linked and tried to circle the opposing player. It got banned after 1 girl broke through the opposing team with great speed and went flying into the air and had to go to hospital for stitches where she'd landed on her face!

Hopscotch, cats cradle, What’s the time Mr Wolf, skipping, handstands, conkers, marbles, British Bulldog, clackers.

Elastics, hopscotch, skipping and juggling balls against a wall or into the air. Oh and what’s the time Mr Wolf?

Definitley Bulldogs charge!

I played Whats The Time Mr Wolf, skipping, 49/50(hide and seek). Marbles came out every summer but were banned , don't remember why!

Skipping, tig, ping pong, kiss chase.

Elastics and skipping, cats cradle and clapping, British bulldog and What's the time Mr Wolf, Jacks and Clackers (Ouch)

Two Balls, Marbles also French Skipping was my favourite games I played at Playtime at school in the Summer months. In the winter months we did a lot of running about to keep warm so it was Tiggy we played they was the good old days.