Does anyone remember any games they played on the playground at school? I remember playing Tag and Stuck in the Mud. I also used to play skipping games with a skipping rope.

I remember playing Kickball but thats about it.

Depending what age you are talking about.
In the Infants we used to play 'knife, fork, spoon, spin' (a handstand competition), Black Magic (a game with actions depending on the colour the person who was 'on' chose.  they chased you when they said black), Farmers in the Den etc.

In the Juniors we would play skipping (both on your own and all together on one long rope), French Elastic, Blue Boy (a calmed down version of British Bulldog), various versions of "ticky" (tag), two ball against a wall and some strange variation of this with a ball in a long sock.  I vaguely remember some singing round in a circle games as well, one of which my daughter still plays nearly 30 years later!

We used to play a game called Statues. You had a "buyer" and a "seller". The buyer would go some where else for a few minutes and the seller would spin everyone else around and where they stopped, they froze. Then the seller would go to all the "statues" to ask what they were. Then the buyer would come in and see all the statues. The seller would tell what each one was and "turn them on" so they could "preform" for the buyer. The buyer than chose which one he/she liked best. Then the one who was picked became the buyer, the buyer the seller, and the seller became a statue. I know it sounds a bit stupid but as a kid I LOVED this game.



Cat

Hop-Scotch, Kick Ball and Naked Twister....oh wait...that last one was much later ::)

Played Kick Against... basically you had a soccer ball and you'd kick it against a large, metal backstop (used for baseball). Goal was to hit it against the front of the backstop on your kick, else you lost and the next person played the winner. After it hit the backstop, the other person let the ball come to a stop and kicked it from wherever it stopped. You had 3 bonus kicks (two made with the side of the foot, one with the back) per game, which could be use to better position the ball if necessary, but you had to call them out before using them. Finally, if you managed to kick the ball over the backstop, without touching it at all, you won automatically (which is easy now that I'm grown, but was a pain as a little kid).

Kryllith

i loved marbles. a whole lot of us were into marbles, i remember we even organised tournaments. living in the far north we loved playing king of the hill. the school parking lot would be cleared of snow, the city would pile it high (sometimes up to 20 feet) by the school's playground. what we'd do is get a whole bunch of kids and have them scramble to the top. it was a lot of pushing and pulling. the kid who was at the top would loudly proclaim his was the king of the hill, it was the other kids duty to take him down. i was often the king, being quite large for my age. as you can imagine injuries occured...i heard this game as well as snowball fights were banned in my town's schools. oh well, thus the age of litigation takes another fond childhood memory...

Kickball, Dodgeball, Tetherball  :D

We used to have the marathon sessions of 'Bulldog', which at times could involve so many kids that it was a wonder all-out war never broke out...!!

Other than that, huge sessions of footy went down well...not five or eleven a side though, that was much too tame...our sides consisted of anything upward from 40...!!

A sinister deviation of this was when it degenerated into a swift game of 'Boots'...the idea of the game being...

1. Kick ball in the direction of anyone
2. Everyone jumps out of the way of ball
3. Wait until ball is stationary, then kick again...etc.

This was done in a random fashion until someone actually got hit by the ball - then everyone else would 'steam in' to the poor unfortunate and kick several shades of stuff out of him instead...shouting 'Boots' all the while...!!

The teachers put a stop to that one...can't think why...!!

We used to play a game called Statues. You had a "buyer" and a "seller". The buyer would go some where else for a few minutes and the seller would spin everyone else around and where they stopped, they froze. Then the seller would go to all the "statues" to ask what they were. Then the buyer would come in and see all the statues. The seller would tell what each one was and "turn them on" so they could "preform" for the buyer. The buyer than chose which one he/she liked best. Then the one who was picked became the buyer, the buyer the seller, and the seller became a statue. I know it sounds a bit stupid but as a kid I LOVED this game.
Cat


OMG!  I remember that game!  We used to play it too..and here I thought some kid at school had just made it up!

And I remember all the games 80s cheerleader mentioned too.  ;D

Red Rover (I'm surprised no shoulders were dislocated on that one ;D),

That might be the name of a game I was trying to recall.  Do you have two teams that stand facing each other.  Team A chooses a runner from Team B.  Team A then stand in line holding hands and the runner must try and break through the line.  If he does he can return to his team but if he fails he joins Team A.

If that's not the game who know what this one is called?

  In grade school we played kick-ball quite a bit.  Sort of like baseball 'cept with a, uh...kick-ball...

  Tag, definately. 

  Stuck In The Mud sounds familiar, but I can't remember how it's played.

When I was in elementary school, we often played kickball, handball, or four square, depending on what our class was assigned for a particular week. I liked kickball, especially when I got to pitch, but I enjoyed playing other positions too. I was also really good at handball. We played the kind where you have to let the ball bounce on the ground before you hit it.

Four Square,Skipping,Hopskotch and Jumprope(elastic bands knotted together with different stages of jump difficulty)

We played hopskotch, jump rope, four square, red rover, dodge ball, tether ball, hide and seek. We would also pretend like the monkey bars were jail and we would lock the boys up!!  ;)

This is how I played Stuck In The Mud. It's similar to tag. You run around and if someone touches you, you have to freeze until someone crawls through your legs and you're free.

Most of mine are already listed, but I've got a few more:
  Cartwheel competitions: Lining up at one end of the soccer field and doing non-stop cartwheels all the way to the other end. Made you dizzy until well after you were back in class! :D
  One crazy thing we had was called a "pulley." It was the most popular thing on our playground...doesn't exist anymore now that we've entered the age of endless lawsuits. Imagine a wooden platform you climb up to where there is a heavy metal cable fixed above leading down and over about 1/3 of a soccer field away, where it is fixed to a huge wooden pole. On this cable is a huge rope with a metal clamp on the top and a knot tied at the end (you see where I'm going with this :o). Climb on, ride down, smack off of the pole, then run back to the platform holding the rope for the next kid. And to think that none of us ever got hurt! Most of our injuries were to due miscalculated penny-drops from the monkey bars or smacking someone in the head with a tether ball.
  Part of our playground was lightly wooded, so after lunch, some of us would play M*A*S*H* (no kidding). As the only girl, I was always stuck being Hot Lips  :-*, even though I wanted to be Radar.
  At the local park by my house, our favorite game was Log and Bar tag. You could run around anywhere you wanted, but you could only touch logs or bars. There was a "one step" allowance for brick or sand. You had to be absolutely fearless to play this one. Most playgrounds now are made of plastic. Heaven forbid some kid comes home nowadays with a splinter... ::)

  We played basketball "baseball" , which was actually a form of kickball using the basketball half court and going around the four corners before the other team could make a basket or 2.
  And I also remember playing those hand rhymes where 4 people were involved.  If you didn't concentrate you had a lot of other people mad at you for messing up the "groove". clap w/ the person up, directly in front of you, down,w/ the person to the right of her, left, your right, then right, your left (?)while remembering the rhyme too. It was a mental work- out!

I remember Dodgeball that we used to play at Gym time. :)



Howard

I played tetherball almost every day in grade school.  Then they tore it down >:(

I also remember being on the merry-go-round ::)

I played tetherball almost every day in grade school.  Then they tore it down >:(

I played tetherball until the fourth grade.


I remember Dodgeball that we used to play at Gym time. :)


I remember playing dodgeball in elementary school; I think I may have also done so in gym class in junior high. ;)

I also remember playing the game "Pogs" back in 5th grade, that was one of the few fads that I ever really got into and I was pretty good at it.  Most of the pogs that I got I won away from people.

I remember Pogs. When I was at primary school, a lot of people played with them.

When we played dodgeball, hopscotch, pimpleball(baseball with half of a rubber ball) and stuff like that it was usually in the street in front of the house.  If we went to the playground it was for stuff we couldn't do in the street, like swings and slides and seesaws.  In winter they(the city) would open the hydrant and flood the field, it was a way of flushing the hydrants and providing a place to ice skate at the sametime.  :)

"Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack...all dressed in black, black, black...with silver buttons, buttons, buttons...all down her back, back, back...she asked her mother, mother, mother...for 50 cents, cents, cents...to see the elephants, elephants, elephants...jump the fence, fence, fence..." :D


This is how we said it:

"Miss Mary Mack,Mack,Mack...all dressed in black,black,black,...with silver buckles,buckles,buckles...all
down her back,back,back,...she jumped so high,high,high...she touched the sky,sky,sky...and didn't come back,back,back...'til the 4th of July,ly,ly.

any other versions?

Oh, there was this very complicated game called candy river. There were two teams, one called "Veggies", one called "Fruit". I was always stuck as a veggie cus I was last picked, and ALWAYS veggies were one player short ( >:( ).

The idea was:

Fruit started first. There were 4 each side, so fruit was (in order): Banana, Strawberry, Apple, Kiwi. Veggies were: Broccoli, Sprouts, Cabbage, Lettuce.

Banana jumped over the candy river (a bunch of school bags and jumpers with skipping ropes lining off the candy river). People in the candy river (Candies) had to try and pull the person jumping over into the Candy River. If they succeeded, someone on the pulled ins team would have to pay one of their F&V coins to get them out. Each team with 20 F&V coins. When everyone was on the other side, that was when they counted the amount of F&V coins. The team with the most won.

I kept falling in the Candy River. My team were kind to me, but secretly i think they didn't like me for losing their F&V points. Veggies seemed to win though. I was always Cabbage, sometimes Broccoli.

Oh my gosh, I forgot all about those little rhymes we said. How about "bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish, how many pieces do you wish" or "One potato, two potato, three potato, four, five potato, six potato, seven potato more", or "My mother said to pick the very best one and you are not it, you dirty old dish rag you".  What the heck?  Where did those things come from anyways?  :-\\

My favorite hand rhyme was:
Say say oh playmate, come out and play with me, and bring your dollies three, climb up my apple tree, slide down my rain barrel, into my cellar door, and we'll be jolly friends, forever more
There was a darker version of this we did that went:
Say say oh enemy, come out and fight with me, and bring your machine guns three, climb up my snake-filled tree, slide down my razor blade, into my dungeon door, and we'll be enemies, forever more

I never knew the Miss Mary Mack one, but I'm guessing it was popular...Book of Love used part of that first line in their song "Witchcraft." Now I know where it came from! :)

My favorite jump rope rhyme was:
Cinderella dressed in yella, went upstairs to kiss a fella, made a mistake and kissed a snake, how many doctors did it take? One, two, three (and so on until somebody messed up)

Which reminds me of one other game we played: Chinese jump rope...I LOVED to play that

Duck Duck Goose

7-Up


Howard

Oh! Clapping rhymes! One I made was -

(starting from my birthdate)

On the 14th of Ju ly ly ly
My boyfriend gave to me me me
A present wrapped in silver
Which was sent by the deep blue sea sea sea!

Then it would go on with different presents and the days would go on, one by one, and stop when someone messed up. The messing up part would either be:

The One hand going down, one hand going up, then traditional clapping (clap others hands then your own)
OR
The fact you did the section of clapping 3 times when it came to an "i i i" sounding part.

When you messed up, both of you had to:

Do traditional clapping, singing:

"On (whatever day you messed up on)
You messed up very badly
You went to the lake
For a picnic
But made a rude noise
When eating
So he broke up with you, ha ha ha
And he took your presents, ha ha ha
So see you later, ha ha ha
The next time he sends a present by the sea sea sea!"

If you had something like the 28th of September, you would say:

"On the 28th of September ber"

to fit it in.

"On the 31st of Au gust gust gust"
"On the 8th of Novem ber ber"

And so on

But you CAN start from your own birthday. 14th of July just fit into the beat though. and i used it from my birthday.

You can do it to "Replay your childhood" but i can do it because im still a child lol!

My daughter's favourite hand clapping rhyme is

My boyfriend's name is Tony
He comes from Macaroni
He's got a pickle up his nose and twenty-four toes
and this is how my story goes

One day when I was walking
I saw my boyfriend talking
To two pretty girls with strawberry curls
and this is what he said to them

I want to K-I-S-S kiss you (mwah mwah)
I L-O-V-E love you
So I threw him in a lake and he swallowed a snake
And came back with the belly ache.


When I was at school we sang something quite similar but not exactly these words.

When my mum was younger, she played skipping rope games with her friends. They used the rhyme "Salt, mustard, vinegar, pepper." Anyone remeber that?

When my mum was younger, she played skipping rope games with her friends. They used the rhyme "Salt, mustard, vinegar, pepper." Anyone remeber that?


Yes, we used to do that.  You had to skip faster and faster until you tripped over the rope.  I can't remember now the significance of which word you tripped on.

There's another long rope skipping song I would love to learn the 'real' words to.  We changed them and now I can only remember that version

It goes

Vote, vote, vote for Sharon Dorman (or whoever was skipping)
Who's that knocking at the door?
Karen (who then jumps in and skips as well)
Karen is the one can't remember this bit
So we don't want Sharon any more.

For the bit I can't remember I think it's something like ...who looks like lots of fun.  We used to sing ....with the automatic bum!  :-\\

ANyway if anyone (or their mum) recognises it I would love to know the correct version.

My favorite hand rhyme was:
Say say oh playmate, come out and play with me, and bring your dollies three, climb up my apple tree, slide down my rain barrel, into my cellar door, and we'll be jolly friends, forever more



I always loved that but there is a second verse.

Oh little playmate, I can not play with you. My dolly has the flu, boo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo. I have no rain barrel, I have no cellar door. But we'll be jolly friends, forever more, more, more, more.



Cat

Oh little playmate, I can not play with you. My dolly has the flu, boo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo. I have no rain barrel, I have no cellar door. But we'll be jolly friends, forever more, more, more, more.


the one we had was the same tune, I think, but went like this:
"Stacy my playmate, come down and play with me, and bring your dollies three, climb up my apple tree, slide down the rainbow, into the pot of gold, and we'll be ever friends, for ever more...."
So cute.

Ok, I always used to do one of those clapping things with my friends, and I can't remember the rhyme we said.  I know that the last part of the rhyme was "chinese, japanese, indian, something."  I'm sure this is a long shot, but I've searched online for it and there's nothing, so I might as well see if anyone can help me out. :P

Thanx for the help,
Strangelilgirl

Oh my gosh, I forgot all about those little rhymes we said. How about "bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish, how many pieces do you wish" or "One potato, two potato, three potato, four, five potato, six potato, seven potato more", or "My mother said to pick the very best one and you are not it, you dirty old dish rag you".  What the heck?  Where did those things come from anyways?  :-\\

I don't know, but they do bring back memories. I can remember doing those as a kid. As well as: "Engine engine number nine, On the New York transit line, if that train falls off the track, do you want your money back?" Sometimes we played elimination with that, and the winner was the one person who was left.

I don't know, but they do bring back memories. I can remember doing those as a kid. As well as: "Engine engine number nine, On the New York transit line, if that train falls off the track, do you want your money back?" Sometimes we played elimination with that, and the winner was the one person who was left.


I remember that one.

What about this one?:

Miss Lucy had a tugboat, she named it Tiny Tim, Miss Lucy went to Heaven and the tugboat went to Hello operator, give me number 9. If you disconect me I will kick you in the Behind the 'fridgerator, there is a peice of glass, and if you dare to touch it I will kick you in the Ask me no more questions, tell me no more lies. This is what my grandmother said the day before she die.

Or how about this one? (hand gestures goes with each one):

My mother baked a choclate cake. yummy yum. My father is a garbage man. yummy yum peeyou. My sister is a ballarina. yummy yum, peeyou, loddy da dee do. My brother is a cowboy. Yummy yum, peeyou, loddy da dee do, bang bang, roll 'em up put them in. My auntie is an operator. yummy yum, peeyou, loddy da dee do, bang band, roll 'em up put them in, hello good-bye. My uncle is an engineer. Yummy yum, peeyou, loddy da dee do, bang bang, roll 'em up put them in, hello good-bye, toot toot.

Man, I can't believe that I remember that.


Cat

We used to play hide & go seek, the terrible "CRACK-THE-WHIP"-ouch!!!  :\'( and flashlight tag.  If anyone is interested, I have the URL for a "Kids Games" site-older games, like statue maker and Red Rover as well as jump rope songs.

Great memories, thanks for the thread!

Kicks, Deathball and in Secondry School.. Fight Club  :)

Kicks was in primary school... (elementary school)

One guy would stand faceing a line of kids and they would take it in turn to kick him, if he didnt scream then when everyone had kicked him he could join the back of the line and of course got revenge, however if you screamed you were either banished (if we were feeling kind) you could be forced to play with the girls (eeeeeeeeeww) or you would usually be beaten.. often with a stick or part of a toy. Needless to say there were many complaints about this game (which me and pete were ringleaders of) and we had to play it in the shrubbery eventually. At that age i never considerd what young boys shreiking oooooooowww it hurts must have sounded like coming from the woods  :o

Deathball is obvious, whoever has the ball basically must be stopped.. BY ANY MEANS NECCISARY!

Fight Club was one of those things... it got stopped fairly quickly but we used to form a circle on the school field and two people would fight, basically like normal fights at school except these were pre-arranged.

Talk about bringing back old memories! 

There was a rhyme that we used to do, "I had a little teddy bear.  His name was Tiny Tim.  I put him in the bathtub to see if he could swim.  He drank up all the water and ate up all the soap.  I called the doctor and the doctor said there's no hope.  Last night he died with a bubble in his throat."  HOw morbid for a little kid!

My friends and I also played Three's Company.  Since we didn't play with yucky boys, that meant one of us had to be Jack.  Usually, me. 

I think instead of coffee breaks, we need to have recess like when we were young.  Wouldn't it be a lot of fun?

Miss Lucy had a tugboat, she named it Tiny Tim, Miss Lucy went to Heaven and the tugboat went to Hello operator, give me number 9. If you disconect me I will kick you in the Behind the 'fridgerator, there is a peice of glass, and if you dare to touch it I will kick you in the Ask me no more questions, tell me no more lies. This is what my grandmother said the day before she die.



After putting the computer to bed last night I realized that I was getting two songs mixed up. The one I quoted above SHOULD read:

Miss Lucy had a tugboat, the tugboat had a bell. Miss Lucy went to Heaven and the tugboat when to Hello operator....


The other one goes:

Miss Lucy had a baby, she named it Tiny Tim. She put it in the bathtub to see if he could swim. He drank up all the water, he ate up all the soap. He tried to eat the bathtub but it wouldn't go down his throat. Miss Lucy call the doctor. Miss Lucy called the nurse. Miss Lucy called the lady with the allagator purse. In came the doctor, in came the nurse, in came the lady with the allagator purse. "Measles" said the doctor, "Mumps" said the nurse. "Chicken pox" said the lady with the allagator purse. Out went the doctor, out went the nurse, out went the lady with the allagator purse.


Man, WHY do I remember these??



Cat

Ok, I always used to do one of those clapping things with my friends, and I can't remember the rhyme we said.  I know that the last part of the rhyme was "chinese, japanese, indian, something."  I'm sure this is a long shot, but I've searched online for it and there's nothing, so I might as well see if anyone can help me out. :P

Thanx for the help,
Strangelilgirl
::)I remember that one.Around here was a politically incorrect version---Chinese(hold edges of eyelids up),Japanese(hold edges of eyelids down)dirty knees(point to knees),look at these(point to nipples,or breasts if you had them).Perhaps your mother told you not to say it,and you forgot it.Cheers!

After putting the computer to bed last night I realized that I was getting two songs mixed up. The one I quoted above SHOULD read:


Miss Lucy had a baby, she named it Tiny Tim. She put it in the bathtub to see if he could swim. He drank up all the water, he ate up all the soap. He tried to eat the bathtub but it wouldn't go down his throat. Miss Lucy call the doctor. Miss Lucy called the nurse. Miss Lucy called the lady with the allagator purse. In came the doctor, in came the nurse, in came the lady with the allagator purse. "Measles" said the doctor, "Mumps" said the nurse. "Chicken pox" said the lady with the allagator purse. Out went the doctor, out went the nurse, out went the lady with the allagator purse.


Man, WHY do I remember these??



Cat


I think there's another verse to this to do with the medicine that they gave him.  I've only heard my daughter and a friend recite this and neither of them can remember all the words.  I get a different version each time they sing it!

I thik Red Rover is another version of British Bulldog.

I thik Red Rover is another version of British Bulldog.


It's similar.

The way we used to play British Bulldog was that one person was 'on' to start with and everyone else had to run from one base to another whilst the person on had to catch and hold someone long enough to say "British Bulldog 1 ,2, 3"  If you were caught then you joined the catching team until everyone is a catcher and no one is a runner.

In Red Rover you have two equal sized teams.  One team decides who they want as a runner from the other team and chant "Red Rover, red Rover we want Stompgal over".  This team then spreads out in a line, holding hands and Stompgal would have to run over and try to break through the line.  If successful then you go back to your own team, if the team manage to keep holding hands then you join their team.  Then the second team can choose a runner from the first team.  According to my daughter they allow the runner 3 chances at breaking through the line, I can't remember if we did this or not.

We had a variant of British Bulldog called "Brandy".

Basically, one person started off with a tennis ball in the middle.

Then everyone charged across, hoping they wouldn't be the one the ball was thrown at.  The idea was peg it as hard as you could at someone and leave a "brand" on them.  :-\\

If you got branded you got control of the ball.  The previous people who had been branded tried to slow the others down on the next crossing.

How I don't recall anyone getting seriously injured I have no idea !  :o

Fuss

that sounds like a more violent version of Hot Rice.  That involves throwing a ball to hit someone so they are on but didn't have other people delibrately trying to slow someone down.

Fuss

that sounds like a more violent version of Hot Rice.  That involves throwing a ball to hit someone so they are on but didn't have other people delibrately trying to slow someone down.


I knew there was an underlying reason I have never really been very keen on Rice.  :)

Does anyone remember "Monkey in the middle"? Two people throw a ball back and forth and the person in the middle has to try and catch it. If they catch it, the person who threw it becomes the "monkey". I always hated this game because I always ended up being in the middle and being the youngest and shortest, I could never catch the ball. My sisters were so mean to me.  :\'(




Cat

Does anyone remember "Monkey in the middle"? Two people throw a ball back and forth and the person in the middle has to try and catch it. If they catch it, the person who threw it becomes the "monkey". I always hated this game because I always ended up being in the middle and being the youngest and shortest, I could never catch the ball. My sisters were so mean to me.  :\'(




Cat


We call it Piggy in the Middle but it's exactly the same game otherwise

I also played Hide And Seek at school. We played Chicken Limbo with the skipping rope and we also played a game where the rope was spun around and people jumped over it.

I also played Hide And Seek at school.


We used to play a variation of Hide and Seek called Sardines. One person would hide and everyone else hides their eyes and counts. Then everyone starts looking for that one person. When they find them, they crawl into the hiding place with them until there is only one person left looking. So everyone would be crammed into the hiding place like...Sardines.




Cat

..... and we also played a game where the rope was spun around and people jumped over it.


We used to play this and recite "Wizards, fairies, witches, goblins" and depending which word you tripped up on meant something, forget what though  ::)

Chance...a game where you threw a ball against a wall
Double Dutch....a jump rope game
Dr. Mix-Up....we would tangle ourselves up and the "doctor" would try to unravel us
Helicopter...another jump rope game in regards to what people were wearing
Old Man Rosalie...a stripping game (lol!). If the legs were uncrossed, you had to take something off such as a scarf
Red Rover...l killed people's hands!
Squares...five people with one in the center of the square trying to steal somebody's corner
Statue....would freeze into a position until the buyer would tap you and then you would do an act (kind of pointless, yet it was fun)
War...a ball game with four people standing in a square

There's another long rope skipping song I would love to learn the 'real' words to. We changed them and now I can only remember that version

It goes

Vote, vote, vote for Sharon Dorman (or whoever was skipping)
Who's that knocking at the door?
Karen (who then jumps in and skips as well)
Karen is the one can't remember this bit
So we don't want Sharon any more.

For the bit I can't remember I think it's something like ...who looks like lots of fun. We used to sing ....with the automatic bum! :-\\

ANyway if anyone (or their mum) recognises it I would love to know the correct version.


My mum remembers that rhyme, but she thinks that the line goes something like "Karen with the (kind of) chin."

Does anyone remember that hand rhyme that goes "What did it smell of? Cod fish?" I used to that one, but I can't remember the rest of it. Any ideas?

In Red Rover you have two equal sized teams.  One team decides who they want as a runner from the other team and chant "Red Rover, red Rover we want Stompgal over".  This team then spreads out in a line, holding hands and Stompgal would have to run over and try to break through the line.  If successful then you go back to your own team, if the team manage to keep holding hands then you join their team.  Then the second team can choose a runner from the first team.  According to my daughter they allow the runner 3 chances at breaking through the line, I can't remember if we did this or not.

Ah yes, I remember Red Rover; I haven't played that since first grade.

We used to play a game called Statues. You had a "buyer" and a "seller". The buyer would go some where else for a few minutes and the seller would spin everyone else around and where they stopped, they froze. Then the seller would go to all the "statues" to ask what they were. Then the buyer would come in and see all the statues. The seller would tell what each one was and "turn them on" so they could "preform" for the buyer. The buyer than chose which one he/she liked best. Then the one who was picked became the buyer, the buyer the seller, and the seller became a statue. I know it sounds a bit stupid but as a kid I LOVED this game.




My friends and I used to play this. It was one of the few games that my friend Cherie could not figure out a way to cheat at....  ;D

I always loved that but there is a second verse.

Oh little playmate, I can not play with you. My dolly has the flu, boo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo. I have no rain barrel, I have no cellar door. But we'll be jolly friends, forever more, more, more, more.




I learned this one too in my childhood....from my mother. Who is almost 80. Isn't it scary the way this stuff gets passed on.... ? :o


...doing things we used to do - they think are new....

I learned this one too in my childhood....from my mother. Who is almost 80. Isn't it scary the way this stuff gets passed on.... ? :o


...doing things we used to do - they think are new....


My daughter comes home from school eager to tell me the latest game/rhyme/joke and is surprised when I already know it.  Some of them are variations on a theme but even some of our weirder games are still being played.  I guess its a mixture of parents teaching children and older children passing things on.

What I find weirder is the way we all here know lots of the same games by the same names, given the many, many miles in between us all!

The game Helicopter sounds familiar. I think it's a game I mentioned and Karen used to play it too. helicopter could be that game where one person spins a skipping rope around and other people jumped over it. Come to think of the rope as the rotary blades on a helicopter.

I just thought of another game I used to play: Prisoner ball. It's usually played on a volleyball court; you yell out the name of a person on the opposing side, and if they don't catch it, they're out. If one person is out on your side, I think you yell "Prisoner!", and if two or more people are out, it's "Jailbreak!"; this is so you can get them back in.

Miss Lucy had a baby, she named it Tiny Tim. She put it in the bathtub to see if he could swim. He drank up all the water, he ate up all the soap. He tried to eat the bathtub but it wouldn't go down his throat. Miss Lucy call the doctor. Miss Lucy called the nurse. Miss Lucy called the lady with the allagator purse. In came the doctor, in came the nurse, in came the lady with the allagator purse. "Measles" said the doctor, "Mumps" said the nurse. "Chicken pox" said the lady with the allagator purse. Out went the doctor, out went the nurse, out went the lady with the allagator purse.
Cat

That's the one we sang, too.  Only it was Miss Suzy.  We sure didn't kill any babies like onaree did.  Man!!  :D

I always loved that but there is a second verse.

Oh little playmate, I can not play with you. My dolly has the flu, boo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo. I have no rain barrel, I have no cellar door. But we'll be jolly friends, forever more, more, more, more.



Cat

My mom taught me one similar to this, too, only it went
Slide down my rainbow into my cellar door and I will play with you forever more and more.

in the 80's we used to play with a chinese jump rope....we also did songs like...Miss Suzy had a steamboat, Miss Suzy had a baby...etc....


Erin :)

Do any of you remember a hand clapping rhyme which starts off "My boyfriend's name is Tony.  He comes from Macaroni"  I can't recall all the words to the version I know.  My daughter sings this as well but her version is different.

Jumprope(elastic bands knotted together with different stages of jump difficulty)


I think there's another version of Jump Rope where two people hold the skipping rope and the other person jumps. Jump Rope can also be a single player activity.

I Spy!
Who Do you Spy?
A Little Girl!
What's Her Name?
She Has No Name!
What Is She Wearing?

Bluebird, bluebird
Through my Window
Bluebird, bluebird
Through my window
Bluebird, Bluebird
Through my window,
Oh, Johnny I am tired
Take a little girl/boy and tap her/him on the shoulder
(cant remember the rest)


Red light, green light, 1, 2, 3

London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down
London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady.
London Bridge is half built up, half built up, half built up
London Bridge is half built up, my fair lady.
London Bridge is all built up, all built up, all built up
London Bridge is all built up, my fair lady.
Take the key and lock her up, lock her up, lock her up
Take the key and lock her up, my fair lady.

We also used to do one of those clapping songs with 4 people.. I don't remember all of it, but you would clap to the left, then to the right, then reach up to clap the person across from you, then squat down to clap the person across from you again while the other two reach overhead.  The only part I can remember is:

Ooh, aah I want a piece of pie
Pie too sweet? I want a piece of meat
Meat too rough? I want to ride a bus
Bus too full? I want to ride a bull