What Playground Games do You Remember?
Let’s do a little reminiscing, and cast our minds back to the games we used to play in the playground. We probably remember all the chasing, all the kicking and throwing balls about and the universal doctors and nurses, but do we remember the actual names of the games?
What about Red Rover?
Remember this one? It is where a group of friends split into two groups. In one group, everyone holds hands, and the other group wait to hear the words – “Red Rover, Red Rover, we call Simon over”, and then “Simon” would have to run at the group holding hands to try and break the link.
In lots of schools nowadays, this playground game is banned as it can cause broken arms, and other injuries. What I don’t understand is, how they can ban a game like this, yet encourage free running. That’s the case in my local school anyway, and the child in question is fifteen.
How About Ghost in the Graveyard?
This is one that gone through the generations and is still played by children today. The premise is that one person is chosen to be “the ghost”, they go and hide, and then the others in the game, from the base, count “One o’clock, two o’clock , three o’clock ” and so on, up to twelve o’clock, then shout: “Midnight! I hope I don’t see the ghost tonight!”
Once the count is up, the group disperses from the group in different directions, and the ghost tries to catch them. If anyone sees the ghost, they shout ‘Ghost in the Graveyard” and try to run away them, but if they are caught they become a ghost too.
When a new ghost is caught, the remaining members of group return back to the base and start the chant again, while the new ghosts hide again waiting to catch more members of the group and turn them into ghosts too. The game continues like this until everyone is caught, and the last person to be caught will be the ghost next time they play the game.
I hope looking at these two games helped bring back some nice memories for you. We will be looking at more playground games soon.
