How-To Corner

Hooray for Recess!

Pioneer schools didn’t have playground equipment or gyms or physical education classes. The hour in the middle of the school day that was designated lunch and play period gave young’uns a chance to choose for themselves what kind of activities they wanted to do.

Boys and girls played on opposite sides of the schoolhouse in the early days, the younger ones by choice, the older by teacher directive.

The boys were likely to be playing rough games like Crack the Whip, the object of which was for the bigger, stronger boys to fling the younger ones off the end of the running human chain. One teacher remembered never allowing her students to play Crack the Whip, because the child on the end could too easily end up with a broken arm. Games of tag like Duck Duck Goose were less dangerous, but still very active running games. Leap Frog was good physical training, as were various ball games, when someone was lucky enough to have a ball.

On the girls’ side, Jump Rope, often using a handy grapevine, provided exercise plus the mental and verbal activity of complicated rhymes that accompanied the jumping. Playing House was always popular, especially with the youngest ones. Singing games like London Bridge, Ring Around the Rosey, and Mulberry Bush occupied others. Mother, May I? and Simon Says and I Spy were games that built attention and listening skills while ranging from fairly quiet to very active.

Hide and Seek and Red Rover were old favorites for everyone, as was Follow the Leader, played on both sides of the yard, but in very different ways.

Marbles and Tops (also called Dancers) were favorites for boys, while girls might play Hopscotch or, later on, Jacks. For the most part, though, early schools and children wouldn’t have had access to a lot of equipment or toys they hadn’t made themselves.

Rainy days might find everyone inside playing counting games or singing games or even playing checkers on homemade boards with pieces made from corncob slices.

Whatever they were doing, wherever they were doing it, they were fulfilling the universal needs of children for play, a fun way to learn things you need to know, to blow off some steam, to keep body and mind sharp and engaged.

To Do: Ask everyone you know, especially your older relatives, what their favorite recess games were when they were in school. Then check out www.gameskidsplay.net to see if you can find them! This site also has the “rules” for games mentioned in this How-to and Make-do article.