Playground games

I was in Scotland Jalima but our bluebells were always dusty, I'm not sure what that says about the industrialised central belt!

In and Out the Scottish Bluebells although we were nowhere near Scotland, and yes kazzer What's the time Mr Wolf?

We weren't allowed to play 'tick' in the cloakroom at infant school, but we did and I cut my head open on a peg and had to be taken to hospital to have it stitched! I can remember cutting it open but not the stitching up.

Bl** h*ll! Too many measles!
Chicken's got the measles, the measles, the measles
Chicken's got the measles inside out!
(Just in case any teachers out there want to use it.)

Switchgear????? With feet!!!!!!!

Blueberry!!! Sigh....don't you hate auto 'correct'

Our bluebells (south of the border) were Scottish rather than dusty. I hadn't heard of dusty blueberry till I moved to the north east. Also, we were the leader rather than master.
Chicken's got the measles - everybody starts switchgear apart then alternating feet crossed and apart to the song:
Chicken's got the measles, the measles, the measles, the measles
Chicken's got the measles inside out.
You are out if land feet apart. The trick is that no-one's out on the first go because it's an odd number of changes so you should land with feet crossed but on the second go everyone's out unless they catch on and do a double. As a primary teacher playing it as a warm up in PE, it was interesting to note which children caught on quickly, which managed with a hint and which of the little loves never worked it out. Some canny ones cheated!

Gaggi3 that did me laugh..... as someone who always thought they were entitled to the lead role but ended up a donkey's rear end.

All of these plus 'stuck in the mud', a tag game where , when you were caught you had to 'freeze', legs apart until someone else could release you by crawling under you. Once released you were back in the game. Game over when all except the catcher were 'frozen'.
I so enjoyed reading all these posts. Brought back many happy memories. Thanks everyone.

Under the leadership of the most dominant girl, we used to play at being
the Famous Five. I can't remember which character I was assigned, probably Timmy the dog.

Recall spending a lot of time upside down doing handstands against the wall. I wish I could still do that!

British bulldog and what's the time Mr Wolf were also popular group games.

One of my sisters was a wizard at marbles and a champion Jacks player.

Dahlia we played Ghost Trains too but called it String Tiggy. The one at the end sometimes got flung off - too dangerous for these days

2 balls against the wall. Handstands, also against the wall, french skipping, kiss chase and best of all, swapping beads. Most of the girls owned a tin containing smaller tins. These tins contained glass beads, diamonds, pearls, broaches etc, and swapping of these precious jewels would take place during play times, which were much longer in those days. I loved playtimes, which I can remember clearly, unlike lessons. Then there was more play, after school, before and after tea with all the children in the neighbourhood.....happy, happy days.

Ahhhhh thanks nightowl

Practically all the games that have been mentioned and statues and marbles. To choose who should be "it" the rhyme "one potato, two potatoes three potatoes out goes you". One school had a games cupboard with balls, skipping ropes etc. was a rush to get there in break time. Apparently these games are not allowed in playgrounds now because of "health and safety". What is dangerous with "conkers"?

I also remember collecting and swapping beads. I managed to amass quite a nice collection, but can't remember from where. I remember that 'glassies' were 'worth' the most. You could get two or three other types of bead for one of these. For a few weeks of the year, I was a very popular girl!

What's the time Mr Wolf!

We also sang "In and Out the Dusty Bluebells", also a thrilling game played in the school playground called "Ghost Trains". A line of us, about 10 children in all, would start to run and the one at the front without warning would take a sharp turn to the right, causing the line to loop behind, with those at the very end travelling at tremendous speed, running like the clappers! Never be allowed now, but I don't remember anyone being hurt - not seriously, anyway! Ball games were always popular as you could play them when alone - no I-pads for us! I too recall Donkey, I had forgotten the rules. Played hopscotch with my older GD's, they loved it. Funny how games would come in and out of fashion, I can never remember how they changed from one fad to another. I can remember "Poor Jenny Lies A-Weeping", usually played at birthdays, when boys would be invited too - I seem to remember it involved a kiss!

Thank you Nightowl. I enjoyed that.

For you baubles and pensionpat. I remember this game too.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=fadMI0Zo8ro

Baubles. In our version we sang "in and out the Scottish bluebells"

Games at school seemed to go in fads from skipping, two balls, marbles, jacks or hula hoop.

My daughter used to sing: -

My mother said
We never should
Play with the gypsies
In the wood

If I did,
she would say,
You naughty girl
To disobey

My father said
If I did
He'd hit my head
With the teapot lid!

And she used to play it as a clapping game with another little girl.

That was very popular with my DGS, he loved the "teapot lid"!

To find out who was 'it' in a game we would make everyone put their fists out and they would be 'dobbed' as someone chanted, 'Dip, dip, sky blue. Who's it? Not you,' until one person was left. If you were bright you could manipulate this by counting beforehand and I don't think some poor souls ever worked it out.

Sadly, being kids, we soon translated the rhyme into, 'Dip, dip, cow sh*t. You are not it.'

Skipping, French skipping with elastic, one-two-three-redlight, a game we played with elastic over hands which went in patterns from one to another, chase (with variations), hop scotch, grandma's footsteps, marbles, swapsies, singing and chanting games.

One epic game we played in the summer happened on the playing field. Virtually the whole school with every year joining in would gather in two opposing tribes opposite each other and some distance apart. At one point someone would shout, 'CHARGE!' and we would run at each other whooping and shouting as if we were armies about to kill each other. The charge and the resulting melee where we would throw ourselves on the ground 'dead' was exhilarating in the extreme.

I don't suppose elf n' safety and play supervisors would allow it now.

elrel, my mother said I never should - I think I should have said 'my mother told me' and yes, Shropshire/Staffordshire borders. Also, although we used to skip to it with our own skipping ropes, we also used to do a clapping game with a partner to it. Clap your hands, clap partners hands straight on , clap your own hands then clap partner's hands crosswise and so on faster and faster until you got in a mess!
I may teach that to the DGD although I will have to substitute 'pixies' for gypsies

Later on we used to collect and swap PG Tips cards.