Free play time

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Home : 2002 : March : 10

Free play time
By Julianne

When you and I went to school we played jacks and marbles, tag and hopscotch, kickball and four square. These games are easy to start and easy to end. They lend themselves to small groups of kids on crowded playgrounds
because they don't take up much space. We learned the rules to these games from our friends, usually in our neighborhoods. Kids today often haven't had a chance to learn the games and activities you and I picked up in our neighborhoods. They don't know how to play hopscotch or tag. They may not know any jump rope chants. When today's kids get out on the playground they may not know

exactly what to do with themselves, so their play is aimless and they may choose inappropriate, agressive play. Kids may have been exposed to organized sports like basketball and soccer, but those games don't work well in the time-restricted, unorganized world of the playground.

Regular classroom teachers just don't have the time to teach playground games. When I was teaching in an alternative program I made a point of taking kids out to teach them the rudiments of hopscotch and jump rope. And I gave them the rules to a variety of tag games. After playing these games together in class they would often decide to get up a game of jump rope at recess (rather than try to tie each other up with the ropes!) So you might want to put together a group of parents who would monitor recess for a while and teach these street games. A good resource is a book called "Hopscotch, Hangman, Hot Potato and HaHaHa" by Jack Maguire. It's a book of street games and has a foreward by Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo).