Bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish...

[falcongrrl]

...how many pieces do you wish?



How Daniel and friends play it:

Everyone sits in a circle, feet extended into the middle of the circle. If you're out, you move one of your legs closer to your lap and out of the circle. If you're out again, you move the other leg, sitting cross-legged, and you're out of the game for good.



How we played it:

Everyone clasps their hands together. If you're out, you open your clasped hands and have two fists. If a fist gets out, you put that hand behind your back.

In both, the last person with something still in, wins.

I don't remember thinking ahead to manipulate the results by choosing a favorable number, but really, wouldn't that be the obvious way to play?

I had completely forgotten about this game until Daniel mentioned it, and it makes me wonder how many other small pieces of my childhood lurk in the recesses of my mind.

It also underscores the fact that I am now the parent of someone in grade school, which is a little scary.

What games did you play in elementary school?

Comments

[gleefulfreak.livejournal.com]

We played pretty physical games in my elementary school, like thumbwrestling, mercy, "Push-Off" (some of our playground equipment was old farm tractor tires and we'd see who could stay on them longest).
To determine who was "It" for tag or whatever, we'd stand in a circle and someone would do the rhyme
My (grand)mother and your (grand)mother were hanging out the clothes
My (grand)mother punched your (grand)mother right in the nose
What color was the blood?
Whoever the person was pointing at, at that point, named a color, eg. blue
B-L-U-E spells blue and you are not it in this game
And whoever was being pointed at for "game" would drop out of the circle and they'd start over again.
There was also good old "eeney meeney miney mo", in the politically correct version (catch a tiger by the toe) and the not politically correct version (catch a n----- by the toe). I don't think many of us actually knew what the latter was, though. I think I thought it was just another kind of tiger.

And duck duck goose, and (if we were in the classroom) Seven-Up.

[jakebe.livejournal.com]

I remember 'bubble gum, bubble gum'! We played it Daniel's way, and it was mainly the way we determined someone was 'it' for Hide and Go Seek or Freeze Tag or something.

Now I'm going to have to think about other things we did all day. ;)

-J

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Clapping games - Stella Ella Ola, Miss Mary, Cissy my playmate, and others that I can't call to mind immediately

Skipping games - most of the same ones I'm still hearing on the playground nowadays - Had a Little Sports Car, Somebody/Nobody, a few double-dutch ones that I sang because I couldn't skip it. :) I turned and sang, other people jumped, and everyone had fun. We used to have informal skipping contests, too, with different steps and tricks and who could go on the longest.

Wall-ball games - a whole line of people would line up behind one person, who would throw the ball at the wall. The object was to jump over the ball as it rebounded without letting it touch you. The trick was to jump over it as it bounced, which required a fair bit of spatial understanding to figure out. If it touched you or you missed it, you went to the end of the line. If the school had a good area for wall-ball, it worked really well. I haven't taught it to my kids because our wall-ball area is poor - it's right by a door, and kids are constantly getting in the way of people coming in or out.

[rowyn]

I remember the clapping games, although not the names. I think "Miss Mary" was one of the clapping games I played. The skipping rhymes I remember a little better: "24 Robbers" was my favorite although I always had trouble remembering what came after "As they ran out I ran in", mostly because I always had a hard time running back in. ;) But "Cinderella" I can still remember even now.

Oh, and cat's cradle string games. Can't remember those patterns any more, either.