CHAPTER XIV
GAMES
“The difference between a genius and a pedant consists exactly in this, that the genius performs his work playfully, while the pedant groans under the drudgery of his task.”
—Paul Carus.
“The real fall of man is to do things without zest.”
—G. Stanley Hall.
The Value of Games. All games are play, but not all plays are games. In a game some rule is involved, some goal or object is to be attained. Usually, though not always, in a game, two or more play together.
Most children under three years of age, and many under four, have not developed sufficient self-control, imagination, memory, and judgment to play a game. If “Hide-and-Seek” is attempted, they will run out of the hiding place before they are discovered. In “Hunt the Thimble”, they will point out where the object is hid. They are with difficulty held to the sequence of circle games, except of the simplest sort.
At about four years, however, most children have the mental and social development to find interest in circle games, traditional games, and some competitive games.
Supplementing the educational values of play in general, different games have some of these additional educational values:
Training in social relationships, in group action, coöperation, competition
Cultivating a sense of social interdependence Sharing experiences with mates
Subordination to the rights, desires, and leadership of others
Loyalty to a leader or a group
Incentive to improvement of skill in order to compete with others
Acceptance of the consequences of failure or inefficiency
Opportunity for leadership to him who is able
Realization of law, through rules of game
Measuring of personal ability and personality with that of mates
Kinds of Games. Games may be classified according to
(1) the degree of physical activity involved;
(2) the degree and kind of mental activity required;
(3) the moral and social traits cultivated.
Each of these groups would be subdivided according to age, although some games seem of interest at any age.
With little children in the home it is convenient to have at hand a classified list. This list should begin with the standard games, and be lengthened as new ones are found or, better still, are devised by the children.
Any game tried should be interesting, “fun”, that is,
(a) suited to the physical powers and mental development of the child;
(b) expressive of his spontaneous interests.[33]
Certain activities have play interest at every stage but could be played only in a very simple, brief game under four years, and for a longer time and more complexly after that age. These most common activities, or motifs, include surprise, imitation, observation, guessing, hiding, seeking, catching, chasing, running, ball play. The worker with young children should be able to invent many little games based on these motifs. Simple little songs, invented, spontaneously improvised, or gathered from kindergarten songbooks, add joyousness to the game, cultivate a love and expression of music, and teach the utilizing of art in everyday life.
Games may be analyzed by the following scheme, to discover their values.
| Active: | Quiet: | ||
| Outdoor | Outdoor | ||
| Indoor | Indoor | ||
| Sensory Training: | Motor Training: | ||
| Sight, hearing, touch | Bodily control | ||
| Taste, smell, weight | Neatness | ||
| Form, color | Alertness of response | ||
| Alertness | Accuracy of movement | ||
| Accuracy | Coördination of different muscles | ||
| Discrimination | Skill | ||
| Grace | |||
| Mental Training: | |||
| Observation | Moral Training: | ||
| Concentration | Perseverance | ||
| Alertness | Courtesy | ||
| Imitation | Gentleness | ||
| Perception | Generosity | ||
| Imagination | Courage | ||
| Judgment | Patience | ||
| Accuracy | Independence | ||
| Initiative | Justice | ||
| Invention | Sense of law | ||
| Leadership | Coöperation | ||
| Individuality | |||
| Inhibition | |||
| Relaxation | |||
| Humor | |||
Every game involves some attention and conformity to rules. “Follow the Leader” involves activity, careful observation of the leader’s movements, imitation, alertness, motor control, and reasoning in guessing; if trade is represented, the leader must exercise ingenuity and initiative in thinking of a new movement. “Spin the Platter” and “Drop the Handkerchief” require mental alertness intermittent with attention. “Cat and Mouse” and “Hawk and Chickens” require physical alertness, dexterity, and quick judgment. “Ring-around-a-Rosie” involves rhythm, chanting, and a bit of the ludicrous. “Charlie Over the Water” is a step further, involving mental and physical alertness. “Little Sallie Waters” and “Farmer in the Dell” involve love of rhythm and music, dramatizing, and the choice of a partner.
Games for the Littlest
Eight to Eighteen Months. Motor control, finger plays, surprise
| Finger Plays: | Falling, Falling (Mother Play) | |
| Peek-a-boo | Rolling and receiving the ball | |
| Pat-a-Cake | Hiding self | |
| Open the Door | Hiding things | |
| This Little Pig | Catching | |
One to Three Years. Motor control, finger plays, hiding; observation, surprise, guessing, imitation
| Hide and Seek (very simple) | Finger Plays: | |
| Hunt the Thimble (use ball or doll) | Here’s a Ball for Baby | |
| Chasing and catching | The Merry Little Men | |
| Rolling, tossing, and catching ball | Finger Piano | |
| Shut them, Open | ||
| Thumbkin says, “I’ll dance” | ||
Nursery Finger Plays
| 1. | This Little Pig Went to Market |
| 2. | Knock at the door (tap the forehead) |
| Peep in (lift the eyelid) | |
| Lift up the latch (touch tip of nose) | |
| Walk in (touch lips) | |
| Take a little chair | |
| Right down under there (chucking under the chin). | |
| 3. | Here’s my father’s knives and forks (hands back to back, fingers standing up like rake) |
| Here’s my mother’s table (hands turned over, the interlaced fingers flat like a table) | |
| Here’s my sister’s looking-glass (forefingers raised, forming a triangle) | |
| And here’s the baby’s cradle (little fingers also raised, forming a triangle for front piece of cradle). | |
| 4. | Here’s the church (position as in line 2 of preceding) |
| And here’s the steeple ” ” ” ” 3 ” ” | |
| Open the door ” ” ” ” 1 ” ” | |
| And see all the people. | |
| 5. | “Shut them, open; shut them, open; |
| Give a little clap; | |
| Open, shut them; open, shut them; | |
| Fold them in your lap; | |
| Creep them, creep them, creep them, creep them. | |
| To the little chin; | |
| Open wide the little mouth, | |
| And pop a finger in. | |
| “Shut them, open; shut them, open, | |
| To the shoulders fly; | |
| Open, shut them; open, shut them, | |
| Up into the sky; | |
| Falling, falling, falling, falling, | |
| Almost to the ground; | |
| Hold them up in front of you | |
| And twirl them round and round.” | |
| 6. | Thumbkin says, “I’ll dance,” |
| Thumbkin says, “I’ll sing,” | |
| Dance and sing, ye merry little men, | |
| Thumbkin says, “I’ll dance and sing.” | |
| (Tapping with thumb, other fingers closed) | |
| Pointer says, etc. Refrain | |
| Tall man says, etc. ” | |
| Ring man says, etc. ” | |
| Little man says, etc. ” | |
| (On refrain, all fingers tapping) | |
| All men say they’ll rest | |
| All men say they’ll sleep. | |
| Rest and sleep, ye merry little men; | |
| All men say they’ll rest and sleep. | |
| (Last stanza, hands closed, thumb inside; sing softly) | |
| 7. | Now see we here. |
| These friends so dear, | |
| As they together meet. | |
| With bows polite | |
| And faces bright | |
| Each other they will greet. | |
| Oh, “How do you do,” and | |
| “How do you do,” and | |
| “How do you do,” again | |
| And “How do you do,” | |
| And “How do you do,” | |
| Say all these little men. |
(Hands held up with fingers erect, palms opposite. At line 7, thumbs bent toward each other, and following fingers on each succeeding greeting; all together on line 11.)
Three to Four Years. Children are usually not yet interested in group games; some children not until five or six years. At this age children can play together with their toys but cannot manage a game among themselves. They are able to play simple games with an adult. The parent or teacher can make simple games out of the daily activities.
Slightly more difficult finger plays and forms of games than those listed in previous age period can be used, and simple forms of those games listed in succeeding period.
| Motor Accuracy: | |
| Tenpins | |
| Circle and Active Games: | |
| Ring-around-a-Rosie | |
| Cat and Mouse | |
Sense Games. These involve the “guessing” interest but require thought.
Sight and Observation. Tell what object, color, form is taken away from a group, or added. Match a color or form of flower or other object, first with object in hand, later from memory. “I saw”—relating what was seen on a walk, in a room, or when passing a store.
Touch. Tell the name of an object or form by handling it while blindfold.
Hearing. Tell the direction of a sound, instrument sounded, person speaking, while blindfolded.
Language Games. Many can be invented similar to the following, in which increase in speaking vocabulary is gained. Nouns: I went to the Zoo (store, boat, etc.) and there I saw—(name objects). Verbs: A train (bird, dog, wind, etc.) can—(name activities). Adjectives: I like squirrels (flowers, dolls, apples, etc.) because they are—(name adjectives).
Alertness. Children at this age, and until six, are often dawdling, dreamy. Games can be invented to cultivate dispatch and alertness, as “running a race” with a person or the clock, in dressing and undressing.
Poise, Relaxation, Concentration. What Montessori calls the “Game of Silence” cultivates these qualities. As played in the Montessori schools, the children sit quietly, relaxed, in a room slightly darkened, while all sounds are hushed, and all listen. After two or three minutes some one in an adjoining room whispers or calls faintly the name of a child, and the child goes as softly as possible, returning as softly. Ten or fifteen minutes is the limit of the children’s ability to play the game. Forms of it may be played when going through the house, or whenever quiet is especially desired; or when the children are becoming irritable or too nervous.
The imitative, imaginative, and dramatic play instincts of the years from three to six offer opportunity for a wide range of invention of games. These should not be formal but by their very nature must give freedom of initiative, imagination, and self-expression. They may be utilized, for instance, in social training, as in playing that the child is a prince or princess at a banquet, or is a parent to the doll who sits near by to be taught, making a game of neat table manners or careful chewing. They may be utilized for moral training, as in playing that the child is the fairy godmother who could bring sunshine wherever she went; or Siegfried, who could kill all the dragons of ugly temper or words.
Four to Six Years. Simple circle games, singing games, dramatic imitation, catching, finding. Utilize the sense games, alertness, language, imaginative and dramatic games described in previous period, using more complex and difficult situations.
Tag Games:
Drop the Handkerchief
Cat and Mouse
Pussy wants a Corner
Dramatic Kindergarten Games with Music:
The Pigeon House
The Chickadees
The Snail
Hiding Games:
I Spy
Hide the Thimble (using larger object)
Circle and Singing Games:
Ring-around-a-Rosie
Charlie over the Water
Little Sallie Waters
Button, Button
Magical Music
Here we go round the Mulberry Bush
Did you ever see a Lassie
Ball Games:
Variations in catching and throwing
Motor Ability:
Hitting at a mark
Tenpins
Ringtoss
Alertness:
Bird, Beast or Fish
(Many other simple games based on this idea of
classification can be invented, such as the following)
Hard or Soft
Tree, Vine or Plant
Vegetable or Mineral
Found or Made
Attention and Invention:
Stagecoach
(Similar games invented, such as Boat, Flower, Wardrobe, Mythology)
Six to Nine Years. Period of special interest in traditional circle games, running and catching, imitative action, observation and alertness, dramatic action. More complex games are invented, utilizing classification, invention.
Circle-singing:
London Bridge
Round and Round the Village
Farmer in the Dell
Counting-out Games:
Tag variations:
Wood Tag, Stone Tag, etc.
Catching Games:
Pom, Pom, Pull Away
Hawk and Chickens
Blind Man’s Buff
Dodging and dare games
Motor Control:
Hopscotch
Cat’s Cradle
Marbles, Jackstones
Honey Pots
Handicap races, as potato race
Alertness:
Going to Jerusalem
Spin the Platter
Bird, Beast, or Fish
Magical Music
Crambo
Riddles
Sense Games:
Taste
Smell
Touch
Table Games:
Checkers
Dominoes
Imitation or Invention:
Follow the Leader
Solomon says “Thumbs up”
Hold Fast and Let Go
Trades
Charades
Hitting at Mark:
Tenpins
Ringtoss
Archery
Volley ball
Faba Gaba
Croquet
Tennis