Buying A Lock
Source:
Games For The Playground, Home, School And Gymnasium
Category:
MISCELLANEOUS ACTIVE GAMES
_5 to 30 or more players._
_Playground; schoolroom._
Oh, here we all go to buy us a lock;
What kind of a lock shall it be?
We'll buy a broom handle; if that will not do,
With a poker we'll try it alone.
But if neither the broom nor the poker will do,
We'll open it then with a stone.
This game is suitable for very little children. They stand in a long
line or rank side by side, holding hands. While repeating the verse,
one end of the line winds in under the raised arms of the last two
players at the opposite end, but instead of passing entirely through,
as in many other winding games, the player next to the last only turns
far enough to face in three quarters of a circle, or so that the
players will eventually, when all have so turned, be brought into
single file, one standing behind the other. In this position the arms
are dropped over the shoulder, so that the player's own left arm
crosses his chest with the clasped hands (his own left and his
neighbor's right) resting on his right shoulder. Each player should
clasp his neighbor's hands at the start, so that the palm of his own
left hand faces forward and the palm of his own right hand faces
backward.
When the whole line has been "locked" in this way, the players unwind
in reverse order, still repeating the verse.
When players are familiar with the winding and unwinding process, the
game may be played in circle formation instead of line formation; that
is, it will start with all of the players facing inward as they clasp
hands to form a circle, and the locking or winding will bring them
facing in single file around the circle.
This is a favorite game with little girls in China, and is here
given with the kind permission of Dr. Isaac T. Headland and
Messrs. Fleming H. Revell & Co., from the book entitled "The
Chinese Boy and Girl."
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Cat And Mice
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Bung The Bucket
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