Between K - 3rd, I would play on the playground. From 4th - 6th, just standing near a wall waiting for the belll to ring to go back inside.
What were your typical elementary school recess activities?
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Three main activities:
1. Telling and listening to stories among my close group of friends.
2. Committing Genocide against the multiple fire ant populations out on the field.
3. Digging "the hole" (This happened one year: a small group of the kids found this part of the large recess field, under a shady tree, with soft, dry dirt, and started digging. The next day, more kids saw what they were doing and joined in. Apparently, after that, people in the other recess (for the older kids) picked up on it and started to dig. Eventually, all of the students in grades 1-3 dug during their recess, with about half the fourth grade, and a fourth of the fifth grade digging during THEIR recess. By Christmas break, we'd worked out a system of ranks and foremen [My position was a team leader, of one of twelve teams of twenty in the grade 1-3 set] in charge of organizing who went where and dug where, and who would take the shared plastic buckets smuggled into school and dump the dirt in the nearby creek, handing the day's plans and progress reports off to the next set of foremen when recess ended, as well as getting down and digging ourselves once everyone else was assigned for the day [The teams rotated positions and sections around the hole]. By the end of the school year, we'd left a hole in the play-field twenty-five feet [7.62 meters] in diameter and eight feet [2.44 meters] deep at its lowest point...then the school filled it in during the summer break, and it was never spoken of again.)
1. Telling and listening to stories among my close group of friends.
2. Committing Genocide against the multiple fire ant populations out on the field.
3. Digging "the hole" (This happened one year: a small group of the kids found this part of the large recess field, under a shady tree, with soft, dry dirt, and started digging. The next day, more kids saw what they were doing and joined in. Apparently, after that, people in the other recess (for the older kids) picked up on it and started to dig. Eventually, all of the students in grades 1-3 dug during their recess, with about half the fourth grade, and a fourth of the fifth grade digging during THEIR recess. By Christmas break, we'd worked out a system of ranks and foremen [My position was a team leader, of one of twelve teams of twenty in the grade 1-3 set] in charge of organizing who went where and dug where, and who would take the shared plastic buckets smuggled into school and dump the dirt in the nearby creek, handing the day's plans and progress reports off to the next set of foremen when recess ended, as well as getting down and digging ourselves once everyone else was assigned for the day [The teams rotated positions and sections around the hole]. By the end of the school year, we'd left a hole in the play-field twenty-five feet [7.62 meters] in diameter and eight feet [2.44 meters] deep at its lowest point...then the school filled it in during the summer break, and it was never spoken of again.)
I brought a Gameboy and sat under the jungle gym, playing Metroid. Was I a loser, or was I incredibly awesome? I'm still not sure.
Kahden tulen välissä was the most common one. I have no idea what it's called in English, or if there is such a thing, but it's similar to dodgeball, but with two teams and a field with two squares. We had two of those fields painted on the school yard.
Also Piste, there is a similar game in the US, but I don't know what it's called. In it there would be a place where the first seeker would count, like in hide-and-seek, and the others would hide. Then the seeker would try to find the others and then run to the starting point and call their name, so they'd lose. The others would try to run to the point and call their own "piste" when the seeker was elsewhere, and doing so would be safe.
It was kinda given that the whole glass would take part, which is probably the only reason I was accepted. And even still, when the teams were made I always got picked last, and indeed the teams would fight over who would have to take me. It wasn't that I was horrible at it, but I was bullied a lot, so no-one wanted to give an impression they liked me, and picking someone always meant they were your buddies.
Also Piste, there is a similar game in the US, but I don't know what it's called. In it there would be a place where the first seeker would count, like in hide-and-seek, and the others would hide. Then the seeker would try to find the others and then run to the starting point and call their name, so they'd lose. The others would try to run to the point and call their own "piste" when the seeker was elsewhere, and doing so would be safe.
It was kinda given that the whole glass would take part, which is probably the only reason I was accepted. And even still, when the teams were made I always got picked last, and indeed the teams would fight over who would have to take me. It wasn't that I was horrible at it, but I was bullied a lot, so no-one wanted to give an impression they liked me, and picking someone always meant they were your buddies.
