We’re sure that you’ve been as dismayed as we have over the past year or so, as we’ve heard about more and more playground games being banned from schools, from British Bulldog to Tig. This is despite the fact that these games provide kids with a great opportunity to exercise without realising they are doing so.
As adults, we know all too well how gruelling it can be to fit in some high-intensity exercise a few times a week, so here at Wynsors we think it’s a shame to ban activities that get children moving, without having to be coerced! Not to mention, some of these games were absolute belters and we looked forward to every ring of the bell so that we could set up and start running.
As our helpful mum and dad bloggers told us in our family fitness guide, exercise can and should be fun!
We decided to carry out a survey of 500 parents to find out which pastimes we grownups miss the most from our own playground days. Read on for our countdown of the top five – the results might surprise you!
5) Pogs
Surprisingly, this classic game only garnered 4.4% of the vote. The best activities often come from making do with whatever materials you have to hand, and this one originally involved trying to overturn milk caps and collecting those which fell face-up – whoever had the most caps at the end of the game was declared the winner.
By the ‘90s we were collecting colourful discs created by the POG brand, and saving all of the different designs was truly addictive, though the game was largely unchanged.
Image Credit: Wikipedia
4) What’s the Time Mr Wolf?
Over 14% of our respondents think that ‘What’s the Time Mr Wolf’ is the best game of their childhood, and who can blame them. When Mr Wolf would call out the time (i.e. 3 o’clock!) and we had to walk forwards 3 spaces, getting ever closer to his turned back…
We would dread the moment he screamed “dinner time!” instead and we all had to run away, to avoid becoming the wolf ourselves! Talk about staying alert and on your toes while you’re at school.
3) Hopscotch
A little chalk, a stone and you were away playing Hopscotch. Once you’d thrown your stone onto one of the numbers, it was your time to shine as you hopped and jumped your way to retrieve it – and back again! Competition was rife with this one and 17.6% of our participants have particularly fond memories of it, naming it the best game of their youth.
2) Tag/Tig
Our classic go-to game that you could play even if you had no toys to inspire you; whether you were dressed for it and whether you had five minutes or an hour! Tig probably requires no introduction, but it basically involved one person being ‘it’ and chasing the other players around until they caught somebody, who in turn became it.
Simple, but hysterical! 19.1% of our survey respondants said that Tig was their favourite playground game.
1) British Bulldog
The clear winner; 29.5% of participants voted British Bulldog the ultimate playground game of their school days. In this game, the ‘bulldog’ would stand in the centre of a space while everyone else would line up against the edge – in ‘barley’, or at ‘home’!
Once the game began, they would have to run from this safe area to another, on the other side of the bulldog.
We hope you enjoyed this trip down Memory Lane! Was your favourite playground game on our list? If not, do share it with us over on Twitter or Facebook today.
If you’re in the midst of a battle to get your kids exercising more during October’s International Walk to School Month, why not join our exciting competition?
All you need to do is take a photo or video of your family enjoying exercise together; then tag us on our social media channels with the hashtag #WalkWithWynsors and you could win £500 of goodies for the whole family!
