(no subject)
I sat down with a group of kids when they were busy finishing coloring and decorating cards and chatted with them about the project at hand. When we ran out of things to say about their scribblings we realized that there was an unexpected extra hour to kill before the beginning of the next item on the schedule, so the kids took it upon themselves to show me a few of their games.
We were all sitting around a table so we played circle games. My favorite was one that, for a lack of a better name, I'll call Hoogahoogahooga. Somebody would start by saying "hu" and pointing at someone. The person indicated would say "ka" and point to someone. Next would come "chuan" and then "sen." At this fourth word, the person who had been pointed to, along with the two immediately to his left and right, would shout "hoogahoogahooga." The person in the middle would put both hands in front of his face as though holding a telescope. The two on either side would move their arms back and forth to pantomime rowing a boat. The person in the middle would continue by pointing and saying "hu." It was permissible to point to anybody in the circle, including oneself or the person who had most recently pointed. Very often, one of the two people sitting next to the navigator would drift off and not notice that they were supposed to row the boat, so everyone in the circle had to pay close attention.
Watermelon didn't have any words, but instead it involved making funny noises which, in the case of fifth graders, generally works just as well. Again, a group of people sat in a circle and the game consisted of taking turns pretending to lick one's hand as though it were a watermelon. If one used his left hand and moved it to the right as he pretended to lick it, then the person to his right had the next turn. If one used his right hand and moved to the left, then the person to his left took the next lick. If one pretend to lick either hand from bottom to top, then the action skipped the person immediately to his right or left, depending on which way it had been going before and the next person had a lick.
We played a variation on Rock Paper Scissors with three people. The game started with all three saying "Sing Ga Po Ken," then clapping twice and each putting a hand into the middle. All three would clap twice again and then point to the loosers. Paper still beat rock, rock still beat scissors and scissors still beat paper. The players who threw a losing gesture would point to themselves. If each threw something different, then all three would point down and if all threw the same thing then they would point up. It would go clap clap throw, clap clap point, clap clap throw, and so on. This got repeated ad infinitum and the kids somehow didn't get bored with it.
As far as I could tell, the goal of each of these games is to play them as fast as possible in order to try to catch someone off guard, and then giggle incessantly when someone (usually me) made a mistake.
We were all sitting around a table so we played circle games. My favorite was one that, for a lack of a better name, I'll call Hoogahoogahooga. Somebody would start by saying "hu" and pointing at someone. The person indicated would say "ka" and point to someone. Next would come "chuan" and then "sen." At this fourth word, the person who had been pointed to, along with the two immediately to his left and right, would shout "hoogahoogahooga." The person in the middle would put both hands in front of his face as though holding a telescope. The two on either side would move their arms back and forth to pantomime rowing a boat. The person in the middle would continue by pointing and saying "hu." It was permissible to point to anybody in the circle, including oneself or the person who had most recently pointed. Very often, one of the two people sitting next to the navigator would drift off and not notice that they were supposed to row the boat, so everyone in the circle had to pay close attention.
Watermelon didn't have any words, but instead it involved making funny noises which, in the case of fifth graders, generally works just as well. Again, a group of people sat in a circle and the game consisted of taking turns pretending to lick one's hand as though it were a watermelon. If one used his left hand and moved it to the right as he pretended to lick it, then the person to his right had the next turn. If one used his right hand and moved to the left, then the person to his left took the next lick. If one pretend to lick either hand from bottom to top, then the action skipped the person immediately to his right or left, depending on which way it had been going before and the next person had a lick.
We played a variation on Rock Paper Scissors with three people. The game started with all three saying "Sing Ga Po Ken," then clapping twice and each putting a hand into the middle. All three would clap twice again and then point to the loosers. Paper still beat rock, rock still beat scissors and scissors still beat paper. The players who threw a losing gesture would point to themselves. If each threw something different, then all three would point down and if all threw the same thing then they would point up. It would go clap clap throw, clap clap point, clap clap throw, and so on. This got repeated ad infinitum and the kids somehow didn't get bored with it.
As far as I could tell, the goal of each of these games is to play them as fast as possible in order to try to catch someone off guard, and then giggle incessantly when someone (usually me) made a mistake.