Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Liz Wade and I'm Bruce gulland Spotlight uses a
special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no matter
where in the world they live. The children laugh and shout loudly. They
are playing games on the playground. One child is it. He runs after
a group of other children. He catches one of them. That second child
becomes it. She now chases the other children and tries to catch one.
They are all playing a game of chase or tag in another area of the
playground. Two children each hold opposite it ends of a long rope. They
turn it round and round and up and down. Other children take turns to
jump over the rope. As it is being turned, they are skipping,
and all the children who are skipping are also singing special skipping songs. Children
in all parts of the world play similar games. Many generations of children have
enjoyed playing these traditional games, But could these games have a more important purpose.
Today's Spotlight is on traditional children's playground games. Experts everywhere agree that play
is good for children. They say it is important for a child's mental and
physical development. Nicola Butler from the organization Play England told the Huffington Post traditional
playground games are necessary for children's health, well being and development. Playing these
games lets children learn about friendships. They learn about arguing, making up,
negotiating and resolving disputes, and making the gun and making the game fun and
fair. But most importantly, being involved in these games make children happy.
Did you know that children from many countries play the same or similar traditional games,
though these games often have different names in different countries. The game of
leap frog has been played in the United Kingdom since the sixteenth century. In
this game, one child bends down and holds his knees or ankles. Another
child runs up to the first child, places her hands on the back of
the first child, and leaps or jumps over the first child. Any number
of children can play the game. They all take turns to leap or jump
like a frog. In other countries, children jump like a different animal.
In France, children call the same game sout montone, which means leap sheep.
In India they call it r godi keepar godi, which means leap horse.
Another game children play all over the world is hopscotch. In Albania they
call the game vara. In Germany, it is Hinkschpiel. Johannesly told Topics
online magazine what the game is called in his country. When I was a
child, my friends and I used to play many traditional games from my country,
Indonesia. A game I played a lot was called one leg Jump.
One leg Jump is a good name for the game of hop scotch. That's
because the name one leg jump helps you understand how to play the game.
The players mark squares on the ground using a stone or a piece of chalk.
Children in different parts of the world make different shapes or grids with the
squares, but some things are always the same. The children all hop or
jump on one leg from square to square, and they must not put a
foot on any line. Very often children play the game using a stone.
They throw the stone onto square one and take their turn hopping on the whole
grid. They hop to the last square, then they turn round and hop
back. On their next turn, they will throw their stone onto square two,
and on their next turn they throw onto square three, and so on.
If the stone does not land in the correct square, the child must
lose a turn. Maria Lopez from Columbia told Topics how she enjoyed playing hopscotch
when she was a child. Maria Lopez from Columbia told Topics how she enjoyed
playing hopscotch when she was a child. When I was a little girl,
most afternoons, I used to play games with my friends in our street.
Ruela, as hopscotch is called in Spanish, was my favorite game. It
is nice to remember playing games like ryuela because it shows me that I had
a happy time as a child, surrounded by special people who always loved me.
It may surprise you to learn that hopscotch is a very old game.
Experts say that nearly two thousand years ago, Roman soldiers used something similar as
an exercise. They had to hop up and down a one hundred foot series
of squares. They did this to make them stronger and quicker on their feet.
Marbles is another ancient game that is played around the world. No one
knows exactly how old it is, but we know the Romans played this game
too. You can see children playing marbles on ancient Roman wall paintings. But
what are marbles and how do you play the game of marbles? Marbles are
very small hard balls. You can find marbles made from different sorts of stone,
including the stone called marble, but most marbles are made from brightly colored
glass. People play many different sorts of games with their marbles, but all
of these games are simply called But all of these games are called simply marbles.
The ring game is one popular game of marbles. A child uses a
stone or chalk to make a circle or ring on the ground. Those playing
the game put a few of their marbles into the ring. Each child rolls
or shoots another marble to try to push one of the marbles out of the
ring. If a player manages to do this, he keeps that marble.
Hakan Tunja from Turkey played marbles as a child, but he used a triangle
shape, not a circle. He told Topics how he and his friends would
compete for marbles. I think the most important thing was to have as many
marbles as we could. We competed to win the most marbles. The one
who won the most marbles was the leader of the group, and everyone tried
to be the leader. Now I understand that this small competition was our first
experience with power and leadership. Traditional playground games are about more than just fun.
Hopefully children continue to learn these games and their valuable lessons for hundreds more
years. Do you remember playing traditional playground games when you were a child.
Tell us about playground games in your country. You can leave a comment on
our website or email us at Radio at Radio English dot net. You can
also comment on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash Spotlight Radio. The writer of
this program was Katie Blake. The producer was Michio Ozaki. The voices you
heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted
for this program and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to this program again
and read it on the internet at www dot Radio English dot net. This
program is called Traditional Children's Games. Look for our free listening app in the
Google play Store and in iTunes. We hope you can join us again for
the next Spotlight program. Goodbye,