This is played around a table and is used to
beat advantage in a small group unless it is possible to provide
several tables, with not more than ten at a table. The players
at each table are divided into two teams, members of one team
guarding one end of the table, and members of the other team
guarding at their end. The contents of an egg are blown out,
the eggshell serving as a football. A chalk line is drawn across
the center of the table, or, if this is not possible, a white
thread is stretched across instead, to mark the dividing line
between the two teams.
The egg is placed on this line, and when the starting signal
is given, all players start to blow, their object being to blow
the egg into the territory of the enemy and off the edge of
the table on the enemy’s side. If the egg does go off
the side or end of the table, it counts for a touchdown for
the opposite side. No is allowed to touch the egg, players holding
their hands behind them,
The time limit is ten minutes, the team having the greatest
number of touchdowns at the end of that time becomes the football
champions.
For directions for the following games, see Index:
1. Candy Hunt. Hide eggs and announce that the different colors
have different values, and that some count for more than others.
Which are the valuable eggs is not announce until all eggs have
been brought in.
Pieces of candy which are wrapped in paper are hidden in every
conceivable spot all over the house. Children are divided into
groups, with not more than six to a group, each group having
a leader and an individual call. When the signal to hunt is
given, all the players immediately start out to find the candy,
and there never was an easier task set for children! However,
no one is allowed to pick up the candy but the leaders of the
different groups. When a player finds a piece of candy, he puts
his finger on it and gives out the call of his group, whereupon
the leader as quickly as possible comes to him and rescue the
candy, putting it in a little basket with which all the leaders
are provided. But that rule must be thoroughly understood-that
players are not to pick up the candy but are to put their fingers
on it and call for the leader to pick it up.
As for the way to call one’s leader, an individual call
should be assigned to each group. If the calls are all to be
animal calls, one group may have to crow like a rooster, another
to bark like a dog, another to bray like a donkey, another quack
like a goose, meow like a cat, or gooble gooble like a turkey.
The leaders are to respond at once to the calls of the group.
When the director thinks that all the candy has been found,
she blows her whistle and the hunting session is over. All the
leaders brings their spoils to the director to be counted, and
the group that found the most candy gets another helping all
around.
If this game is played out-of-doors, peanuts may be used instead
of candy. This may also be a regular “Hare and Hunt”
game, suing little pieces of rather heavy paper cuts in squares
or triangles, or in another shape that will distinguish then
from other ordinary pieces of paper.
2. Nose Push. Push Eggs.
If contestants in this race are expected to look respectable
for the rest of the party, a sheet should be provided for
the race-course. There are not more than three contestants,
each one being provided with a peanut, and, we hope, along
and practical nose. Contestants are asked to kneel at one
end of the sheet, put the peanuts on the sheet before them
and when the signal is given, to push the peanuts to the other
end of the sheet and back, using their noses as the pushers,
their hands being clasped behind them.
The winner is not the only one who deserves a prize in this
contest!
3. Pieplate Roll. Eggs are rolled to the goal and return.
The relay plan should be used for this race. Each contestant
is given a pieplate which he is to roll down the course and
back. Players are always eager to kick or throw the pieplate.
Therefore, a ruling is made to the effect that if a pieplate
leaves the ground or stops rolling, the contestant must take
it back to the starting point and begin all over again. He
will not kick it again.
4. The Foolish Grand March. Distribute huge rabbits’
ears made out of stiff white paper. These are to be worn throughout
the march. Any one who loses his ears is given a foolscap
to wear.
Children are line dup in two lines as they were for the Grand
Grand March. After they have found their partners and are
marching around the room in a big double circle, they are
stopped when the leader explains that when the music again
start, they are to march very slowly at first but that will
call out directions that will call for different way of marching,
and that they are to follow her directions at once.
The music begins and the guests start marching slowly around
the room with their partners. Suddenly the leader calls outs,
“Walk-on tiptoes!” and every guest teeters along
on tiptoes. After a moment of this, the leader calls out,
“Lift your knees high!” and the marchers look
like circus horses. Next comes the order to, “Fly like
birds!” and a whole flock of extremely awkward birds
is set loose. Other orders may include direction to bend the
knees at every step; to walk backwards and work the arms as
though rowing; to walk pigeon-toed; knock-kneed; to hop on
one foot; to work the arms as for swimming; to clap hands
first in front and then in the back.
The children are warned too, that a sudden crash on the piano
means that every one is to sit down on the floor as quickly
as possible, for the last one to sit down will be used as
the victim for the next game. These crashes which call for
sitting on the floor may be brought in three or four times
during this grand match, for they create enough fun to warrant
their repetition, and one can always use three or four victims.
5. Safety Spots. Cut eggs out of heavy paper and use them
for the safety spots.
This game should be played in a room in which there is a wall
covering that cannot be soiled by frantic little hands.
In different places and at different heights, “safety-spots”
are tacked on the wall with thumb tacks. These spots are pieces
of white paper about nine inches square and when a player
has his hand on one of these he is “safe.” The
game is played very much like “Going to Jerusalem”
with safety spots for all except one player. While march music
being played, children march slowly around the room, not being
allowed to touch the wall, but when a whistle is blows and
the music stops every child make a frantic effort to put his
hand on a pot. One player will be left without a spot, and
he is given a seat at the center of the room.
One of the spots is then removed and the game goes on as before,
each time the whistle blows one child being left out to join
the other unfortunates in the center. One by one the spots
are removed until there is only one spot left, with two aspirants
for it. These last two are obliged to march around the room
in a circle as before. They may keep close together or the
width of the room apart. At any rate, when the whistle blows
(and let us hope that the leader keeps her eyes closed when
she blows her whistle, so that she will not favor either player!)
both players make a dash for the one remaining spot, and the
one who gets to it first is proclaimed the spottiest person
present!
This game is so worthwhile as a mixer for children that it
is worth the trouble necessary for pinning strips of cheese
cloth or similar materials on the walls around the room and
fastening the squares of paper to the cheese cloth.
If the group is to be a large one, instead of trying to have
exactly the right number of safety spots on the wall, the
leader may put up approximately enough spots for the guests
invited. Then, after the first trial, all the children who
are left without spots go to the center of the room. On the
other hand, if all the spots are not used the leader may take
down all the extras, and in addition ask one player to give
up his spot, although he is to continue in the race. That
will insure one player being left out in the next trial. After
that, however, the leader takes down five and six spots at
a time for no game of this kind, too long continued, is interesting.
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