I work with nearby schools, YMCA’s and Latchkey programs to teach playground games.  You would be amazed how many schools have a four square court, tether ball court, even a "rover lines" they aren’t using.  So I have been teaching kids to play most these games (Red Rover, and Crack the whip are too dangerous [...]

Filed under : Camp Leadership

The semaphore is a machine with two arms which may be moved into various positions to make letters. The semaphore code shown in the accompanying picture may also be employed by a person using two flags. It is the quickest method of flag signaling but is available for comparatively short distances, seldom over a mile, [...]

Filed under : Camp Leadership

"Sign" is the word used by Guides to mean any little details, such as footprints, broken twigs, trampled grass, scraps of food, old matches, etc. Some native Indian trackers were following up the footprints of a panther that had killed and carried off a young kid. He had crossed a wide bare slab which, of [...]

Filed under : Camp Leadership

Eratosthenes of Cyrene (b. c. 276 BC, Cyrene, Libya–d. c. 194, Alexandria, Egypt), Greek scientific writer, astronomer, and poet, the first man known to have calculated the Earth’s circumference. At Syene (now Aswan), some 800 km (500 miles) southeast of Alexandria in Egypt, the Sun’s rays fall vertically at noon at the summer solstice. Eratosthenes [...]

Filed under : Mini Lesson Plans

The idea of this game is to try how many sentences can be spoken without containing a certain letter which has been agreed upon. Supposing, for instance, the letter “f” is not to be introduced; the first player might ask: “Is this a new game to you?” The second player could answer: “Oh, no! I [...]

Filed under : Games for Camp, Classroom, Playground, and Backyard

The company should be seated in two lines facing each other, and one of the party should then be elected to act as judge. Each person has to remember who is sitting exactly opposite, because when the judge asks a question of any one, it is not the person directly asked who has to reply, [...]

Filed under : Games for Camp, Classroom, Playground, and Backyard

To play this game it is best for the players to arrange themselves in a half circle round the room. Then one begins: “I love my love with an ‘A,’ because she is affectionate; I hate her with an ‘A,’ because she is artful. Her name is Alice, she comes from Alabama, and I gave [...]

Filed under : Games for Camp, Classroom, Playground, and Backyard

This is a very old game, but is always a very great favorite. The more the players, the greater the fun. The way to play it is as follows: The players sit in a circle and begin to count in turn, but when the number 7 or any number in which the figure 7 or [...]

Filed under : Games for Camp, Classroom, Playground, and Backyard

The players sit in a row and the first begins by saying, “I am going on a journey to Athens,” or any place beginning with A. The one sitting next asks, “What will you do there?” The verbs, adjectives, and nouns used in the reply must all begin with A; as “Amuse Ailing Authors with [...]

Filed under : Games for Camp, Classroom, Playground, and Backyard

To play this game it is best to sit in a circle, and until the end of the game no one must speak above a whisper. The first player whispers a question to his neighbor, such as: “Do you like roses?” This question now belongs to the second player, and he must remember it. The [...]

Filed under : Games for Camp, Classroom, Playground, and Backyard

As soon as manhood is attained, the young Indian must secure his “charm,” or “medicine.” After a sweat-bath, he retires to some lonely spot, and there, for four days and nights, if necessary, he remains in solitude. During this time he eats nothing; drinks nothing; but spends his time invoking the Great Mystery for the [...]

Filed under : Stories from the Indians

Each tribe has its own stories. Most of them deal with the same subjects, differing only in immaterial particulars. Instead of squirrels in the timber, the Blackfeet are sure they were prairie-dogs that OLD-man roasted that time when he made the mountain-lion long and lean. The Chippewas and Crees insist that they were squirrels that [...]

Filed under : Stories from the Indians

All night the storm raged, and in the morning the plains were white with snow. The sun came and the light was blinding, but the hunters were abroad early, as usual. That day the children came to my camp, and I told them several stories that appeal to white children. They were deeply interested, and [...]

Filed under : Stories from the Indians

The white man has never understood the Indian, and the example set the Western tribes of the plains by our white brethren has not been such as to inspire the red man with either confidence or respect for our laws or our religion. The fighting trapper, the border bandit, the horse-thief and rustler, in whose [...]

Filed under : Stories from the Indians

I am sure that the plains Indian never made nor used the stone arrow-head. I have heard white men say that they had seen Indians use them; but I have never found an Indian that ever used them himself, or knew of their having been used by his people. Thirty years ago I knew Indians, [...]

Filed under : Stories from the Indians

The Indian believes that all things live again; that all were created by one and the same power; that nothing was created in vain; and that in the life beyond the grave he will know all things that he knew here. In that other world he expects to make his living easier, and not suffer [...]

Filed under : Stories from the Indians

Bright and early the next morning the children were playing on the bank of “The River That Scolds the Other,” when Fine Bow said: “Let us find a Deer’s foot, and the foot of an Antelope and look at them, for to-night grandfather will tell us why the Deer has the dew-claws, and why the [...]

Filed under : Stories from the Indians

The rain had passed; the moon looked down from a clear sky, and the bushes and dead grass smelled wet, after the heavy storm. A cottontail ran into a clump of wild-rose bushes near War Eagle’s lodge, and some dogs were close behind the frightened animal, as he gained cover. Little Buffalo Calf threw a [...]

Filed under : Stories from the Indians

There had been a sudden change in the weather. A cold rain was falling, and the night comes early when the clouds hang low. The children loved a bright fire, and to-night War Eagle’s lodge was light as day. Away off on the plains a wolf was howling, and the rain pattered upon the lodge [...]

Filed under : Stories from the Indians

Have you ever seen the plains in the morning—a June morning, when the spurred lark soars and sings—when the plover calls, and the curlew pipes his shriller notes to the rising sun? Then is there music, indeed, for no bird outsings the spurred lark; and thanks to OLD-man he is not wanting in numbers, either. [...]

Filed under : Stories from the Indians