The imitative, imaginative, and dramatic play instincts of the years from three to six offer opportunity for a wide range of invention of games. These should not be formal but by their very nature must give freedom of initiative, imagination, and self-expression. They may be utilized, for instance, in social training, as in playing that the child is a prince or princess at a banquet, or is a parent to the doll who sits near by to be taught, making a game of neat table manners or careful chewing. They may be utilized for moral training, as in playing that the child is the fairy godmother who could bring sunshine wherever she went; or Siegfried, who could kill all the dragons of ugly temper or words.
Four to Six Years. Simple circle games, singing games, dramatic imitation, catching, finding. Utilize the sense games, alertness, language, imaginative and dramatic games described in previous period, using more complex and difficult situations.
Tag Games:
Drop the Handkerchief
Cat and Mouse
Pussy wants a Corner
Dramatic Kindergarten Games with Music:
The Pigeon House
The Chickadees
The Snail
Hiding Games:
I Spy
Hide the Thimble (using larger object)
Circle and Singing Games:
Ring-around-a-Rosie
Charlie over the Water
Little Sallie Waters
Button, Button
Magical Music
Here we go round the Mulberry Bush
Did you ever see a Lassie
Ball Games:
Variations in catching and throwing
Motor Ability:
Hitting at a mark
Tenpins
Ringtoss
Alertness:
Bird, Beast or Fish
(Many other simple games based on this idea of
classification can be invented, such as the following)
Hard or Soft
Tree, Vine or Plant
Vegetable or Mineral
Found or Made
Attention and Invention:
Stagecoach
(Similar games invented, such as Boat, Flower, Wardrobe, Mythology)
Six to Nine Years. Period of special interest in traditional circle games, running and catching, imitative action, observation and alertness, dramatic action. More complex games are invented, utilizing classification, invention.
Circle-singing:
London Bridge
Round and Round the Village
Farmer in the Dell
Counting-out Games:
Tag variations:
Wood Tag, Stone Tag, etc.
Catching Games:
Pom, Pom, Pull Away
Hawk and Chickens
Blind Man’s Buff
Dodging and dare games
Motor Control:
Hopscotch
Cat’s Cradle
Marbles, Jackstones
Honey Pots
Handicap races, as potato race
Alertness:
Going to Jerusalem
Spin the Platter
Bird, Beast, or Fish
Magical Music
Crambo
Riddles
Sense Games:
Taste
Smell
Touch
Table Games:
Checkers
Dominoes
Imitation or Invention:
Follow the Leader
Solomon says “Thumbs up”
Hold Fast and Let Go
Trades
Charades
Hitting at Mark:
Tenpins
Ringtoss
Archery
Volley ball
Faba Gaba
Croquet
Tennis
FOOTNOTES:
[33] These spontaneous interests and the developments of physical and mental abilities are briefly analyzed in Chapters [V], [XII], [XIII].
CHAPTER XV
THE TOY AGE
“Choose his toys wisely and then leave him alone with them. Leave him to the throng of emotional impressions they will call into being. Remember that they speak to his feelings when his mind is not yet open to reason. The toy at this period is surrounded with a halo of poetry and mystery, and lays hold of the imagination and the heart.
“When we have restored playthings to their place in education—a place which assigns them the principal part in the development of human sympathies—we can later put into the hands of children objects whose impressions will reach their minds more particularly.”