Lesson Overview:
Students experience street games of Harlem by learning about and playing established games, such as stickball, kick the can, and tag as well as hand games, chant-and-response activities, and rope skipping. Working in teams, students research and present their findings about a selected street game, compare street games using Venn diagrams, and create a new street game.
Length of Lesson:
Ten 45-minute class periods
Notes:
This lesson is particularly suitable for grades 3-4.
Instructional Objectives:
Students will:
- compare and contrast street games using a Venn diagram.
- correctly follow step-by-step instructions.
- experience how street games foster skills for survival in the world at large, such as teamwork, taking turns, and competition.
- practice teamwork by working in cooperative groups to play a street game or to dramatize a street rhyme, jump-rope chant, or hand-clapping activity.
- read and analyze a poem.
- use prior knowledge to identify street games, rhymes and chants, and rope-skipping and hand-clapping games they've played or have heard of, and adapt this knowledge to accommodate new information.
Supplies:
- Jump ropes
- Chalk
- Rubber balls
- Broomsticks
Instructional Plan:
Part I: Warm Up and Introduction
Working together with the physical education teacher, select a handful of street games for students to play, including rope-skipping and hand-chant games. For a list of games and how to play them, review the Web sites listed in the Sources section. Each day, introduce students to a new game. With help from the physical education teacher, show the class how to play. Distribute the Vocabulary handout. Introduce each new game by describing its history. How did it start? Where did it start? You may also encourage students to discuss the street games they play. Have them explain where they learned the games and how to play.
After students have had an opportunity to think about and play a variety of
street games, use the following ideas and questions to prompt a class discussion:
- Why do you play games? What is the role of games in your everyday life?
- How do the skills you use to play these games (e.g., teamwork) apply in
other aspects of your life? When is teamwork important in your everyday life?
- How do street games differ from the organized sports you play? Think about
how you are dependent on equipment to play certain games (e.g., skates for ice
hockey), and how street games in particular require no equipment (hopscotch) or minimal equipment (jump rope). Which games do you enjoy more? Why?
- Kids everywhere, and throughout history, play the same games. They bounce balls, jump rope, hand clap to rhymes, hit balls with sticks, etc., but the way they play or the rhymes they say may be particular to their own countries and customs. How do your jump-rope chants differ from ones from other parts of the world?
Examples include:
Chinese Clapping Game:
Little Ming, little Ming
Little little Ming Ming
Up up
Down down
Left left
Right right
Front front
Back back
One two each
Ping-Pong ball!
English Seesaw Rhyme:
Seesaw, sacaradown,
Which is the way to Londontown?
One foot up, the other foot down,
That is the way to Londontown.
American Double-Dutch Jump-Rope Rhyme:
Red, white, and blue,
Tap me on the shoe;
Red, white, and green,
Tap me on the bean;
Red, white, and black,
Tap me on the back;
All out!
Point out to students that many of the street games they play today, such
as hopscotch, jump rope, etc., have been played in one form or another by children throughout history and in many countries around the world. A hopscotch pattern traced in the dirt or made with chalk on the sidewalk, for example, may be called different names, such as squares, boxes, dens, beds, steps, etc. Similarly, the object you throw may be called everything from a lagger to a puck, but the overall idea is the same: Toss an object into a pattern, and then hop to the object through the pattern without touching the lines. Have students describe other street games that they know, and have them talk about the differences in the way they play the game. Ask students: How much are games a function of your environment? What affects the way a game is played? Do you think kids living in different environments play the same game in the same way? How might they play it? Help students understand that children living in different places and social situations might play the game differently from how they do.
Wrap up the discussion by explaining how street games are about more than
just playing a game. They are a social interaction. It's a chance for kids in the neighborhood to get together and create their own fun. Point out that most street games involve working together as a team, such as in stickball or jump rope. So, besides having fun, children have to work together to figure out who will play which positions, how they will beat the other team, and what strategies they will use as they play. Unlike organized sports, street games give kids the opportunity to make up the rules, decide who's "it," and figure out what chant to sing, what object to use as a base, etc.
After students have discussed their prior knowledge of street games, share
historical background about street games by explaining that in Harlem and other city neighborhoods, kids made creative use of the urban landscape. Fields of play were the sidewalks, streets, walls, and stoops. Bases were cars, lamp posts,
garbage cans, and sewer covers. Equipment was minimal and usually consisted of typical household items, but there was one thing that was indispensable: a rubber ball.
Provide historical and social background of street games by reading aloud the
article "Hanging Out" from the Streetplay Web site. While reading, display images of
street play, also from the Streetplay.com Web site. Other images can be found at: http://www.streetplay.com/stickball/halloffame/. You can also use photos from books, such as Street Games by Alan Milberg. (Please note that this book is out of print, but may be available in your school or local library).
Describe in general terms some of the more well-known street games (e.g., stickball, hopscotch, Miss Mary Mack, etc.). For descriptions of these games, explore the "Games" section of the Streetplay Web. You can read these aloud, or print them out and read them together as a class.
Finally, have students talk to their parents and other relatives about street games they used to play when they were children. Invite students to share what they find out with the rest of the class. Are the games your parents played similar to the ones you play today? How are they the same? How are they different?
After learning about a variety of street games, have a class discussion about
how games such as kick the can and stickball differ from games such as hockey or baseball. Have students use the Playing Around interactive Venn diagram to illustrate the differences
and the similarities between these games. For example, the environment dictates the rules of most street games, while in the more organized sports, like hockey
and baseball, the environment is set up to accommodate the games (hockey rink, baseball diamond).
Describe how less physical hand games, call-and-response songs, and dance were carried over to the United States, and Harlem specifically, from Africa. Point out that these rhythmic activities have elements of African music and heritage, and that they were passed on from parent to child. To learn more about some of these games, and for instructions on how to play them, explore the following sites:
CanTeach: African Songs, Chants, and Games
http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/africasong.html
West African Call-and-Response Game
http://home.earthlink.net/~debrajet/africa.html
Part II: Discovering and Playing a Street Game
Ask the class what they know about the street game called stickball. What game do they think it is most similar to? Encourage students to ask their parents or
other older relatives about their experiences playing stickball.
Share information about the Harlem street game of stickball using a variety of Web sites, including Stickball Basics and Stickball Rule Sheet, both at Streetplay.com.
Ask students: What game is stickball most like? (baseball). Why didn't kids just play baseball? (no playing fields, no equipment). As a class, discuss the
differences between stickball and baseball, recording responses in a Venn diagram. Ask students which game they think is more fun and why.
Read the poem "Stickball" to the class and prompt a discussion by asking students: Why do you think the writer had more fun playing stickball with a mop handle and rubber ball than her own children do playing soccer, even though they have fancy equipment, fields to play in, etc.? Why would making up your own game and rules be more fun then playing a game that someone else has created?
Break up the class into teams, go outside, and with help from the physical
education teacher, have them play a game of stickball using the information they learned in class. After they have had an opportunity to play, invite students to discuss what they've learned about the street game of stickball. Have them complete the Venn diagram comparing and contrasting stickball and baseball.
Working in small, cooperative groups, invite students to select a street game
to research, play, and present to the class. Help each group access information about how to play their street game at http://www.streetplay.com/rulesheets/, from the games roster at http://www.streetplay.com/thegames/, from sites about the specific game, and from the physical education teacher.
Groups researching street rhymes, including hand-clapping, ball-bouncing, counting-out games, and jump-roping activities can use the resources found in the Teacher References section below.
Groups must be prepared to share with the rest of the class at least three
pieces of information about the street game, including how to play, what materials are needed, and its history.
Groups are to play their game using their whole bodies. If they are demonstrating a street chant, then they should dance along to the chant. If a video recorder is accessible, you or a student should record a video of them playing the game.
Groups present their video to the class, if they made one, and give an oral
presentation in which each member of the group describes something about the street game the group researched. Include time for presenters to answer classmates' questions about the game.
Assessment:
Assess student performance using the following rubrics: Invented Game Assessment and Recreated Game Assessment.
Extensions:
Create a Street Rhyme or Jump-Rope Chant
Invite students to work in groups of three to create their own jump-rope chants. Explain that a chant is a poem meant to be recited aloud and that the rhythm of the repeated lines gives the chant conviction and power.
Before they write, have volunteers recite chants they already know or ones
they learned from their parents, and invite the rest of the class to clap their hands to the rhythm.
Now have groups write their own version of a jump-rope chant or street rhyme. If they're not experienced jump-ropers, they might want to try writing a version of a rhyme from one of the jump-rope Web sites or one they learn from their parents. Tell them to keep the rhythm of the chant in mind and fill in new words to the same beat, putting the repetitions and rhymes in the same places as the
model chant.
Have students perform their chants orally along with jump-rope demonstrations for the class.
Create a New Street Game
Ask students to describe a time when they made up a game using only the materials
they had in their immediate surroundings. Have them describe how and why they came up with these games.
Remind students that in Harlem, the environment dictated the rules of the various street games. For example, sewer caps were bases, a broom handle was a bat. (Remind them of the poem they read earlier, and discuss what the poet used in her environment to play stickball.)
Working in cooperative groups, students are to invent their own street games,
and like kids from Harlem, they can use only materials within their environment to play them.
Have students write down the name of their game, how many players are needed, what they need to play, how to play, and the rules. Groups are encouraged to include drawings and diagrams to describe the game. Students are to play their games, revising the instructions as needed.
In an oral presentation, groups first describe, then demonstrate, their game
to the rest of the class. In demonstrating, students are encouraged to use their
whole bodies to show the dynamics and raw interplay involved in their street game.
Finally, invite groups to try to play each other's games by exchanging and following the written instructions.
Sources:
Print:
- Cole, Joanna. Anna Banana: 101 Jump-Rope Rhymes. New York: Morrow Junior Books, 1989.
- Cole, Joanna, and Stephanie Calmenson. Miss Mary Mack and Other Children's Street Rhymes. New York: Morrow Junior Books, 1990.
- Milberg, Alan. Street Games. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1976. [Note: this book is out of print, but available in most local libraries]
- Yolen, Jane (ed). Street Rhymes Around the World. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press, 1992.
Web:
Authors:
-
Scholastic Inc.
New York, NY
