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Traditional Children's Games (Advanced Program) · Spotlight English: Advanced

• 0:03
  Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Liz Wade and I'm Bruce gulland Spotlight uses a
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  special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no matter
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  where in the world they live. The children laugh and shout loudly. They
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  are playing games on the playground. One child is it. He runs after
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  a group of other children. He catches one of them. That second child
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  becomes it. She now chases the other children and tries to catch one.
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  They are all playing a game of chase or tag in another area of the
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  playground. Two children each hold opposite it ends of a long rope. They
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  turn it round and round and up and down. Other children take turns to
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  jump over the rope. As it is being turned, they are skipping,
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  and all the children who are skipping are also singing special skipping songs. Children
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  in all parts of the world play similar games. Many generations of children have
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  enjoyed playing these traditional games, But could these games have a more important purpose.
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  Today's Spotlight is on traditional children's playground games. Experts everywhere agree that play
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  is good for children. They say it is important for a child's mental and
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  physical development. Nicola Butler from the organization Play England told the Huffington Post traditional
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  playground games are necessary for children's health, well being and development. Playing these
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  games lets children learn about friendships. They learn about arguing, making up,
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  negotiating and resolving disputes, and making the gun and making the game fun and
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  fair. But most importantly, being involved in these games make children happy.
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  Did you know that children from many countries play the same or similar traditional games,
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  though these games often have different names in different countries. The game of
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  leap frog has been played in the United Kingdom since the sixteenth century. In
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  this game, one child bends down and holds his knees or ankles. Another
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  child runs up to the first child, places her hands on the back of
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  the first child, and leaps or jumps over the first child. Any number
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  of children can play the game. They all take turns to leap or jump
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  like a frog. In other countries, children jump like a different animal.
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  In France, children call the same game sout montone, which means leap sheep.
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  In India they call it r godi keepar godi, which means leap horse.
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  Another game children play all over the world is hopscotch. In Albania they
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  call the game vara. In Germany, it is Hinkschpiel. Johannesly told Topics
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  online magazine what the game is called in his country. When I was a
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  child, my friends and I used to play many traditional games from my country,
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  Indonesia. A game I played a lot was called one leg Jump.
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  One leg Jump is a good name for the game of hop scotch. That's
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  because the name one leg jump helps you understand how to play the game.
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  The players mark squares on the ground using a stone or a piece of chalk.
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  Children in different parts of the world make different shapes or grids with the
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  squares, but some things are always the same. The children all hop or
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  jump on one leg from square to square, and they must not put a
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  foot on any line. Very often children play the game using a stone.
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  They throw the stone onto square one and take their turn hopping on the whole
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  grid. They hop to the last square, then they turn round and hop
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  back. On their next turn, they will throw their stone onto square two,
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  and on their next turn they throw onto square three, and so on.
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  If the stone does not land in the correct square, the child must
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  lose a turn. Maria Lopez from Columbia told Topics how she enjoyed playing hopscotch
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  when she was a child. Maria Lopez from Columbia told Topics how she enjoyed
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  playing hopscotch when she was a child. When I was a little girl,
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  most afternoons, I used to play games with my friends in our street.
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  Ruela, as hopscotch is called in Spanish, was my favorite game. It
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  is nice to remember playing games like ryuela because it shows me that I had
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  a happy time as a child, surrounded by special people who always loved me.
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  It may surprise you to learn that hopscotch is a very old game.
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  Experts say that nearly two thousand years ago, Roman soldiers used something similar as
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  an exercise. They had to hop up and down a one hundred foot series
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  of squares. They did this to make them stronger and quicker on their feet.
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  Marbles is another ancient game that is played around the world. No one
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  knows exactly how old it is, but we know the Romans played this game
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  too. You can see children playing marbles on ancient Roman wall paintings. But
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  what are marbles and how do you play the game of marbles? Marbles are
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  very small hard balls. You can find marbles made from different sorts of stone,
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  including the stone called marble, but most marbles are made from brightly colored
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  glass. People play many different sorts of games with their marbles, but all
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  of these games are simply called But all of these games are called simply marbles.
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  The ring game is one popular game of marbles. A child uses a
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  stone or chalk to make a circle or ring on the ground. Those playing
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  the game put a few of their marbles into the ring. Each child rolls
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  or shoots another marble to try to push one of the marbles out of the
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  ring. If a player manages to do this, he keeps that marble.
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  Hakan Tunja from Turkey played marbles as a child, but he used a triangle
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  shape, not a circle. He told Topics how he and his friends would
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  compete for marbles. I think the most important thing was to have as many
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  marbles as we could. We competed to win the most marbles. The one
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  who won the most marbles was the leader of the group, and everyone tried
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  to be the leader. Now I understand that this small competition was our first
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  experience with power and leadership. Traditional playground games are about more than just fun.
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  Hopefully children continue to learn these games and their valuable lessons for hundreds more
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  years. Do you remember playing traditional playground games when you were a child.
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  Tell us about playground games in your country. You can leave a comment on
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  our website or email us at Radio at Radio English dot net. You can
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  also comment on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash Spotlight Radio. The writer of
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  this program was Katie Blake. The producer was Michio Ozaki. The voices you
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  heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted
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  for this program and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to this program again
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  and read it on the internet at www dot Radio English dot net. This
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  program is called Traditional Children's Games. Look for our free listening app in the
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  Google play Store and in iTunes. We hope you can join us again for
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  the next Spotlight program. Goodbye,