Summary

Game names (and types): 'A Pig Goes to Market', 'The Catching of the Fish' (rhymes), 'Skimming the Water' (play with plants/garden materials)
Alternative type: language play

Handwritten descriptions of rhymes and the game 'Skimming the Water' composed for Dr Dorothy Howard by Ray Woodley and Helen Rhodes, students at Clayfield College, in October 1954. Rhodes describes a rhyming game used to entertain infants named 'The Catching of the Fish'. She copies out the rhyme and lists the associated finger actions, stating the game is particularly useful to stop a baby crying. Woodley describes a similar rhyming game called 'A Pig Goes to Market'. He transcribes the rhyme, providing details about the accompanying actions. Woodley also describes 'Skimming the Water', a game which involves skimming a smooth, flat rock over water. He discusses the necessary physical actions and conditions.

One of a collection of letters describing a children's games written to children's Folklorist Dorothy Howard between 1954 and 1955. Dr Howard came to Australia in 1954-55 as an American Fulbright scholar to study Australian children's folklore. She travelled across Australia for 10 months collecting children's playground rhymes, games, play artefacts, etc. This letter, together with the other original fieldwork collected by Dr Howard during this period, is preserved in the Dorothy Howard Collection manuscript files, part of the Australian Children's Folklore Collection (ACFC), Archive Series 3. The ACFC is an extensive collection documenting children's folklore and related research.

Physical Description

Handwritten games descriptions in blue ink on lined paper. Features text written by two different hands; text printed on both sides of page.

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