Summary

Game names (and types): 'Here I Come with My Stick and Staff' (elimination game); 'Sharahs' [Charades] (mime games)
Alternative type: language play, dramatisation, dramatic play, guessing game

Handwritten descriptions of elimination and guessing games composed for Dr Dorothy Howard by Helen Laurie-Rhodes and Patricia Watson, students at Clayfield College, in October 1954. Laurie-Rhodes describes the elimination game 'Here I Come with My Stick and Staff', which can be played by any number of children of varying ages. To play, she writes that one child asks a series of nonsensical questions to encourage the other players to laugh. The child who solemnly answers the most questions with the phrase 'I will' is the winner. Watson describes the guessing game 'Charades', incorrectly spelt 'Sharahs', which requires two or more players. She writes that a player performs an action, which other players must identify.

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 game descriptions in blue ink on lined paper. Features text written by two authors; text printed on both sides of page.

More Information