Summary

Game name (and type): 'Beetle' (play with props/equipment)
Alternative type: games with found objects, games with sticks, jumping game

Typed description of the game 'Beetle' composed for Dr Dorothy Howard by Miriel Burvill, a student at Collier Primary School, in 1955. Described as similar to the game 'Fly', 'Beetle' involves players placing two sticks no more than ten steps apart. One child is elected the 'beetle'. The 'beetle' takes a few steps and a large jump towards the second stick, using the other stick to mark his new position. The following question is recorded below the description: 'All the other players follow?'.

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

Typed game description on card-sized paper. Text printed on one side only.

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