Summary

Game name (and type): 'The Game of Colours' (games with colours)
Alternative types: stepping games, counting-out rhymes, language

Handwritten description of 'The Game of Colours' written for Dr Dorothy Howard by Margaret Letts, a student at Double View Government Primary School, presumably on 25 March 1955. Letts writes that 'The Game of Colours' is best played by six or seven players dressed in colourful clothing. Players recite a counting-out rhyme to determine who will be 'he'. Letts transcribes an example of such a rhyme: 'A little green snake ate too much cake. And so he got a belly ache.' She explains that 'he' stands apart from the other players, who are lined up in a row, announcing different colours. If a player is wearing the named coloured, they take a step forward. The first player to reach a predetermined location is declared the winner.

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 description in pencil on lined paper. Features borders ruled in red pencil; text printed on one side only.

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