Summary

Game type: 'Blocks in a Tin' (racing game)
Alternative types: play with props/equipment

Handwritten description of the racing game 'Blocks in a Tin' compiled by an unidentified student at East Fremantle Government Primary School, for Dr Dorothy Howard between 1954-1955. Racing games involve players competing against each other or the clock to be the first or fastest to complete a particular action or reach an object or location. The author describes 'Blocks in a Tin' as a game suitable for girls and boys, which requires about six players, six tins and 36 blocks and is usually played in a hall. The tins together with six blocks are placed in a row as illustrated by the accompanying diagram. The author explains that players race to collect the blocks and place them in the tins with the fastest child declared the winner.

One of a collection of letters describing a children's game 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 blue ink on lined paper. Features a hand drawn diagram in blue ink below text; text written on one side of paper only.

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