Summary

Game type: 'The Sentence Game' (word game), 'Get the Flag' (chasing game)
Alternative types: hiding games, running games, team games

Handwritten descriptions of the word game 'The Sentence Game' and the chasing game 'Get the Flag' compiled by Phillip Barden, a student at Errol Street Primary School, for Dr Dorothy Howard on 25 August 1954. Barden describes 'The Sentence Game' as a game suitable for girls and boys, which is played in a field year round. To begin, he writes that players form two teams. One team develops a sentence with each player selecting one word from the phrase before hiding. The other team search for the hidden players, making note of each word as they locate their opponents. Barden explains that once all hidden players have been found, the team must try and recreate the original sentence. To play 'Get the Flag', players divide into two teams, each selecting a base. Barden notes that one team ties blue handkerchiefs around their arms for identification purposes. The game's rules are somewhat unclear; however, it appears that the objective of one team is to obtain a flag held in the possession of the opposing team. At the same time, both teams seem to be chasing each other, accumulating points for every prisoner taken. Barden explains that if the flag has not been stolen after 15 minutes, each team tallies their points with the highest number 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 descriptions in blue ink on lined paper. Features headings decorated with brightly coloured pencils; text written on one side only.

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