ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

I grew up in Syracuse NY and raised my children in Albany NY and we played duck duck Goose. Changing for the Holdays might have been done for a little more excitement.

In some Unangax villages in the Aleutian Islands, our children play "Sax, Sax, Lagix" (Bird, Bird, Goose). I think it started after contact with westerners, and then localized.

I just did a tasting experience with my classrooms and we tasted carrots, orange pepper and cooked sweet potatoes for orange vegetables. We then played the game.....carrot, carrot..................sweet potato. The children were full of giggles and called their classmates their sweet potato the rest of the week!

In CT we played: "Duck, Duck, Goose"

We love this game and use it to reinforce what ever animal we are studying so if it is dinosaurs it could be stegosaurus, stegosaurus, T-Rex. This gives them a fun way to help remember names of new animals we learn. We often ask the children what animals they want to do.

In response to:
'So for some reason, this popular childhood game has regional variations. So this is the challenge to our readers: What is the background for these various versions of the game? Are there other variations?'
A game we played as kids was Cowboys and Indians (colonialism at work) but here in Northern Ireland, the kids play the same game format of catch, rescue, escape, only they have changed it to 'Screws and Prisoners', making it more relevant to their situation. A lot of children from working class neighbourhoods here would have had someone they know in jail or still in jail so have heard the stories. No one wants to be caught by the Screws (Prison officers) as they have a free hand to beat you up till someone saves you.
These games are sadly a reflection of the society they are growing up in.

Well, I personally feel that a game is a game. It depends on how as educators we await for children's creativity to modify the game.

What I could understand from the conversation was it was some sort of code language to say 'Yes', 'No' 'Agreed', 'Sanctioned' etc. Here in my place we say,"fruit salad" for "Agreed" and "Soup" for "decision on hold".

California...duck duck goose

I grew up answering, "goose" to duck, duck. I grew up in southcentral North Dakota. However, I remember visiting my cousins on the farm an hour west of us and playing "gray goose". I really never understood what the difference was. My uncle and aunt were the "older" relatives and spoke fluent German, as did my cousins. Now that you ask the question, perhaps "gray goose" has history from another culture?

We play Duck Duck Goose. But the Children also love Toilet Toilet Flush. Learnt this variation from a 4 year old.

Our children came up with an original version - "Flush, flush, Toilet !" It brings lots of giggles to the game because the words according to the children are "a bit naughty".

In our small country town in south -east Australia.
Our variation is ...Rabbit Rabbit FOX !

When the weather is really hot we play Drip, Drip Drentch using a large wet sponge. It is lots of fun and cooling too.

Growing up in California, I played Duck, Duck, "Goose". But at my center last week, we played Duck, Duck, Turkey!

Here in Western Maine it is "Duck, duck...MOOSE!" which is a much more " fun" animal for children than goose. We do have a lot of Canadian geese here but they are not thought of favorably as they leave lots of dropping at lakeside parks and ball fields.

We play Duck, Duck...

as Wet, Wet, Dry and with the snow outside that is more appropriate than ducks!
Nise

I grew up in India. We played a similar game but there were no words used. We sat in a circle and 'it' walked around with a hanky in her hand. She dropped the hanky behind a child's back and kept walking. When the child discovered the hanky behind his back, he would pick it up, and run after 'it'. If he could tag 'it' with the hanky, he could sit down in the empty spot; if 'it' sat first, her child with the hanky would be the new 'it'....and the game would continue.