Our Top 5 Favorite Recess Games – Back To School in Utica 2012

It seems that summer is going by faster than expected. If you blink your eyes now, you may miss the entire month of August. You’ve been getting ready to deal with the pain of back to school shopping in Utica, and now take a minute to relax. Do you remember the glory days of Recess? Maybe you were the king of the playground. I sure thought I was in Westmoreland. Here’s my Top 5 Favorite Recess Games.

5) Wall Ball

All you need to play is a decent-sized group of people, a tennis ball, and a (preferably brick) wall without windows. The object of this game is to be the last man surviving. Players throw the tennis ball against the wall in hopes that it'll another player will try and get the ball and fail to. Here’s how it works:

“The tennis ball bounces across the ground and a player will get it and throw it back against the wall. If a player gets hit with the ball they have to go to the wall and touch it with any part of the body to be safe. If another player gets the ball, throws it, and hits the wall before the runner touches the wall, the runner is "out." Once someone gets out three times, they are done for the remainder of the game.”

4) Two Hand Touch Football

If you’ve met me you know for a fact I’m not in shape. A weak little boy like myself couldn’t handle the pain and pressure of tackle football. So lucky for me this game exists.

“Instead of tackling players to the ground, the person carrying the ball need only be touched by a member of the opposite team to end a down. The game is usually played by amateurs on a recreational basis.”

3) “Bulldog” Ball

If your student goes to Westmoreland, then they are truly trained in the art of “Bulldog Ball”. I’m sure this game is played at any school in Central New York. It’s got the same rules and game play of kickball. The only exception: you can have mutable players on one base. And oh yeah, running around the bases isn’t good enough. You need to run around them twice.

2) “California” Kick Ball

Growing up I truly thought this was the way people from California played kickball…. Just kidding. The game is very simple. All the rules of kickball are in place. The only difference is players would run to third base, second base, then first. Kickers run the bases backwards. I have no idea why this has a connection to the state of California, but it did in Westmoreland.

1) Hide-And-Seek

Maybe you weren’t able to play this a lot at school, but growing up its all we played at my Grandmothers. We would play the game with my cousins, and I’d usually be the best hider out there. Now if badminton is considered a sport why isn’t Hide-and-seek?

Hide-and-seek is a game in which a number of players conceal themselves in the environment, to be found by one or more seekers. The game is played by one player (designated as being "it") counting to a predetermined number while the other players hide. After reaching the number, the player who is "it" tries to find the other players. After the player designated as "it" finds another player, the found player must run to base, before s/he is tagged by "it." In some versions, after the first player is caught, it calls out "Ollie Ollie oxen free" (or "all outs, all in free" or many other variations) to signal the other hiders to return to base for the next round.”

What were your favorite games to play?

Did any of your favorites make our list? If not, which ones did you enjoy the best?