A clapping game (or hand game) is a type of usually cooperative (i.e., non-competitive) game which is generally played by two players and involves clapping as a rhythmic accompaniment to a singing game or reciting of a rhyme, often nursery rhymes. Clapping games are found throughout the world and similar games may be known throughout large areas with regional variation.
Due to the communication skills and coordination required, simple clapping games are age appropriate for children age 24 months and above. [1] In many cultures clapping games are played by all sexes and ages, but in many European and European-influenced cultures, they are largely the preserve of girls. [2]
Claps commonly included in patterns are clapping one's own hands, clapping both hands of a partner, and clapping one hand of a partner, generally across such as the right hand of each player. The clapping may include other activities such as thigh slapping, or a final move such as touching the ground and freezing. [3] Sara Bernstein describes seventy-nine "basic hand-claps". [4]
Clapping patterns may be used with only specific rhymes, generically with most rhymes, or improvised. Children in different areas may be more or less strict about which claps accompany which rhymes but generally different clapping patterns may be used to accompany different rhymes. The rhymes are generally very similar to a jump-rope rhymes. Some games are played without a rhyme, such as 'Slide', and not all require the players to clap each other's hands, such as 'Sevens.'
Clapping games are a part of oral tradition. As such there are a variety of distinct clapping games or families of games. A game may be performed or played in various versions found in different areas and times and often according to ethnicity. For example, "Hello, Operator" may be called "Miss Susie" or "Miss Lucy" and may contain, omit, or vary verses or specific lines. Clapping patterns and actions may also vary. There is no canonical version of any game though children often fight over whose version is "right" or "real".
Clapping games include:
A counting-out game or counting-out rhyme is a simple method of 'randomly' selecting a person from a group, often used by children for the purpose of playing another game. It usually requires no materials, and is achieved with spoken words or hand gestures. The historian Henry Carrington Bolton suggested in his 1888 book Counting Out Rhymes of Children that the custom of counting out originated in the "superstitious practices of divination by lots."
Old Maid is a 19th-century American card game for two or more players, probably deriving from an ancient European gambling game in which the loser pays for the drinks.
"Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man", "Pat-a-Cake", "Patty-cake" or "Pattycake" is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 6486.
A singing game is an activity based on a particular verse or rhyme, usually associated with a set of actions and movements. As a collection, they have been studied by folklorists, ethnologists, and psychologists and are seen as important part of childhood culture. The same term is also used for a form of video game that involves singing.
"Miss Susie", also known as "Hello Operator", "Miss Suzy", "Miss Lucy", and many other names, is the name of an American schoolyard rhyme in which each verse leads up to a rude word or profanity which is revealed in the next verse as part of an innocuous word or phrase. Originally used as a jump-rope rhyme, it is now more often sung alone or as part of a clapping game. Hand signs sometimes accompany the song, such as pulling on the bell in the first verse or making a phone gesture in the second.
"Mary Mack" is a clapping game of unknown origin. It is first attested in the book The Counting Out Rhymes of Children by Henry Carrington Bolton (1888), whose version was collected in West Chester, Pennsylvania. It is well known in various parts of the United States, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and in New Zealand and has been called "the most common hand-clapping game in the English-speaking world".
Hunt the thimble is a party game in which one person hides a thimble, or other small object, somewhere in the room, while all other players wait outside. When everyone comes back in, they race to locate the hidden object. The first to find it is the winner, and hides it for the next game.
Chinese jump rope, also known as Chinese ropes, jumpsies, elastics, rek, yoki (Canada), Super Cali (Newfoundland), French skipping, American ropes/Chinese ropes, gummitwist, "jeu de l elastique" in France and Chinese garter in the Philippines is a children's game resembling hopscotch and jump rope. Various moves are combined to create patterns which are often accompanied by chants.
Chinese jump rope combines the skills of hopscotch with some of the patterns from the hand-and-string game cat's cradle. The game began in 7th-century China. In the 1960s, children in the Western hemisphere adapted the game. German-speaking children call Chinese jump rope gummitwist and British children call it elastics. The game is typically played in a group of at least 3 players with a rope approximately 16 feet in length tied into a circle. Traditional Chinese jump ropes are strings of rubber bands tied together, but today many varieties of commercial rope exist. Two players face each other standing 9 feet apart, and position the rope around their ankles so that it is taut. The third player stands between the two sides of the rope and tries to perform a designated series of moves without making an error or pausing.
A children's song may be a nursery rhyme set to music, a song that children invent and share among themselves or a modern creation intended for entertainment, use in the home or education. Although children's songs have been recorded and studied in some cultures more than others, they appear to be universal in human society.
"The Farmer in the Dell" is a singing game, nursery rhyme, folksong, and children's song. It probably originated in Germany and was brought to America by immigrants. From there, it spread to many other nations and is popular in a number of languages. It is Roud Folk Song Index number 6306.
"Pease Porridge Hot" or "Pease Pudding Hot" is a children's singing game and nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19631.
A skipping rhyme, is a rhyme chanted by children while skipping. Such rhymes have been recorded in all cultures where skipping is played. Examples of English-language rhymes have been found going back to at least the 17th century. Like most folklore, skipping rhymes tend to be found in many different variations. The article includes those chants used by English-speaking children.
Wee Sing is a songbook series published by Price Stern Sloan. It would also inspire a series of children's CDs, cassettes, coloring books, toys, videos, and apps.
Mister Whiskers: My Favourite Nursery Rhymes is the 1998 re-release children's album of My Favourite Nursery Rhymes by Franciscus Henri, both under Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Music's ABC for Kids. It achieved Gold sales certification due to sales in excess of 35,000 units in Australia. Notably, the album contains 23 separate tracks, but 17 of these are medleys ranging between two and four rhymes each, totalling fifty-five for the album, though many only go through a single chorus. At the ARIA Music Awards of 1994 the original version received a nomination for Best Children's Album.
"Wind the Bobbin Up" is an English language children's nursery rhyme and singing game.
"Down Down Baby" is a clapping game played by children in English-speaking countries. In the game, two or more children stand in a circle, and clap hands in tune to a rhyming song. It has been used in various songs and media productions since the mid 20th century.
"Miss Lucy had a baby...", also known by various other names, is an American schoolyard rhyme. Originally used as a jump-rope chant, it is now more often sung alone or as part of a clapping game. It has many variations, possibly originating from it, or from its predecessors.
The cup game is a children's clapping game that involves tapping and hitting a cup using a defined rhythm. The game can be played by many players seated around a table and is often played in large groups. Each player possesses a cup and in unison the players tap out the defined rhythm using their cups. It can be played competitively, where the rhythm speeds up in each "round", and a player making a mistake in the rhythm must drop out of the game, with a new "round" starting after each elimination, and game play continuing until only one player remains, with that player being the winner.