Tag Archives: elementary school

Joke – United States of America

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 6
Occupation: Student
Residence: Vancouver, WA
Performance Date: March 20, 2008
Primary Language: English

What do you call a snail on a ship?

A snailor!

My brother says that he first heard this from one of his friends. The punchline makes use of a pun on the words “snail” and “sailor,” combining them into one word: “snailor.” Derek likes this joke because “snailor is a funny word!” When asked if he knows any jokes, this is typically the one that comes to his mind first.

As a current first-grader, children at that age are becoming more creative with language and are learning how to express themselves more clearly through written word and oral speech. At this time, they are also figuring out what words can and cannot go together, in addition to distinguishing nonsense words. Combining two words to form “snailor” makes no sense outside the context of the joke, but the combination of “snail” and “snailor” is easily seen when the punchline is accompanied by the question. First-graders know that “snailor” is not a real word, but the fact that it exists in this joke makes sense for them: they know what a snail is, and they know what a sailor is. The jump from the two separate words to one word is easily made, since the first syllable of “sailor” is nearly identical to “snail.” Since the two words are relatively simple, it is easy for a 6- or 7-year-old to see the cleverness of the term “snailor,” and thus find the joke amusing.

Another interesting feature of this joke is its alliteration. With “snail,” “ship,” and “snailor” all beginning with the letter “s”, the joke is probably easier for children to remember, and it also has a nice ring to it. Additionally, all of the words (except “snailor”) are only one syllable, possibly contributing to the being more easily remembered among first-graders. The joke is also fairly short—a quick question, a quick answer. Since children’s attention spans are still growing at this age, a short joke fares better on the playground than does a longer one.

Game – United States of America

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Vancouver, WA
Performance Date: March 20, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish, German

Silent Ball

Silent ball is usually played in a classroom, I suppose. So anyone who wants to play sits up on the top of their desks and one person starts off with the ball and it can just be like…a tennis ball, or a wiffle ball, or whatever. And you also have a sound monitor person who basically judges whether or not someone has made a sound that uh that should I guess constitute them as “out” of the game. And it’s usually okay to laugh, um, I think. But if you talk, or do anything other than laughing or bodily functions like coughing or sneezing. So basically if you talk, you’re “out.” So, then, the person who starts out with the ball throws it to whoever they want in the classroom and you just keep throwing it around to different people and if the ball touches your desk or the floor, or if you just don’t catch it while it’s coming at you, then you have to sit down on your chair—not on your desk—because then that means that you’re “out.” And the goal is to be the last person sitting on your desk, or, sitting on a desk. And, um, I guess the sound monitor person also judges um, like, if the ball was thrown between two people that sound monitor person decides who is out. So it’s kind of the ultimate judge.

*Teachers can play, but generally don’t

Heidi first learned this game sometime during the later half of elementary school. It is usually played in the classroom during times when the teacher doesn’t have a lesson planned, or when there is a substitute teacher. Students probably start playing it during the later half of elementary school because their finer motor skills have developed a bit more—they’re able to throw the ball with some accuracy, and catch it as well.

Since the goal is to get people out, a person in possession of the ball could potentially “just chuck the ball at people.” Heidi says that, “if they miss it, too bad for them.” Methods for getting people “out” include, but are not limited to: throwing the ball very hard so that some people might not want to catch it; throwing the ball just out of reach of the person so that he or she cannot catch it; and throwing the ball towards a person without giving him or her very much notice. While these are all good methods, the players also need to keep in mind that these same strategies can be used against them when it comes time for them to catch the ball. One of the lessons of this game is to develop a strategy for winning that may include several of the above methods. However, the developed strategy must also account for the fact that others will try to sabotage your chances of winning. Since the students’ fine motor skills are more developed during the later elementary school years (ages 9-10) than during the early years (ages 5-6), it is easier for students to establish a strategy for throwing the ball to their opponents.

Utter, Brenda. Pick and Plan: 100 Brain-compatible Strategies for Lesson Design. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press, 2007.

Game

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Alameda, CA
Performance Date: March 3, 2008
Primary Language: English

“Circle, circle, dot, dot, now I have the cootie shot.”

I was sick and I touched Nick’s arm. I apologized for touching him while ill, and he pretended to be alarmed. He then playfully recited the above live. He said this above line as a way of jokingly warding off disease.

He learned this game from elementary school. In elementary school, girls think boys have cooties, and boys think girls have cooties. Cooties can be loosely defined as germs. The only thing one really needs to know about them is that one does not want to have them; they are gross and bad. The only way to ward off contracting the cooties was to trace a circle twice around a spot on one’s arm and then poke the center of the circle twice while chanting this line. The cootie shot also works to protect one from anything gross. Nick used it just like everyone else did in his elementary school. However, Nick still continues to use it in a playful manner. Whenever he encounters or touches something gross, such as a person coughing, he uses it. He calls these “occasions for the cootie shot.” He does not mean to offend the other person (me), he is just kidding. He realizes it is a “child teasing game.”

I myself also went through the cootie shot phase in elementary school. I think the cootie shot is pretty popular in most elementary schools, as evidenced by the cootie shot appearing in published works such as Shelley Stoehr’s book Weird on the Outside (p. 83). Playing tag became problematic when the cootie shot was introduced, because then everyone was busy inoculating themselves with the cootie shot after getting tagged. I agree with Nick that one mainly used it in elementary school as a way to get rid of any cooties one may have contracted from touching a person of the opposite sex, or something gross (or both). I agree that the cootie shot is a definite form of protection. In elementary school, it was thought to be a foolproof way to guard against cooties. However, I think there is another reason behind children wanting to guard against the cooties they could contract from interacting with a person of the opposite sex. Games are oftentimes a child’s way of exploring the world around them. They see that in the adult world, males and females interact and so children become curious about the opposite sex. However, in elementary school, boys and girls are usually polarized in their respective genders; girls stick with girls, boys stick with boys. According to elementary school social rules, boys and girls are not “supposed to” interact. I think the cootie shot is a “safe”, acceptable way for children to interact with one another. The cootie shot meant they could safeguard themselves from any danger that could possibly result from interacting with a person of the opposite sex. It also gave them an excuse to interact with the opposite sex. It was a playful game, and it is still used once in awhile even though we are now older. Nick is evidence that young adults still engage in this playful game.

It is interesting that the cootie shot game has stayed with young adults. Young adults do not typically still recite jump-rope rhymes, but I have heard multiple young adults still use the cootie shot. It was a playful game in elementary school, and it remains a playful game in college. However, it has changed for college students because now it is an occasion for anyone involved in this occurrence to laugh and become a little bit nostalgic. Most of us are nostalgic when it comes to remembering the grade school days, and the cootie shot brings back a lot of memories. People then tend to discuss these memories, seeing what similar things they did or had at their separate elementary schools.

Annotation: Stoehr, Shelley. Weird on the Outside. New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, 1995.

Selection Rhyme

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Tiburon, CA
Performance Date: March 21, 2008
Primary Language: English

Counting out Rhyme:

Inky Binky Bon-key

1        2       3      4

Daddy had a don-key

1       2        3     4

Donkey died, Daddy cried

1         2       3         4

Inky Binky Bon-key

1      2       3      4

This rhyme is used as a method of selecting someone to be “It” in a game of tag, or to select someone to do a certain task (either desirable or undesirable).  Everyone stands in a circle and either puts their fist or foot in the circle.  Someone, often the “leader” of the group is responsible for saying the rhyme and with each word goes around the circle in a clockwise direction lightly tapping the fists or feet of the participants with their own fist (Bon-key and don-key both count as two words—meaning two taps, and the “a” before the word “donkey”  is ignored—no tap). Whoever is the person to get tapped on the last syllable of the rhyme (the –key part of the second Bon-key) is “It” or the selected person to do the task.  There are different variations of the same rhyme.  In one variation you continue to say the rhyme eliminating each person who is tapped on the last syllable until only one person is left, and this person is the one which must do the task.  There also is a variation where everyone puts both their fists or feet into the circle, elongating the time it takes to select the one person, thus creating more suspense.

Katy learned this on the playground during elementary school, and is not sure of the exact moment and location or who told her about it, but did use it often.  She is not sure of where the counting rhyme came from, or what the significance of its lines is.

It is rather remarkable that kids devise such easy ways to make decisions, as adults often find themselves caught in a power struggle over a particular issue.  While it is hard to interpret this nonsensical riddle, it could portray the message of getting over things quickly and moving on, as implied by “donkey died, daddy cried.” This could be targeted towards the “loser” who has to be it or do the task, implying that one should deal with it and move on.  There is another related counting rhyme which I found after some research on the internet:

Inka binka bottle of ink

The cork fell off and you stink

Not because you’re dirty

Not because you’re clean,

Just because you kissed a boy (or girl) behind a magazine.

Whether the “inka binka” and “inky binky bonkey” are related or derive from the same origins is hard to gather, however the rest of the rhymes don’t really relate, and it could just be a coincidence.  I was not able to find any rhymes that were in between the two, as both seem to have very little variation.