KINDERGARTEN 



3242 



KINDERGARTEN 



tut 



joys of companionship are often interrupted, 

 however, because the members of the little 

 company have not yet learned the laws of 

 right conduct. The children learn these laws 

 readily, however, by the experience of losing 

 favor with their playmates if they offend. It 

 is through such experiences that they come to 

 realize right conduct as a means to a desirable 

 end happiness in their play together. Many 

 of the kindergarten exercises afford opportu- 

 nity to prove this, but none more so than the 

 games, because they are so largely cooperative. 

 In the playing of these in the right spirit, the 

 children's joy in each other's companionship 

 reaches its height. 



Some Purposes of the Games. It is because 

 the games meet so many of the children's needs 

 that they deserve especial attention. Among 

 these are the physical ones. The period from 

 three to six years is one of such rapid growth 

 that energy is generated faster than it can 

 be used. This is the reason why children run, 

 jump and dance in sheer joy in the activity. 

 It is for the purpose of affording the right ex- 

 ercise for this overflowing energy, which can- 

 not be repressed without injury, that the 

 various running, skipping and dancing games 



MHC ONE CUT IW tNO fM -DBDfT. 



have been evolved. Since these are necessarily 

 rhythmic, they not only aid the children in 

 gaining control over their movements, but be- 

 come the means by which they learn to under- 

 stand and express music on its rhythmic side. 



To give opportunity for such expression, ex- 

 ercises in which children "do what the piano 

 tells them to do," that is, march, skip, dance, 

 or run, have come into vogue. With such 

 exercises as a basis, the children have no diffi- 

 culty in learning the games of another group 

 those in which they dramatize the activities of 

 adults of the mother in the home, the farmer 

 in the field, or the carpenter or blacksmith in 

 his shop. These not only satisfy the imitative 

 instinct, but acquaint children with funda- 

 mental forms of human effort, and the pi 

 and value of these in life. They have, th< 

 fore, a double social value that gained fror 

 a knowledge of the activities imitated, ai 

 from the children's playing them together. 



No list of kindergarten games could be ct 

 sidered complete that did not include 

 other games those in which children measui 

 their strength, skill, or alertness with that 

 others. Of these, such games as "Drop 

 Handkerchief," "Dodge Ball," and the 



