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	<title>Play Glossary</title>
	<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary</link>
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<item>
<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/affordance_154s118</link>
<title><![CDATA[Affordance]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A term coined by the American Psychologist J.J. Gibson as part of his Theory of Affordance. 

Affordances are the &#39;action possibilities&#39; or the things that could happen within a given envionment.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[The concept of Affordance was first coined in 1966 by the American psychologist James Jerome Gibson (1904-1979) as part of his Theory of Affordances. 

He describes them in his book, &lsquo;The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception&rsquo; (1979) as:

&ldquo;The affordances of the environment are what it offers the animal, what it provides or furnishes, either for good or ill &hellip;&rdquo; (p.127)

Further, he describes them as being &lsquo;action possibilities&rsquo; within the environment, in other words things that could happen within a given space specifically because aspects of that space allows for the possibility of those things to happen. This is true whether those affordances are deliberatly provided or they are simply inherent in the space. 

For example, a play setting that provides a slide is providing a deliberate affordance that gives children the opportunity to slide; a naturally occurring slope in an outside space might also provide the opportunity to slide even if, and this is an important point, even if that slope was not provided as a place to slide down. 

This is so because what the environment offers an individual in terms of what they could do with an affordance is not necessarily what they should or will do with it. This partly explains why there is sometimes a disconnect between what adults think children will do with a particular affordance and what children actually do with it.

What connection there is between what an affordance offers and how it might be used are dependent on how it is perceived by the individual based largely on their previous experiences. For example, a pile of carboard boxes might suggest to one person the possibility of building a &lsquo;robot&rsquo;; for another it might be saying &lsquo;spaceship&rsquo;, or &lsquo;house&rsquo;, or even &lsquo;place to hide&rsquo;.

The point being that an affordance might be deliberate or accidental and contains multiple possibilities that are brought to life by the person interacting with them.

--------------------

See also J.J. Gibson, Afforded Space, and Possibilities (coming soon).
]]></content>
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<pubDate>06 Feb 2026 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/annihilation_154s134</link>
<title><![CDATA[Annihilation]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[The final stage of the Play Cylce; the end of playing.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Annihilation in a play context is the final stage in the Play Cycle, as defined by Gordon Sturrock (1948-2019) and Perry Else (1959-2014). It marks &#39;the end of playing&#39;, or the end of a particular Play Cycle.

When observing a playspace, it is sometimes possible to spot when an Annihilation occurs. The children involved in a given Play Frame might be seen to abruptly leave the physical location where the playing was taking place; and if multiple children have been involved they may separate, moving away from each other in search of the next thing to play.

This should not be mistaken as a &#39;bad thing&#39;, though - it is an indication that all the possibilities that existed within a particular Play Frame have been exhausted; or that the playing child or children have had their immediate play needs satisfied. 

When it is a deliberate act by the children involved it is therefore a natural, and in fact necessary, part of playing that has to occur before there is (often) a pause and the next Play Cycle begins. As Perry Else says in his 2009 book, &#39;The Value of Play&#39;,

&ldquo;This &lsquo;annihilation&rsquo; is often seen not just in the sand tray but also in the bigger play space of the beach where twice a day, the tide comes in to wipe clean the playing field. Children are aware of this and will often build castles and small towns close to the water&rsquo;s edge, taking pleasure from the gradual destruction of their creations.&rdquo; (p.15)

However, there are times when an Adulteration can bring a Play Cycle to an end against the wishes of the children playing. This Premature Annihilation might have come about by an adult wishing to move the children on to something else (such as an administrative element like a meal time or transition to another activity), or an adult may have attempted to add an element to the Play Frame that the children reject.

In this latter example, children may simply &#39;lose the thread&#39; of where they are up to in their playing and as a result, the Play Frame collapses and Annihilation occurs. This is sometimes evident as it can result in frustration and even anger. 

See also Play Cycle, Adulteration, and Recurring Play Frame (to come).
]]></content>
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<pubDate>11 Feb 2026 22:12:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/chase-term_154s129</link>
<title><![CDATA[Chase Term]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A term used largely by folklorists and playlorists to describe the various terms used by children to describe their chasing games. 

Also known as a Tag Term.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Chase games are amongst the most universal of game types played by children all around the world, and so this type of game figures often in adult play memories. They are also an excellent example of how complex the Playlore of children can be, and an illustration of how detailed Playloric studies are.

The basic idea of a chase game is that someone (the &lsquo;undesired role&rsquo;) chases other people and, erm, catches them! But there&rsquo;s more.

You might know these chase games by a particular name without realising that your term is only one of many geographically located names for this.

Just in English-speaking countries there are a whole host of words beginning with T, for example: Tig, Tiggy, Tag, Tug, Tock, Tick, Tip, Tib, Touch, and Touchie. And it doesn&rsquo;t stop there with other common names including Dob, Dobby, Dobby on; and He, Het, Hit, Had, Hare, and the boring old Chasey.

Working out what term a person used in their own childhood can often narrow down where that person grew up.

There are also lots of examples of exceptions or more commonly &lsquo;avoidances&rsquo; in chase games too, in other words things you can do to avoid being caught such as being off the ground, or touching a particular colour, standing on someone else&rsquo;s shadow, or holding on to another person.

These forms of chase game have their own name and are seen as distinct games rather than just variations of &lsquo;Chasey&rsquo;. They also add another complication to working this out as sometimes (again geographically distinct) the Chase Term itself is sometimes a suffix and at other times a prefix.

Compare for example: &lsquo;Off-Ground Tig&rsquo; with &lsquo;Tigs off-Ground&rsquo; or &lsquo;Tiggy off the Ground&rsquo;. Get the term wrong in a local area and children will swear blind that they don&rsquo;t know what the alternatives mean!

---------------------

What Chase Term can you remember using?

See also Truce Terms, Avoidances, and The Undesired Role (to come)
]]></content>
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<pubDate>09 Feb 2026 02:45:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/childlore_154s120</link>
<title><![CDATA[Childlore]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A term popularised in the 1890s by the folklorist Alice Bertha Gomme (1853-1938).

It describes the folklore of children transmitted largely (but not exclusively) from child to child.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Childlore differs from the Folklore for Children in that while the latter deals with such things as nursery rhymes (sometimes called &lsquo;Nursery Lore&rsquo;) and &lsquo;traditional toys&rsquo;, which are more often passed from adults to children, Childlore refers to the folklore of children passed largely (though not exclusively) from child to child.

Childlore includes things such as children&rsquo;s game rituals (like Counting Out, and Respite for example), as well as jokes, witticisms, and subversions of the adult world.  

The folklorist Alice Berth Gomme (1853-1938), one of the founding members of the Folklore Society in London, is generally credited with separating Childlore as a distinct sub-genre in the wider world of Folklore in the 1890s. 

Gomme seems to have had a battle with the Society in persuading them to make this distinction, though, and so she undertook a major study of children&rsquo;s traditional games and songs herself, publishing the results in the massive two volume, &lsquo;The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland&rsquo; (1894 and 1898) as a demonstration that such a move was valid (see photo). 

In this she was largely successful. 

--------------------

[photo - an image from a page of Gomme&#39;s two volume book on children&#39;s games showing variations on &#39;string games&#39; also know as &#39;Cat&#39;s Cradle&#39;.]

See also Folklore, Playlore, and Iona and Peter Opie (to come).
]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/childlore_154s120</guid>
<pubDate>09 Feb 2026 02:06:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/dark-play_154s124</link>
<title><![CDATA[Dark Play]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A phrase coined in 1988 by the American academic and theatre director Richard Schechner (1934-to date).

It describes forms of playing that might be perceived by adults as &#39;not fun&#39; or not frivolous, and challenging because of its themes. It is often seen as being about children subverting social norms and hierarchies while working out their place in those structures. 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[The term Dark Play was first coined in 1988 by the American academic and theatre director Richard Schechner (1934-to date) (see photo). It is sometimes confused with the term &lsquo;Deep Play&rsquo; as both have the same roots.  

It describes forms of playing that might be perceived by adults as &#39;not fun&#39; or not frivolous and therefore challenging because of its themes. It is often seen as being about children subverting social norms and hierarchies while working out their place in those structures, but it may also be about teasing and frightening other players.

One defining feature of Dark Play is that other players may not realise that what is happening is still play. And in some respects, it might not be. Schechner describes this as, &ldquo;an intentional blurring of [the] playing-not playing boundary&rdquo; (p.12) when the performer (player) knows they are performing (playing) but the audience (other players) do not. 

He expands on this in a later 2015 book, &lsquo;Multiple Realities and Dark Play&rsquo;, writing, 

&ldquo;Subversive by nature, dark play is designed to be chaotic, deconstructive, expositional, but ultimately self-gratifying. Whilst more easily understood as a concept when dark play is violent and overtly disruptive, it can exist in more subtle forms.&rdquo; (p.392)

In a Playwork context this might be seen as an apparent suspension or disruption of the Play Frame by one or more players, although it is not intended to be. Take for example one player overturning a board game mid-play sending pieces flying which might be perceived as disruptive by adults watching and even other players, and yet in reality the person doing so is introducing a pretence of being disruptive. In other words, exploring the role of a distruptive person by playing that role.

That this idea should come from within the field of theatre should not be a surprise, as &lsquo;play&rsquo; (in the sense of children&rsquo;s play) and &lsquo;play&rsquo; (in a theatre sense) have close theoretical connections. 

The theatre director and trainer Cliver Barker (1931-2005) for example writes in his 1977 book, &lsquo;Theatre Games&rsquo;, &ldquo;I have never found a technical exercise [in the theatre] for which I couldn&rsquo;t find a direct parallel in the world of children&rsquo;s games.&rdquo; (p.62)

Dark Play themes are very evident throughout the entertainment world. The craze for the TV game show &lsquo;Traitors&rsquo; is a current example, as was the hugely popular 2004-2010 TV series &lsquo;Lost&rsquo;. 

--------------------

[photo - Richard Schechner (1934-to date)]

To learn more about the TV series &#39;Traitor&#39; see [here] and for the TV series &#39;Lost&#39; go [here]

See also Deep Play, Liminality,  Flow and Teasing  (to come)
]]></content>
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<pubDate>09 Feb 2026 02:24:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/folklore_154s122</link>
<title><![CDATA[Folklore]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Folklore is the term used to describe the traditional beliefs, customs, practices, and stories of people that are passed down through the generations often by word of mouth.

This includes the Folklore for Children which is transmitted largely (but not exclusively) from adult to child.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Folklore is the term used to describe the traditional beliefs, customs, practices, and stories of people that are passed down through the generations often by word of mouth. 

As an area of study and an academic discipline, it begins in 17th Century Europe with the collection of folktales and songs made by antiquarians (people interested in things of the past). The term &lsquo;folklore&rsquo; (originally &lsquo;folk-lore&rsquo;) was not coined until 1846 by Willian John Thoms (also known by his pseudonym Ambrose Merton).* 

Today, Folklore and Folklorists are a well-establish element of the academic world with university positions, many amateur folklorists, and organised societies all over the world.

The discipline of folklore is often sub-divided into:


	Verbal folklore - such as myths, legends, fairy tales; proverbs, jokes, riddles, songs, dialect, and contemporary legends



	Material folklore - such as folk art, clothing, traditional foods and recipes



	Customary folklore - such as festivals, superstitions and beliefs, folk dances, hand gestures and spooky characters


The &#39;Folklore for Children&#39; refers specifically to folklore regarding children and young people which, as opposed to Childlore and Playlore, is transmitted largely (but not exclusively) from adult to child rather than child to child. This may include things like traditional toys, children&#39;s clothing, and nursery rhymes.

 



Interest in children&#39;s play and games appears early in the history of folklore.

For example, the first modern folklorist (though still referred to as an antiquarian) is generally considered to be Joseph Strutt (1749-1802), a British historian and writer who was particularly interested in the day to day lives of ordinary people (see photo). 

This is evident in the subject of his books which included a history of clothing, of hairstyles, make up and, significantly, in 1801 &lsquo;Sports and Pastimes of the People of England&rsquo; in which he describes the games people played going back to at least the early 1700s. 

Many of the early folklorists interested in children&#39;s play and games began their collections because of a belief that games and play-forms were fast disappeering. However, these collections have actually created the body of evidence that shows this fear to have been incorrect. 

The British folklorists Iona and Peter Opie in their 1969 book, &#39;Children&#39;s Games in Street and Playground&#39; concluded instead that,  

&quot;The belief that traditional games are dying out is itself traditional&quot;. (p.14)

Other prominent folklorists in the English-speaking world involved in the folklore of children have included those such as the British, Alice Bertha Gomme, James Ritchie and Iona and Peter Opie; Americans, such as Dorothy Howard, and Mary and Herbert Knapp; and Australians, such as June Factor, Gwenda Davey, and Judy McKinty. 

--------------------

* For a very interesting background of Thoms and the development of Folklore as a discipline see the Library of Congress blog at https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/08/he-coined-the-word-folk-lore/

[Photo of Joseph Strutt]

See also Childlore, Playlore, Contemporary Legends, and Urban Myths (to come)
]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/folklore_154s122</guid>
<pubDate>09 Feb 2026 02:16:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/linear-playground_154s130</link>
<title><![CDATA[Linear Playground]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A linear playground is one in which playground equipment and other play features are placed along a well-used route rather than gathered together into a single space.  
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Most public playgrounds are typically an allocated space within a neighbourhood area sometimes demarcated by a fence or some other kind of boundary. Such a space implies that in order to play children must come &lsquo;to this space&rsquo; and all the playing that then happens is expected to take place within that boundary.

Such a concept is a common cause of friction between children making use of their broader environment for playing and adults who feel playing should only take place within this specific allocated space. 

A linear playground is very different. Rather than the declared boundary of the space being the limitation of playing, a linear playground is designed along a route that children and young people are known to frequent, such as a route to and from school, for example. 

Playground equipment and other play features, such as sand pits, enclosed ball games areas (also known as MUGAs &ndash; multi use games areas), single basketball hoops, balance features, and communal sitting places etc, are placed along this route rather than being gathered together and surrounded by a fence. 

This results in children playing in a way that is more reflective of how children play in general when moving around their neighbourhoods. 

See also Free Movement, and Marketta Kytta (to come). 
]]></content>
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<pubDate>09 Feb 2026 23:50:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/parten-mildred-parten_154s115</link>
<title><![CDATA[Parten, Mildred Parten]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Mildred Parten (1902-1970), also known as Mildred Parten Newhall, was an American sociologist known for proposing the &#39;six stages of play&#39; in 1929. 

Those six stages being: Unoccupied Play, Solitary (or Independent) Play, Onlooker Play, Parallel (or Adjacent) Play, Associative Play, and Cooperative Play.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Mildren Parten (1902-1970), also known as Mildred Parten Newhall, was an American sociologist and play theorist who proposed there being &lsquo;six stages of play&rsquo; in 1929. These stages were based significantly on a series of experimental observations made of children playing for short periods of time.

The six stages being:


	Unoccupied play, in which a child may or may not be on their own yet is playing on their own without reference to any other children
	 
	Solitary (or independent) play, in which a child is playing on their own and might appear unaware of what other children are playing around them
	 
	Onlooker play, in which a child is watching other children playing, yet is not joining in with them
	 
	Parallel (or adjacent) play, in which a child may be playing more or less the same thing as other nearby children, with more or less the same objects and materials, and more or less the same narrative or storyline but is separate from them
	 
	Associative play, in which a child may appear to be part of a group of playmates and even sharing playthings with them, yet is not actually connected or communicating with them
	 
	Cooperative play, in which a child is actively engaged in a group of people playing and is fully part of that narrative 



Often confused as a psychologist, Parten was a sociologist and this is evident in her ideas in which dynamics between pairs and groups of children are key. In fact, one of the criticisms often laid against the six stages is that they give prominence to ideas of socialisation as a form of development rather than the cognitive &ndash; except that&rsquo;s the point of using a sociological approach!

As a contemporary of people such as Jean Piaget and Lev Vygoysky it is probably not surprising that the six stages are often interpreted as being progressive; in other words, all children begin with solitary play before moving on to onlooker play, etc., in order. Yet more recent observations suggest that the link with age and progression may not be as clear cut as first suggested. 

The six stages have also tended to be more relevant to the early years (Parten&rsquo;s own observations were of children between two and five years of age) yet it is clearly the case that the six stages could easily be applied as a descriptive tool of older children playing too. 

--------------------

What do you think? Are Parten&rsquo;s &lsquo;six stages&rsquo; still relevant today? 
]]></content>
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<pubDate>06 Feb 2026 04:57:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/play-episode_154s117</link>
<title><![CDATA[Play Episode]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A distinct piece of playing with an identifiable beginning, middle and end.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[A distinct piece of playing with an identifiable beginning, middle and end. 

When owned by the children playing, a Play Episode is an example of spontaneous playing in which a physical location, objects, playmates, and a narrative/storyline come together to produce a distinct example of playing that has an identifiable beginning, middle, and end. 

More accurately, it has a beginning, middles (plural), and an end as the middle is likely to go through a series of related changes as the narrative and storyline develops. In other words, children may make (or propose) a change to the narrative in their playing which, if accepted by the other players, subtly changes the direction of that playing leading to yet other proposals.

Over time, the narrative may seem completely different from how it started but if no &lsquo;end&rsquo; has been reached yet then all that change is part of the same Play Episode. 

All this playing takes place within a Play Frame yet what begins this Play Episode is likely to have taken place outside the context of the Play Frame and may have formed the spark that created it in the first place. 

--------------------

See also Spontaneous Playing, Play Frame and Play Spark (to come)
]]></content>
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<pubDate>06 Feb 2026 04:59:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/playlore_154s121</link>
<title><![CDATA[Playlore]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A term first coined in the 1950s by the folklorists Iona and Peter Opie.

It describes the childlore associated with children&#39;s play, games and playthings .
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Although there had been an interest in what and how people played from a very early point in the development of Folklore as an area of study, it took until the 1950s and the work of the husband and wife team, Iona (1923-2017) and Peter Opie (1918-1982) for Playlore, the study of childlore associated with children&rsquo;s play, games, and playthings, to be considered a legitimate sub-genre. 

Prior to this, descriptions of &lsquo;play&rsquo; and &lsquo;games&rsquo; were usually mixed up in a broader sense with other aspects of folklore and childlore. For example, in Joseph Strutt&rsquo;s 1801 book, &lsquo;Sports and Pastimes of the People of England&rsquo; he describes the games people were playing as far back as the early 1700s and illustrated many of these games with his own woodcuts. However, it is unclear from Strutt&rsquo;s text and illustrations which of these games are being played by adults, which by children, or both.

Throughout the later 19th and early 20th centuries, folkloric studies of play and games tended to be referred to as part of &lsquo;children&rsquo;s street culture&rsquo; and included much more than what children were playing. As in so many other areas of exploring children&rsquo;s lives, the play element often took second place to what were considered more important aspects.

And then came the Opie&rsquo;s.

The story goes that when the Opie&rsquo;s wanted to research for and publish a work specifically on child-to-child lore, with an emphasis on their playing, their publishers expressed doubt that there would be enough material to publish a single work. Six books later they admitted they may have been wrong.

As the Opie&rsquo;s write in the introduction to their 1969 book, &lsquo;Children&rsquo;s Games in Street and Playground&rsquo;, 

&ldquo;In the present study we are concerned solely with the games that children, aged about 6-12, play of their own accord when out of doors, and usually out of sight. We do not include, except incidentally, party games, scout games, team games, or any sport that requires supervision.&rdquo; (preface)

Today, Playlore concentrates largely on that &lsquo;out of site&rsquo; aspect of children&rsquo;s play, and aims at uncovering what is in many respects a &lsquo;secret world&rsquo;. It explores such things as:


	Starting a Game
	Choosing the &lsquo;it&rsquo; person
	Respite and Truce Terms
	Chasing and Catching Games
	Chase Terms 
	Seeking and Hunting Games
	Racing Games
	Duelling Games
	Daring Game
	Guessing Games
	Acting Games, and Pretending Games
	Rough and Tumble games.


 

Arguably, the greatest contribution of Playlore to the study of children&rsquo;s lives through the past through to the present would be that far from showing that children&rsquo;s play and games have declined, what it actually shows is very little difference in the play of children in Joseph Strutt&rsquo;s day to modern times.

--------------------

[photo: above, a woodcut illustration from Stutt&rsquo;s 1801 book, and below a collection of Opie titles from Marc&#39;s bookshelves]

See also Folklore and Childlore, Iona and Peter Opie, Truce Terms, Chase Terms, Counting Out
]]></content>
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<pubDate>09 Feb 2026 02:06:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/respite-term_154s131</link>
<title><![CDATA[Respite Term]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[See Truce Term. 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/respite-term_154s131</guid>
<pubDate>10 Feb 2026 00:14:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/sand_154s116</link>
<title><![CDATA[Sand]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A natural play material with a long history of facination from children yet only introduced as a deliberate play material around 170 years ago.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[A natural play material made up of teeny tiny pieces of (usually) silica that has taken thousands of years to break down. 

Children have probably used sand as a play material for as long as there have been children and beaches, yet the first person recorded to provide sand in a deliberate way for playing and learning from was in 1847 by the German kindergarten pioneer Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852). However, it does appear that Froebel was acting on the suggestions of a former student.

He designed a box-like structure on a framework with legs and wheels that children stood up to use, very much like what we might call a &lsquo;sand tray&rsquo; today, as can be found in early years provision all over the world. 

These sand trays were very much an indoor feature but influenced by the concept, the City of Berlin took the idea outside. They had begun incorporating places to play within existing city parks (playgrounds not being a common feature yet) in the 1850s and soon added sand. 

At first this took the form of creating &lsquo;sand bergs&rsquo; (literally sand piles) that reportedly proved fascinating for children. This eventually transformed into &lsquo;sand boxes&rsquo; (also called &#39;sand pits&#39;) probably as a way of managing and preserving sand stocks. 

By the end of the 1880s, the inclusion of sand boxes in the fast-growing number of public playgrounds around the world was becoming a standard feature.

The existence of sand on the beach is probably one reason why beaches hold such a facination for children and why they are almost always on the list of &lsquo;favourite places to play &rsquo; in surveys of children and young people. 

Yet one question remains: in a playing context, is sand a &lsquo;loose part&rsquo; or part of an afforded environment? 

What do you think?

--------------------

[photo taken in the 1990s by Marc of the &#39;sand berg&#39; in use at the Tree House Primary School in Belgium. By not being constrained within a &#39;sand box&#39;, every time the sand is topped up it could, and often is, dumped in a completely different place]

See also Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) (to come)

 
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<pubDate>06 Feb 2026 04:59:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/spontaneous-playing_154s119</link>
<title><![CDATA[Spontaneous Playing]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A way of describing playing in which children do not need nor seek out the involvement of an adult to begin, develop, and end their playing.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[The idea of &lsquo;spontaneous playing&rsquo; (also called autonomous playing, or spontaneous and autonomous playing) is based on a quotation in the Paul Bonel and Jennie Lindon book, &lsquo;Good Practice in Playwork&rsquo; first published in 1996.

&ldquo;For play to take place in a free and spontaneous way the conditions have to be right.&rdquo;  (p.14)

Spontaneous playing refers to the ability of children to be in complete control of their playing from the very beginning to the end in which they do not need nor seek out the involvement of an adult. This could be further defined as:


	play which children begin autonomously, without the need or involvement of an adult
	 
	play which children change, develop, extend autonomously, without the need or involvement of an adult, and
	 
	play which children end in their own time autonomously, without the need or involvement of an adult


If you are thinking that this description looks remarkably similar to the way children play when there are no adults present, you would be correct. The difference here is that spontaneous playing is being applied within a staffed setting as a deliberate policy to reflect as closely as possible the way children play outside of that setting. 

The &lsquo;conditions being right&rsquo; in this context simply means that the physical space and the objects (in that space), have been curated by the adults (in that space) in such a way that playing can begin, develop, and end without the direct involvement of those same adults.  

--------------------

See also Initial Possibilities, Dynamic or Continuing Possibilities, and BOOK: Good Practice in Playwork (1996) (to come)
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<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/spontaneous-playing_154s119</guid>
<pubDate>06 Feb 2026 05:02:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/tag-term_154s132</link>
<title><![CDATA[Tag Term]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[See Chase Term. 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/tag-term_154s132</guid>
<pubDate>10 Feb 2026 00:17:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/truce-term_154s128</link>
<title><![CDATA[Truce Term]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A term used largely by folklorists and playlorists to describe the stategy that children use to temporarily make them imune from capture within a game. Also known as a Respite Term.

These special words are often local to a specific location and include terms such as &#39;kings&#39;, &#39;crosses&#39;, &#39;barley&#39;, and &#39;time-out&#39; among others. 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[A Truce Term, sometimes also called a Respite Term, is a word (often associated with some kind of hand signal) that provides temporary respite during a game.

For example, stopping in the middle of a chasing game, calling out &ldquo;Kings!&rdquo; while crossing the first two fingers of one hand would mean that person cannot be caught for a moment. 

These terms have a geographical context to them to such an extent that it is possible to guess roughly where an individual is from by asking what Truce Term they used as a child. This also means that a term that works in one place might not work in another.

Truce Terms used in this way have a history in Europe that goes back at least as far as the 14th Century and are yet another example of children and young people preserving a concept that was at one point common in the adult world. But, as the folklorists Iona and Peter Opie point out in their book, &lsquo;The Lore and Language of School Children&rsquo; (1959),

&ldquo;&hellip; when a child seeks respite he uses a term to which there is now no exact equivalent in adult speech.&rdquo; (p.141/142)

Common Truce Terms in the British Isles include Kings, Crosses, Fainites, Vainites, Skinch, Barley, Cree, Pax, and the more recent Time-Out. Variations on these terms can be found all over the world; in Australia, for example, local Truce Terms such as Bar, Bars, and Barley, all of which have a particularly Scottish origin, are common.

They are often used in association with some form of hand signal, the most common which is a simple crossing of the fingers but in Scotland and France in particular the most common hand signal is to hold up a thumb. Various other combinations of crossed fingers are common too (see photo).

Where common Truce Terms overlap they sometimes combine to make a new term. For example, &#39;Kings&#39; and &#39;Crosses&#39; are both common Truce Terms in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire (UK) and parts of the USA yet geographically when these two terms come into contact they often become the single phrase &#39;Cross Kings&#39;. 

What did Truce Term did you use when you were younger, and where did you spend your childhood?

--------------------

See also Childlore, and Playlore

[photo taken by Marc in 1989 at a school in Lincolnshire during a project to explore the playlore terminology of the playground, which was published by Boothferry Borough Council as &#39;A Rhyme in Time&#39; (1994)]

 
]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/glossary/truce-term_154s128</guid>
<pubDate>09 Feb 2026 02:41:00 GMT</pubDate>
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