French Skipping – quite literally

We bought some Elastics for French Skipping, which came with instructions and also included the information that the game ‘is thought to have originated in China or Japan around the 1920’s/30’s.’ So what is French about this Chinese or Japanese skipping game?

In fact, elastics appears to have many homes. It was named more often than any other game in our survey of childhood games remembered by staff and students at King’s College. It is played in France, in China and Japan as well as in Spain, Germany, Italy, Australia, Latin and North America and many other places. The moves are often similar, but the rhymes, of course, are different.

For our version, we have provided ‘awkward’ translations of English skipping verses into Spanish and German. We challenge you to create new skipping moves to match the different patterns and sounds of the translated verses.