Cold winter days and indoor recess.  A combination that’s sure to bring out the strangest of games and behaviors in kids.  I supervise indoor recess with both 1st and 4th grade after their lunches and there’s never a dull moment.  For my first graders, paper airplanes are the thing.  There are two paper airplane “experts” in the room who take turns making paper airplanes for their friends.  Usually the airplanes stay white but sometimes kids are coloring windows or designs on them or giving them names.  Then while other kids are reading or drawing or playing games, these flying beauties are all over the room.  I’m afraid I started a thing when I asked if I could try one – now I have to try everyones plane.

They’re truly a creative bunch.  I’ve seen boys make fidget spinners out of lego type blocks and watch them spin them dangerously close to quiet girls who are just trying to draw a music picture for me, just to make them crazy.  I’ve watched them race each other using yardsticks and rolling little cars from chairs to the floor.  I’ve watched them find weird places to hide in the room and steal games from each other.  And once in a while you find that there’s a new game, one where everyone is gathered around wanting to either watch or play.  Today that game was Charlie Charlie.

Apparently the way this thing works is that you draw four squares on a piece of paper and write the word “yes” in two of the squares and “no” in the other two.  Then you take two pencils and balance one on top of the other in the shape of a cross.  Then you ask a question like “Charlie Charlie, do you want to play?” and if “Charlie” is in the room, the pencils will move.  Kind of like a poor man’s ouija board.

Some of the kids were wigging out – “we’re not supposed to play that!”,  while others were fascinated.  I had to look it up and apparently it’s a traditional Mexican game.  I’ll have to ask my Mexican friend about this one.  Some believe they’re contacting the spirit of a dead boy names Charlie and others believe they’re conjuring a demon.  Either way, probably not the best way to use recess time.  But leave it to kids to find the weirdest thing that they can possibly play.

So, as a supervisor, what to do?  I’m not a fan of Ouija boards personally and wouldn’t play it if you asked. Oh sure, my mom owned one when I was a kid and we “played” but she gave up when she asked what my grandmother’s middle name was and when the Ouija board spelled out a name, got mad because it wasn’t true – my grandmother didn’t have a middle name.  I’ve found out since then that both of my grandmothers had middle names, but she was convinced otherwise.  My friends and I played it at slumber parties, asking about things like boyfriends and whatnot, but while it was intriguing to think this board was telling us things, it wasn’t.

So I let them play it.  Nothing happened of course – apparently the pencils weren’t balanced just right, but just like other things kids play, this too will fade away and lead to another strange thing for kids to do.  If only the floss and fortnite would disappear as well.