Schoolyard Food Games

"Pepsi-Cola came to town, Coca-Cola shot him down. Dr Pepper fixed him up, now we're drinking 7UP..."

You have to hand it to the elementary schoolyard: it inspired a plethora of rhymes and games you'll carry with you for the rest of your life. Since we were in preschool, we've played games that taught us hand-eye coordination and maybe even a few life lessons through those catchy rhymes. With the new school year underway, we thought it'd be fun to take a trip down memory lane and revisit some of the food-inspired schoolyard games we played as kids.

Patty-Cake
Probably the first hand game you ever learned was Patty-Cake. Players would clap hands while singing an adorable song about baking a cake together.

Sardines
Think of this game as a reverse hide-and-seek. In this game, one person hides while the rest close their eyes and count. When they finish counting, the group spreads out on their own to find the secret spot. The hiding place becomes fairly obvious as more people "hide" together, squished like a can of sardines. The last person to find the hiding spot is the one who hides in the next round.

Heads Up, Seven Up
Line seven people up at the front of the room and have the rest of the participants sit in their place with their eyes closed and thumbs raised. The players at the front will then silently press a seated player's thumb down. After each person returns to the front, players call out "heads up, seven-up," and the players whose thumbs were pressed down stand up and have to guess who picked them. If they correctly guess, the person with their head down gets to trade places with the person who pushed their thumb down. 

Hot Potato
For this game you will need at least three players. Designate one player as the "leader" who will control the music. Using a ball (or heck, even a real potato) you and the other players must quickly pass the ball before the leader stops the music. It if stops and you are left holding the potato, you are out and must become the new leader.

Melting Chocolate
Think tag but with a sweet twist! When you are tagged "it," you must "melt" down to the floor. Someone who is not "it" has to touch the tagged player before his belly hits floor so he can be "saved".

What fun food-inspired games did you play as a kid? Tell us in the comments below.