Vamos A Jugar

This is a fun Spanish-language playground game collected from San Antonio, Texas.
Source: SPU Kodaly Summer Institute, Level 2 Materials

Uncle Jessie

This song from the Georgia Sea Islands can be used with all ages with either movement exploration or a partner ring play.
Source: Jones, Bessie and Hawes, Bess Lomax.  Step It Down: Games, Plays, Songs, and Stories from the Afro-American Heritage. pp. 112-114

Tideo

This rousing Texas play-party song can be played as a hand-clapping game with double circle of partners or a partner-swinging dance and is great for teaching sixteenth notes.
Sources:  Eisen, Ann and Robertson, Lamar.  An American Methodology: An Inclusive Approach to Musical Literacy p. 393
Owens, William. Texas Folk Songs p. 160

Sweet Potatoes

This Creole folk song from the Louisiana Bayou makes for a beautiful partner song when paired with Mango Walk.
Sources: Seeger, Pete.  Fireside Book of Fun and Game Songs.
Silver-Burdett Music Text

Skin and Bones

My students love to sing this at Halloween and act out the part of the old woman, the bones, and the BOO!
Source: Locke, Eleanor G.  Sail Away: 155 American Folk Songs to Sing, Read, and Play. p. 52
As sung by Jean Ritchie of Viper, Kentucky

Paw Paw Patch, The

I enjoy turning this into an October movement improvisation song for young children by replacing "Paw Paw" with "Pumpkin." It's also a great Appalachian double line dance where students can learn to cast off, or, as I like to call it, "peel the banana."
Source: Ed. by Erdei, Peter.  150 American Folk Songs to Sing, Read, and Play p. 102

Let Us Chase the Squirrel

Students will willingly sing this song from North Carolina over and over again to get to play the game.  When they know it well, it is especially good for the practice of re.
Source: Ed. by Erdei, Peter.  150 American Folk Songs to Sing, Read, and Play p. 6

Hunt the Cows

This is an active movement game, and is also great for practicing the interval of so to do.
Source: Ed. by Eisen, Ann and Robertson, Lamar.  An American Methodology: An Inclusive Approach to Musical Literacy p. 335

Frog in the Meadow

Though there is a classroom game described in Sail Away, it can also be played as a leap-frog game.
Sources: Locke, Eleanor G.  Sail Away: 155 American Songs to Sing, Read, and Play. p. 7
Brown, Frank C.  Collection of North Carolina Folklore, Vol. V  p. 535

Down in the Valley, Two by Two

Though this game can be played by two players inside a circle, it also may be played with numerous pairs in scatter formation.
Source: Ed. by Eisen, Ann and Robertson, Lamar.  An American Methodology: An Inclusive Approach to Musical Literacy p. 314

Bye Bye Baby

Denise Bacon has written a lovely partner song to perform with this Appalachian lullaby.
Source: Ed. Erdei, Peter. 150 American Folk Songs to Sing, Read, and Play p. 6
Two-Part Version: Bacon, Denise.  46 Two-Part American Songs

Black Snake

Students of all ages enjoy playing this as a "cut the cake" game, and the leaders like to decide what kind and color of biting animal they would like to be.  A good song for preparing and presenting the eighth-quarter-eighth rhythm (or "syncopa").  Source: Trinka, Jill.  The Little Black Bull p.2

Alabama Gal

This is a fun, though challenging double-line dance to do with older students.  It's also great for preparing and presenting the eighth-quarter-eighth (or "syncopa") rhythm.
Sources:  Seeger, Pete. American Play Parties, Folkway Records #87604. 1959
McDowell, LL. Handy Play Party Book, copyright 1938.