During our school days, we looked forward to recess not just for the food, but also for the games we'd play with our friends.

Here are five games that you probably used to play:

1. Eraser wars

Remember expanding your eraser collection?

Not just any erasers - it had to be those with the country flags on them. Additionally, it wasn't good enough to buy them from the bookshop, you also had to win them from your friends.

One way to play this game was to affix the erasers to staples, spin the erasers, and try to knock an opponent's eraser off the table. If you didn't have staples, not to worry - you could flip your erasers over your opponent's to 'conquer' their country and sometimes win they erasers.

2. Ice and water

A variation of catching/tag, the catcher 'freezes' a player by touching them. Other players have to touch the frozen players to 'unfreeze' them. The catcher wins when all players are frozen.

One game-hack was for the catcher to stay near a 'frozen' person so he/she could easily catch others when they attempted to 'unfreeze' their team mate.

3. What's the time, Mr. Wolf?

This game was usually played as an alternative to AEIOU because of its similar structure.

Players lined up a certain distance behind the 'Wolf', who has his/her back faced towards them. The players would then ask 'What's the time, Mr Wolf?' The Wolf replies with a time (e.g. four o'clock) and players have to advance that number of steps (e.g. 4 steps) while counting each step.

When the Wolf says 'Dinner time!', he/she will chase the players. The player that unsuccessfully reaches the ‘home’ (starting line) and gets caught by the Wolf becomes the next Wolf.

Remember that one friend who would run away screaming at the top of their lungs?

4. Cat's cradle (The rubberband pattern game)

Played with a rubber band, players have to get from one sequence to another. Each sequence pattern also had a name, like 'Chopsticks' or 'Ironing board'.

Here's a video showing how it is played:

The most frustrating part of the game was getting the rubber band all tangled up in knots.

5. Zero point

To play, players have to jump over a rope at varying heights. It starts off on the ground and ends at the head.

There are different rule variations affecting the game's difficulty. Some variants allow only for one foot to touch the rope when a certain height level has been reached while others allow for the body to touch the rope once it reaches waist-level.

This is one way it can be played:

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If you played any of these games, you are probably all grown up now.

Top image collage from Reddit, Five Stars And A Moon, and screenshot from Khen Theen Chin's youtube video.

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