The Games of my Childhood: Maalis-alis

Tagalog: Maalis, alis
Ilonggo: Kaya, kulob
English: Palms up/Palms down grouping or elimination process

I promised to blog about this in my previous post and this is simply a game of elimination - to find out which kids will play in one team or who will be the "it" for a game that is just starting.

So everyone forms a circle and puts their right hand out in the center, palm facing down. When everyone has put in their hand, all will say "maalis, alis!" or in English it means, "Whoever will be out, will be out."

While saying (more like shouting) this, you decide whether you will keep your hands palm up or down. Then everyone looks at the palms up or down and those that have the least number will continue to do it until only one is left. The one left will be the it.

For example there are 8 players. All 8 kids will put out their hands. Then they say, "maalis, alis!" Say 5 had their palms up and 3 had their palms down. The 5 will be safe and leave the circle. The 3 will continue to put out their hands, say "maalis, alis" and decide whether they want plams up or down. When there is one left that is different from the rest, that person is the "it". No complaints, no arguments. Simple process of elimination.

This method is also used for deciding on groupings. Say eight children again want to play a game that needs 2 groups of four. Everyone will do the "maalis, alis" method (MAM) and those who have palms down will be one group and those who have palms up will be another. If there is unequal numbers; say there were 5 palms up and 3 palms down, the group with the lesser number will decide who they want to be in their group from the group with more members. Again once decided, no questions, no arguments, the game begins!

What children learn:

1. You get to be a member of any group depending on how your hands fall
2. No matter how small or big you are, everyone gets to play the elimination round
3. You learn to work well with whatever team you were dealt with or not win the game at all
4. Eventually everyone gets to be part of a team and gets a chance to play.
5. Listen to your gut feel and follow it - but if you changed palms, no regrets; you still get to play the games!