Children's friendships were partly defined by their play, for example, boys who liked to play tending to name other boys who played football among their friends. Chil- dren did the same preferred activities on a very regular basis, their whereabouts on the playground known by what they regularly played. Two of the main play themes were ball games including football, which were activities, and chatting to others, singing and making up moves, which were girl-dominated activities. One further play theme, imaginative action-adventure play, was very dominant at playtimes and within the conversations of played by groups of mostly boys throughout the class groups of the middle school. Imaginative action- adventure play involved acting out stories from films and television programmes, although the play also involved aspects of physical play, such as running, chasing and hiding. Gun play and play fighting was also a strong feature, slipping into actual fight with the play fighting sometimes ing. Fights were a regular occurrence in the playground and, in the practitioner review, teachers admitted that they knew play fighting went on in the playground and said that it was a constant feature of playground supervision.