A popular game to play at recess was "State Tag". It was played using the large map of the United States that was painted in yellow on the blacktop. Whoever was "it" would name a state and all players had to run and put their foot in that state to be "safe" (or finger, if it was one of the smaller ones). If "it" tagged you before you were touching the state, you became the new "it".
Aside from the actual states you could also go to "China" which was a gate at the other side of the playground. The game could get pretty exhausting if you had to go to China and back a lot. I rarely participated because I didn't have very many states memorized.