It just struck me that in places where children play together, like school playgrounds, they tend to have their own oral traditions, with the "older" generations constantly passing on knowledge to the younger one. Many games get passed on this way, playground songs, etc.
I was curious if any serious research has been done on it, and if there had been any interesting findings (the origins of now nonsensical sounding songs, for example).
I've never delved into this, but there has been a tremendous amount of study of traditional songs games and other aspects of folklore carried on by children for children. Here is a bibliography by the American Folklore Society. Consider also this and this.
hi! this question reminded me of another post, which you may find interesting