Children's games provide a creative and fun way to view other cultures.
This game originated in Zimbabwe.
Players sit in a circle. A bowl filled with 20 pebbles* is placed in the
centre. The first player takes a pebble and tosses it into the air. (Not
too high!) He/she then tries to pick up as many pebbles as he/she can
before catching the tossed pebble. Each player takes a turn. When all
the pebbles have been collected, the person with the most is the winner.
*Kudoda can also be played with marbles.
Jeu de Boules is a popular game played in France. It can be played by two players or teams of up to four players. The object of the game is to throw boules (balls) as close as possible to the cochenret (jack). Each player gets three tries to get as close to the jack as possible. When throwing the balls the players feet must be behind the marked line.
Jan Ken Po is the Japaneese
version of Rock, Paper, Scissors.It has been played in Japan for many
centuries. It has often been used to settle disputes or to decide who
goes first. The outcome is almost always accepted without question!
Each player needs a partner. The object of the game is to win the match
with a superior hand.
The combinations and the winners are
as follows;
Paper & Rock = Paper wins (paper covers rock)
Scissors & Paper = Scissors wins (scissors cuts paper)
Rock & Scisors = Rock wins (rock crushes scissors)
Players sit facing eaching each other and begin by chanting Jan, Ken Po!
They pump their hands up and down on the first two syllables, then on
Po!, they make a sign for one of the following: Rock is a closed fist,
paper is a flat hand, and scissors is a 'v' with the index and middle
fingers. Whoever wins three times in a row becomes the leader. All players
try to beat the leader. Whoever beats the leader three times in a row
becomes the new leader.
Rubber Band Rope Jumping - China
The Rubber Band Rope Jumping
game comes from China. It is a popular game particularly amongst girls.
To play you need lots of rubber bands looped together tightly to form
a larger one. (You need a circle of bands approx 7ft long). You need three
people to start. Two people stand opposite each other and extend the rubber
band. The player in the middle follows the following steps :
Jump into the middle of the elastic band. Open and close your legs three
times. Jump to one side of the elastic band and step on it. Jump to the
other side and do the same. Jump out of the elastic band. Jump from the
outside to the inside and try to take the elastic band with you. You have
to cross the elastic from the right to the left. Jump to open and close
your legs three times. Make a big hop, and try to keep the elastic band
between your legs. Jump out and go to the next level.
If the players finish these steps without any mistakes, they start the
next level. As the game continues, the level of jumping gets higher.
Caught You! is a Chinese traditional game which requires a large group of people (about 20-30 people), a piece of cloth, and a small ball. All of the players sit in a circle except for one who sits just a few feet away from the circle with his/ her eyes blindfolded. To start everybody passes the ball around. When the blindfolded player shouts "Stop!", the student who has the ball in his/her hand has to stand up and sing a song or tell a story. The person outside the circle is replaced every five minutes.
***Variation; When the blindfolded player shouts "Stop!", the student who has the ball in his/her hand has to stand up and disguise his/her voice. The blindfolded player has to guess who it is. He/she remains blindfolded until he/she has guessed correctly.
Catch the Chicks is a popular game for younger children. It originates in Taiwan. To play the game the children pretend they are an eagle, a hen, and some chicks. All the chicks stand behind the hen in a row, and the hen tries her best to protect her babies. When the game starts, the eagle tries to catch the chicks. If a chick is caught by the eagle, then the eagle wins the game, and the chick who is caught is the eagle in the next game.
Ram,Ram,Rip is a game from
Asia. It's a game for 2 players. Player 1 player holds out his/her hand(palm
up). Player 2 places his/her index fingers in hand. Both players say 'Ram,
Ram, Rip' together, and player 1 tries to snatch the index finger of the
player2.
Hamesh Avanim (5 Stones) - Israel
Hamesh Avanim (Five Stones)
is a game from Israel. It is sometimes called 'Israeli Jacks'. It's a
game for two or more players. To play it you need five pebbles. ( the
original game uses gold-coloured square stones -avanim). Throw the five
pebbles (avanim) on the floor. Pick up one and toss it. While it’s
in the air, quickly pick up another stone from the ground and catch the
stone that you threw (palm upwards). Do this four times, each time picking
up another pebble from the floor and tossing one pebble in the air.
Repeat Step One, picking up two pebbles at a time. Repeat Step One, picking
up three pebbles at a time, and then the last one by itself. With all
five stones in your hand, toss one, put the other four on the floor and
catch the one you tossed. Toss it again, pick up the four from the floor,
and catch the one in the air. Repeat Step One. Once you have all five
stones in your hand, throw them in the air, and catch as many as you can
on the back of your hand (palm downward). If you catch four or five on
the back of your hand, toss them upward and catch them in your palm. If
you caught only two or three, keep one in your hand and place the other
one or two on the ground. Toss the one in your hand, and pick up the one
or two stones that are on the ground, and catch the one in the air. Throw
the five pebbles on the floor. Toss one pebble , pick up another from
the floor, and catch the one in the air (palm upward). Then toss both
that are in your hand, pick up one from the floor, and catch the two in
the air. Repeat two more times, tossing three and then four. Once you
have all five stones in your hand, toss them upward, hit the ground with
your palm, and catch all five in your palm.
The children are sitting in
a circle. The leader, who has a ball in his/her hand sits in the middle
of the circle.
He/She throws the ball in the air, calling at the same time the name of
a country. The child that has this name must run to catch the ball before
it touches the ground. If he doesn't succeed, he is eliminated. The leader
of the game has to call all the countries that the participants had selected.
The winner is the participant who catches the ball the most often.
Sardines is a game similar
to hide and seek from Germany .As many children as are available are welcome
to play the game.
The person who is 'it' has to hide; then the other children have to seek
the person who is 'it' . Whenever a child finds the person who is 'it'
, he or she has to hide with the person who is 'it' . Soon, only one person
is left to seek for the person who is it and all the other children. As
soon as the last child, who is the loser, finds the 'it' group, the game
is over. The next person who is 'it' is the loser of the first game.
Queimada
(A Brazilian Game of Tag)
Queimada is a Brazilian Game
of Tag. To play this game, you form two teams. Each team has a field and
there is a place called the cemetery. One person from each team starts
in the cemetery, so he/she's dead. The rest of the team start in the field.
The person who is at the cemetery always starts the game by throwing a
ball to the opposite side where his/her partners are. The "living
people" from this team have to catch the ball and throw it against
the other team. If someone from the opposite team touches the ball, he/she
is burnt, so he is dead. The "dead ones" go to the cemetery,
and the game finishes when every "living person" from one team
'dies'.
Kettenfangen is a German version of Chain tag. It can be played by 8-12 players. One player is 'on'. He/she runs around trying to catch someone. When he/she catches someone, he/she takes them by the hand and together they try to catch other players. Each child who is caught has to hold hands with the last person in the chain. Only the first and last child in the chain can catch others by touching them with their free hand. If the chain breaks, you can't catch anyone until you have joined hands again. Remember to watch out for players who aren't as fast as you!
Korebe is apopular Turkish game for younger children (4-8 year olds). The game is played by about 5 to 10 children. At the beginning of the game, one person is chosen to be 'it' , and then the eyes of that kid are covered with a kind of blindfold. When the game starts, the person who is 'it' -the blindfolded person-tries to catch the other kids. If someone is caught, that child becomes the new 'it' , and the game starts over.
Perilia is a game of marbles
which comes from Cyprus. A triangle is drawn on the ground. There can
be 2-6 players. Each player has 6 marbles. They hold onto one marble and
place the rest of them into the middle of the triangle with 2 centimeters
space between each one. The players then take turns to throw their marble
and kick some other marbles out of the triangle.
The winner of the game was the player who took all the marbles from the
other players.
One Legged Rabbit or Gradai Kha Dee-o is a popular game in Thailand. The players are split into two groups of equal numbers. One group is chosen to be the rabbits. The others have to remain within an area which has been marked out. The rabbits take turns to hop into the marked area and try to touch as many of the other team members as they can. Players are out if they are touched or if they cross the boundary. Likewise, the rabbit is out if he/she puts two legs down or changes legs. However, if he/she is tired, he can hop back to the start line where he can nominate another rabbit to take his place. The game is over when the other team has no players left in the marked area.
Mr. Daruma Fell Down (Japanese Tag)
Mr. Daruma Fell Down is a Japanese Game of Tag. It can be played by 5 or more players. One player is the tagger. He/she calls out "Mr. Daruma fell down!" When the other players hear this they run as far away as possible. Then the tagger turns his back to them. Next he/she calls out again, "Mr. Daruma fell down!" After that, the tagger turns around and looks for the other children because he/she has to catch them. When a child moves and is caught, he/she has to go to jail. The other children have to get close to the tagger and hit his/her back; however, they cannot move when the tagger looks at them. Therefore, they have to run as fast as possible while the tagger's back is turned and he/she is yelling, "Mr. Daruma fell down!" Whenever a child hits the tagger's back, other children can escape from the jail. When the tagger catches all but one child, the game is almost over. In that part, the tagger is given many chances to catch the child because he/she can yell quickly. When the tagger has tagged everyone, a new game starts with a new tagger.
The Hunter is a traditional
hide and seek type game from Saudi Arabia. The game has 5-10 players.
One player is the Hunter. The hunter counts from one to ten with his/her
eyes closed, so that everyone can quickly run and hide somewhere. Then
he/she starts searching for the other children. If
the hunter found someone from the group, the member would try to escape
and the hunter started chasing him/her. Then, the hunter had to catch
him/her. The hunter has to find all the members in the group and tag them.
If the hunter can't catch all of the members, he/she has to say, "Clear",
and start over; but if the hunter catches all of them, he/she joins the
other children and the first one who was caught becomes the new hunter.
Stop is a popular game in Columbia.
The more players the better. To play Stop, you only need a ball. To start
the game, one child takes the ball. The rest of the children stand in
a circle around that child, who has to throw the ball up and say one of
the children's names. The rest of the children have to run away as far
as possible. The child with the ball then shouts "Stop!"
The child who is named has to get back
to catch the ball. If the named child catches the ball in the air, he
can immediately say another name and run away. If he doesn't catch the
ball in the air, as soon as he catches the ball, he has to say, "Stop!"
Then all the other children have to stop running. The one who said stop
looks to see which child is near him and walks 3 long steps, and tries
to hit that child with the ball by throwing it at him. If the child who
is trying to hit the other child doesn't hit him, he has to start the
game again by throwing the ball up and saying another name. However, if
he hits the other child with the ball, that child has to start the game.
Da Gan is a popular playground game in Ghana . It can be played by between 12 and 18 players. First of all you need to mark out an area in the playground (approx. 10ftx10ft). This area is 'The house of the Snake'. One player(The Snake) stands inside the "House of the Snake." The rest of the players stand around the house. The snake reaches out and tries to touch any of the players. If touched, this player must join the snake on the inside. The two hold hands and and then reach out (using only the free hand) to try and touch the other players. The remaining players can move around the house of the snake to avoid being caught. They must, however,stay close to the outside of the house of the snake. The last player left becomes the snake in the next game.
Stop! (A Pencil & Paper Game) - Mexico
Stop! is a Mexican game which can be played with paper and pencil. The
game can be played by any number of players. To start you need to divide
the sheet into categories such as animals, flowers, movies, TV shows,
colours, fruits, last names, whatever you want.
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Animals
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Colours
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Countries
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first names
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fruits
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vegetables
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TV shows
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When each player has their
own sheet ready, it is time to start. One player starts the game, saying
aloud the letters of the alphabet in order-A, B, C, D, E, F, etc. The
player next to him/her then says "Stop!". The players then need
to start filling in their grid with a word in each section beginning with
the last letter of the alphabet which was said.
Each player then has to say the word which he/she wrote, and if two players
had the same word, they receive 50 points. The person with the most points
at the end of the game wins.
Traditional
Games from Around the World