A collection of Tradional Street Games from Turkey, Czech Republic and Italy as one of the final results of the Erasmus+ KA229 exchange of good practices school project entitled "Invitation To Traditional Street Games" 2020-1-TR01-KA229-093724_4

Preview audio:

storyj.mp/aijc2uav9v4

Games from Turkey

Drop the Handkerchief

Material Required: a handkerchief or a piece of fabric of the same size as the handkerchief.

How to Play:

Have all the players make a circle and choose one to be It. Give it a handkerchief (If you don't have one, a piece of fabric will do). It walks around the outside of the circle, quietly drops it behind one of the players in the circle, and keeps on walking, trying to get around the circle before the player discovers the handkerchief behind him or her. If you're one of the other players, don't give it away!

If It gets all the way around the circle without the player noticing the handkerchief behind him or her, that player becomes a "dead fish" that has to stand in the middle of the circle. It gets to drop the handkerchief again.

If the player discovers the handkerchief, he or she chases It, trying to catch him or her before It gets back to the empty place in the circle. If he catches It, he gets to take his place in the circle again and It has to drop the handkerchief again. If he doesn't catch It, he has to become It and drop the handkerchief, while the kid who was It takes that place in the circle.

Games from Turkey

Grab the Handkerchief

Material Required: a handkerchief or a piece of fabric of the same size as the handkerchief.

How to play:

Divide the number of players into two equal groups and assign each a different number. (One player from each team should have the same number.)

Line-up the teams on opposite sides.Place someone holding a handkerchief in the middle.

At random the “judge” calls out a number.

The players that have been assigned that number run to try to be the first one to grab the handkerchief. The player who grabs the handkerchief first gets a point for their team.

If the player that grabbed the handkerchief succeeds in getting to his team, without being touched by the opponent, he/she gets 1 point .

If the player succeeds in getting to the opponent team, without being touched by the other player, he/she gets 2 points.

If the opponent player succeeds in “stealing” the handkerchief without touching the player who had

grabbed it, he/she gets 1 point.

The team that gets the points determined by the two teams within the predetermined time (for example 25 points in 30 minutes) wins the game.

Games from Turkey

TIP-CAT game

Material Required: a long stick and a small wooden piece

How to play:

Although there are many varieties of the game, all involve a long stick used as a bat, and a piece of wood used as the cat.

It can be played individually or as a team and the team who wins the toss decides either bat or to field first.

A piece of wood is put on the long stick placed on a hole which is dug on the ground.

The striker from the batting team first hits the small wooden piece to float it up in the air and then strikes it while in mid-air.

If the fielders catch the cat (a piece of the wood) then the striker in the batting team is out.

If no one catches the cat, the striker picks up the stick and puts it on the hole and one of the fielders in another team tries to hit the stick with the cat.

If he/she can not hit the stick, the striker hits the cat with the stick again.

The striker hits it three times in the same way.

If the fielders take the place between the cat and the hole in three steps, it is their turn to strike.

If the fielders do not go over the distance, striker counts the place with steps.

The team with most points wins the game.

Games from Czech Republic

Jump the Elastic game

Material Required: Elastics or rubber loop

How to play:

The game is played by three children. Two children stand opposite each other. They put the elastics on their ankles. The third player starts jumping the agreed set. There are many levels of difficulty. Each player starts at the basic difficulty level when the elastics is placed on the ankles.

If the player jumps over the elastics without a mistake he or she can try a more difficult level. If the player makes a mistake, another player can start jumping. All the players take turns in jumping until one of them finishes all the difficulty levels.

The levels of difficulty:

Level 1 – the ankles

Level 2 – the calves

Level 3 – the knees

The most courageous players can agree on further levels of diffiulty - they can put the elastics to their thighs, hips or even higher!

Games from CzechRepublic

Arrows game

Material Required: chalks, letters with tasks, treasure (rewards: sweets, lollipops, pictures, etc.)

How to play:

You can play this game in the town or in the nature. A leader (parent, teacher, etc.) prepares set of tasks and decides the journey. The tasks may be to sing a song, do exercises, learn a poem, solve a puzzle, etc. Then the leader sets out and leaves signs for the others where to go – the arrows.

He also hides letters with the tasks on his way.After agreed time, the other players start following the arrows and they look for the letters. When they find the letter, they must finish the task. Then they may continue their journey until they find a treasure.

Games from Czech Republic

A Stupid Cook game

How to play:

One child becomes „a stupid cook“. The cook will choose a topic, e.g. vegetables, colours, plants, countries. The other players choose their names according to the topic. If the topic is vegetables the names may be: carrot, tomato, cucumber, potato, etc. They will not say their names to the cook. Then the cook starts the game saying: „I am a stupid cook, I am adding a tomato to the soup.“

A child who chose the name tomato start running to an agreed place. If the cook catches the running child before reaching the agreed place, she/he becomes a new cook. If the cook doesn´t catch her/him, the cook takes another turn.

Games from ITALY

MUSICAL CHAIRS game

Material Required: A music radio

How to play:

The group consists of ten or more people. Children sit on chairs in a circle. When the music starts playing, the children get up and walk around until the music stops, when they have to sit in the nearest chair. However, one chair is missing and is removed for each round, leaving a player with no seat and 'out'. The last player left is the winner of this game.

Games from ITALY

The HOPSCOTCH game

Material Required: a large enough space on the ground; a chalk, white or colored; a rock.

How to play:

The path to be drawn can vary, but usually consists of a dozen numbered squares, rectangular in shape. The numbering is progressive, so you start from number one and then go up to ten. Make the squares large enough to fit a foot and the marker stone.

Decide who will be the first to start with the classic count. More players are needed to have the most fun!
The designated player throws the stone into the first square; this marker must be landed in the box area and within the lines, without touching any of these.
Jump on one foot to reach the top of the bell, avoiding the square where the pebble landed. The blocks of two squares side by side allow you to place both feet and thus recover your balance.
Once at the top, it is possible to stop and turn around by making a half turn, and to retrace the route backwards; still respect the single foot rule for hopping.
When you have reached the square with your marker,

stop in the one before and pick up the stone keeping your balance.
End the path avoiding the box where the stone is;
pass the marker to the next player.

You lose your turn if:

you don't keep your balance;
walking the track you stepped on a line;
you 'forget' to move from one box and jump to the wrong box;
you land out of the drawing.

Once your turn returns, pick up where you left off.
When all the players have completed at least one round, it will be the turn of the first player again, who, if he has never lost his balance or broken one of the rules, will throw the stone into the second box and repeat it all over again. It continues until the marker is launched further and further in the numbering.

Games from ITALY

The TOMBOLA game

How to play:

The rules of Tombola are very simple: each player buys the CARDS, the cost of the cards forms the prize pool.
Then the numbers are randomly extracted from a basket or a closed container. The participants who have that number on the card will cover it. Each number drawn will be marked in some way: you can use the classic mandarin peels, beans, pieces of paper or, in the more technological versions, resealable plastic boxes.

Whoever covers all the numbers on the card has made TOMBOLA.
Other intermediate combinations are: AMBO, two numbers on the same line; TERNO, three numbers on the same line; QUATERNA, four numbers on the same row and QUINTINA, five numbers on the same row.
The cards are made up of 15 total numbers, distributed over 3 lines which also include empty spaces.