Step 1-Book of European Traditional Games-Italy

“Bridging three generations timeless toys and games”
EUROPEAN TRADITIONAL GAMES BOOK
Italian selection

EUROPEAN TRADIZIONAL GAMES BOOK
Italian section
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A deep emotional bound joins
grandparents and grandchildren. It is a
timeless bound depicted also in many art
masterpieces. This painting by Ghirlandaio
an important Renaissance italian painter
shows with extraordinary realism this
feeling of quiet intensity between
grandfather-grandson.
Domenico Bigordi, called Ghirlandaio,
1490 nearly – Louvre Museum Paris.

Among traditionals games you can
remember a whole series of activities that
have very ancient origins and which are
still known thanks to the various
generations who have taught their
children or grandchildren the games
enjoyed by the children of the old
generation. These games do not have a
real age but may be considered as
timeless games. Among them we can
mention:
George Hillyard Swinstesd
“Grandma’s darling” British 1870-1926
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Wall-bouncing ball
Type of game: outdoor
Material: a rubber ball, a wall, a delimited space.
Age of participants: 7 years and up
Number of participants :1 and more
Preparation: few minutes.Trace a parallel line
to the wall, 5/6 metres distant by the wall
Lasting : at least 15 minutes
Purpose: performing all movements played in the rhyme
without dropping the ball
Skill game based on motor coordination, quick reflexes
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Rules of the game:
The game is very easy and consists to throw a
ball against a wall and then grab it without
dropping . The rules that govern the game are
dictated by the same nursery rhyme that is
recited by children while performing the actions
prescribed by the rhymes. It is an individual skill
game that entertains everyone.
By counting you can figure out who goes first
with the rallies. The only mistake you can make
is to drop the ball. In this case the penalty is to
lose possession of the ball that is passed to the
child in order of the head count.
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The child says:
Moving shaking your body
Standing still being still
On a foot standing on one foot
By one hand using just one hand
Clap clap your hands
Zigolo zagolo rolling the hands
A violin miming the violin
A little kiss miming a kiss
Touch the ground touching the ground using the other hand
Touching the ground again touch the ground using the other hand
Around the ogre ring around the rosey performing a complete turn on
herself/himself
Little angel crossing arms putting hand’s palms on the shoulders
Little devil putting your finger on the forehead miming a pair of horns
Touch my heart touching heart side
You are my sweet heart jumping with a hug
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During the nursery rhyme if you fail you have to pass the ball to another player. If you
end the nursery rhyme performing the action prescribed without failings, you win.
The losers are the ones who make mistakes. They have to face a penalty.
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«Queen Little queen»
Type of game: outdoors
Material: you don’t need any kind of materials
Number of players : The number of players must be not less
than four children. The right number would be eight to twelve
children.
Preparation: few minutes
Lasting at least: half an hour
Purpose: to reach the queen first without failing the kind
of steps requested or loosing balance.
The game is based on coordination and strenght
Queen, little queen is a typical children game that is performed in group outdoor. It
is characterised by a rhyme that children have to repeat during the game.
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Rules:
At the beginning of the game the queeking is chosen among children, and she/he
will have the role of conducting the game while the rest of the participants will act
as ambassadors. A line, 20-40 meters from where the queen/king will be standing
against a wall with her eyes closed, will be drawn on the ground. All the
ambassadors will be placed behind this line and take turn reciting the usual rhyme
that quotes like this:
"Queen little queen, how many steps should I take to get to your castle with faith
and with the ring, with the tip of the sword?”
or if is the king who is ruling:
"My lord king, how many steps I have to take to get to your
castle with faith and with the ring, with the tip of the sword?"
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The king/queen will establish, as he/she wants, the way
the players can approach the throne in order to become
the next king/queen, by saying the the number of steps
of an animal to be imitated.
Lion, advancing through steps very long;
crane, moving by jumping on one foot;
kangaroo, advancing with hops on foot pair;
ant, advancing in small steps with one foot before the other;
cat, advancing on all fours (with legs and hands on the ground);
shrimp, moving backwards;
horse, moving forward simulating the gallop;
elephant, moving with big steps.
bird, leaping upward
And so on…
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The child who, in executing the command received, misses the number of steps or
lose the balance, will be back on the starting line. The player who first reaches the
throne and touches the king or queen shall immediately take over and the game will
start again from the beginning with another King or Queen.
Of course the Queen/King could help her/his friends and disadvantage the others,
which could complaint because, at the end, who will win the race, will be the first to
reach the King/Queen; to make matters worse, whenever the sovereign wants, she/he
may decide assign steps of the shrimp to get back to departure the unlucky player,
nullifying the efforts made so far. In order to avoid unfair “nepotism”, if the sovereign
decides to use this penalty, she/he has to apply it to all the player at least once each.
Italian section
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Pinocchio game board
Type of game: route game board
Material: paper / cardboard/pawns/two dice
Route: billboard with 44 boxes numbered
Age of participant : 6 years and up
Number of players: 2 to 6 players recommended.
Every player is marked by a different piece.
Preparation 5 minutes
Lasting: from 20 to 50 minutes
Purpose: this simple game is to reach the last
box before the other players .
Game based only on luck.
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Rules and conduct of the Game
Play it on a board on which it is designed a spiral path, with 44 boxes, marked by
numbers and symbols. Players start with a marker in the departure box. Usually the
youngest player begins the game and, in turn everybody, proceeds along the path of
a number of squares obtained by throwing a pair of dice and moving their marker in
a number of steps equal to the sum output by dice. The route can be more or less
difficult depending on the box in which you land.
Some of check boxes have a special effect. Boxes representing Pinocchio allow you to
move quickly forward a number of spaces equal those trodden by the movement
soon made.
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The other boxes of Pinocchio game are:
17 The Turquoise Fairy casts a spell, forward three boxes
3 The good Geppetto, forward three
5 The tolking cricket.... you lose a round
9 The Sillabario throw again a die
11The ogre Fire-Eater move backward two steps
15 Assassins you lose two rounds
22 Sorrow for the loss of fairy, returns to 17
24 Going to school roll the dice again
28 Because of the slow steps of the little snail... you lose a round
30 Lucignolo is crafty forward two steps but wait a turn...
32 Shame for the donkey ears stop a ride
38 The work gives good fruit forward three box
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History
The game “Play Pinocchio" is a game that goes back to the best known Game of the
Goose that was born in Florence in 1580 when Ferdinando I de 'Medici gave it as a
gift "New and Very enjoyable goose game" to King Philip II of Spain. At the beginning
of the XVII century it appeared in England with the first printed boards, and quickly
goose game spreaded to whole Europe. The traditional decoration was often
reworked with subjects diversification and in "Play Pinocchio" it traces the popular
story of the puppet and gives a symbolic reading, with hazards that are the physical
and moral difficulties of life.
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"The Adventures of Pinocchio - the Story of a Puppet“ is a novel written by Carlo
Collodi in Florence in 1881 and in 1883. This is a best seller of children's literature.
The novel has become particularly well known for starring a character of fiction,
Pinocchio. Collodi calls him inappropriately puppeT, despite being morphologically
more similar to a marionette (wooden body and joints).
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Cops and robbers
Type of game : role game
Place: outdoors or in a very large room, on ground without obstacles, bordered on
all four sides. The width dependes on the number of players involved, and length
about ten meters.
Players: can participate an unlimited number of players divided into teams.
Preparation: draw a line at the end of the playing field and choose any king of object
as swag.
Duration: the game lasts at least half an hour
Tools: it needs a swag that can be any object or piece of cloth.
Purpose: chasing each other in the open air and being guard or thief. The goal is, for
the thieves try not to get caught by the guards;
for the guards capture the largest number of
thieves identifying the one with the stolen goods.
Game based on agility, reflexes, shooting, wish to run.
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Rules
At the beginning you choose a swag that will be hidden in the pocket of one of the
thieves. It can be any object. The players then divide in two teams (eg 6 vs. 6). If the
number of players is odd thieves will be one more unit of the guards (6 guards
against thieves 7). Hidden fro the guards, thieves choose one of them to take the
stolen goods. Then they are arranged on the other side of the playing field and the
guards are positioned at the center. At the start the thieves flee to the opposite side
of the field, running, zigzagging, pulling back in order to try not to get caught by the
guards. Everyone is free to move as he/she wishes without limits: the guards can
meet the robbers and they can chase them until the arrival of the opposite row. To
catch the thief, it’s enough just to touch him/her, with the hand in any part of the
body.
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Some of the thieves will reach the finish line side and they will be safe, while others
will be caught. If among captured thieves will be who owns the stolen goods he/she
will have to show it and the game will end with the victory of the guards, if on the
contrary there won’t be the thief with the loot, the thieves will make another
escape and the guards will attempt a new raid. The game continues in this way until
you catch the thief with stolen goods. After the game the participants will start a
new one with same rules and roles reversed with. The team that has gotback the
stolen goods with the lowest number of attempts will win.(eg Team A 3 attempts,
Team B two tries, wins the B team).
Score
It is based on the number of attempts by each team used to find out the thief with
stolen goods.
Italian section
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History Cops and Robbers is defined not only as a tracking game, but also a road
game or RPG. Its origins are ancient, but are identified only in the seventeenth
century in France when, at the court of the King, the nobles were delighted to chase
one another in the gardens. Not only the children were playing, but also adults.
Features Cops and robbers beyond encouraging cooperation among children and
improving their communication and relation, allows them to experience each time
the role of the "bad", the thief, and the "good" cop, so that playing can already make
and 'idea» of the difference between good and evil and to "punish" the
representatives of a misconduct.
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Game: “Name, things, cities .....»
Type of game:indoor pencil game.
Place: on the table.
Material: paper, pen.
Age of participants: 7 and up.
Number of Players: 2 or more.
Preparations: a few minutes.
Duration: to be determined.
Purpose: ending first the grid of topics. The game is about to select a random letter
and writing the words that begin with that letter in the selected categories. Among
the most used categories there are: Personal Names, Places, Cities, Countries,
Animals, Fruit, Flowers and Plants, Singers, Nations, crafts, tools..
Game based on memory and laguage knowledge, quickness in remembering rare
words, starting with a selected letter
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Preparation of the game material:
For every player you need a piece of paper on which is drawn a grid:
• the grid will have as many columns as the categories chosen to play and a final
column to calculate the total
• the number of grid lines is not defined in advance and simply depends on the
number of topics that will be played
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Finally it needs to prepare a further paper on which are written not in alphabetic
order all the letters. Usually will be excluded the most difficult letters such as H, J, Q,
X, Y, but it depends on the language spoken by the participans.
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Playing the game:
A random player, without looking at the sheet will make a sign with a pen on the list.
The closer letter to the sign will be choosen.
Alternatively it is possible to make a count and mark the letter corresponding to the
number obtained.
Once you choose a letter, immediately begins: all players must complete the entire row
of the grid by finding a word for each category.
Example with the Letter M
Name: Marco
What: mouse
City: Milan
Object:mug
Fruits: mango
etc
The first player who finishes, covers its grid and starts counting for 20-30 seconds.
At the end of the countdown, all other players have to stop and can begin the phase of
points calculation.
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Calculation of points:
To calculate the points, all players compare in sequence the words they have written .
Each word carries a score that can be:
• 20 points if the word is correct and all the other players have not found a word for
that category
• 10 points if the word is correct and no other player has used the same word
• 5 points, if the word is correct but has been used by another player
• 0 points if the word is not correct or was not able to find a word for that category
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After calculating the score of each word, they add up all the scores of the current
line and write the sum in the total column.
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Flow and the end of the game:
After calculating the scores, it is randomly choosen a new letter and participants
start to play another turn.
The game ends when all the letters are extracted or when a certain number of games
has been done.
At the end, everyone adds up the scores of all the lines and the player with the
highest score wins!
The main strategy is to remember rare words, starting with a given letter, in the
shortest time possible and complete fully the grid
HISTORY
We do not know exactly when the game was invented, in which moment or in which
particular place, but it certainly comes from the school life.. It is in the school that
receives the most successful and soon became popular in various parts of the world
because it is very simple, fun and requires little material to be used easily found in a
classroom.
Italian section
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Step 1-Book of European Traditional Games-Italy

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Step 1-Book of European Traditional Games-Italy