This document contains descriptions of 29 traditional children's games from various European countries including Greece, Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, Slovenia, and Sweden. The games involve activities such as choosing animal roles, guessing professions, running between bases to steal a handkerchief, tagging each other to accumulate points, dodging thrown balls, and more. The descriptions provide the basic rules and objectives of each traditional game.

2. Contents
Greece Spain
1. The Bee goes by…………….…..…..….3 1.The lucky rabbit…………..…….16
2. The King………...…………………...….4 2. The English chick……………..17
3. The handkerchief……………….….…..5 3. Fruit salad………………………18
4. Lice……………………………..….........6 4. Quite feet………………………..19
5. Apples……...…………………..…….…7 5. Cat catches mouse……………20
6. Four corners……………………21
United Kingdom Italy
1. Hopscotch……………………….……8 1. Tiles game…………………...….22
2. In and out of the dusty bluebells…9 2. Hopscotch………………………23
3. Farmer’s in his den………………..10 3. Handkerchief …………………..24
4. Bowls…………………………….25
Slovenia 5. Elastic fabric ……….…………..26
6. Ladies and cavaliers….……….27
1. Rotten egg.…..……………………...11 Sweden
2. Mom ,what time is it…….…………12
3. Who is afraid of the wild man…...13
4. I like eating red cherries ……..…..14
5. Is there steady Bridge?..................15
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3. THE BEE GOES BY
Two children become the “mothers”. They choose two fruits or two
animals (for example one of them chooses to be an apple and the other
chooses to be an orange). Then they start clapping their hands with each
other and sing “The bee goes by with the little bees and the little chickens”.
They sing this song 3-4 times while the rest of the children pass under the
mothers’ clapping hands. Suddenly the mothers catch a passing child, take
him/her apart and ask without being heard by the rest of the children what
he/she wants to be, an apple or an orange. The child chooses one and
joins the corresponding mother by standing in a line behind the mother.
This goes on until all the children join a mother (the last child is asked
aloud what he/she wants to be). Two chains of children have formed in this
way. The children hold each other tightly by their waists while the two
mothers start pulling one another. The team that manages to pull the other
team on its side without falling down is the winner.
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4. THE KING
One of the children becomes the king. The rest of the players
choose a profession to mime and then stand in a line opposite the
king. Then the following dialogue takes place:
- King, king with the 12 swords, what's your job?
- Doing nothing!
- Let’s start working then!
Then the children mime the profession they have chosen by using
gestures and movements without talking at all. For example, if they
have chosen to be farmers, one of them pretends to be digging the
ground, another pretends to be mowing down the grass and so on.
The king has to guess what the children’s profession is. If he makes a
wrong guess, the kids call out “No!” and keep miming the profession
until the king guesses correctly. Then the children call out “Yes!” and
start running away. The king chases them and has to catch a kid so
that he/she becomes the new king. The game goes on in this way.
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5. THE HANDKERCHIEF
Two teams consisting of the same number of players stand opposite each
other at a distance. The kids get a number each (for example, if a child has
number 3 in the first team, another child in the second team has to have
number 3 as well). In the middle of the distance between the two teams we
put a handkerchief on the ground or have someone hold it. After that we call
out a number that corresponds to two children from the two teams. These
two children have to run as fast as they can in order to take the handkerchief
and take it back to their team without getting caught by the player of the
opposite team. If the child who has the handkerchief manages to go back to
his/her team, that team wins a point. If he/she doesn’t succeed and gets
caught, the opposite team wins the point.
The winning team is the one that reaches first a prearranged number of
points.
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6. LICE
The children make a circle on the ground and stand around it.
Each kid chooses the name of a country.
The teacher calls out the name of a country. All the children
run away except for the player with the name of the country.
That child tries to catch the ball ,then calls out “1,2,3 stop” and
all the children have to stop. After that he/she chooses the child
that stands closer to him/her and tries to hit the child with the
ball. If he/she succeeds, that child gets a “louse”. If he/she
doesn’t succeed, he/she themselves get the “louse”.
Any kid that has 5 lice gets a nickname .
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7. APPLES
The children form two teams.
The players of the first team split in two and stand at a distance of 15-
20 metres from each other holding a ball while the children of the second
team stand between them.
The children of the first team throw the ball three times up in the air
and then try to hit the other players with the ball. When a kid gets hit,
he/she gets “burnt” and is out of the game. If a kid catches the ball
instead of being hit, then he/she wins an “apple” which means that if later
the same kid gets hit by the ball, he/she can be saved or even give the
“apple” to another friend who gets “burnt”. When there is only one child
left, the players try to hit him/her with the ball but only try ten times. If the
kid manages not to get hit, his/her team wins the round and it’s the
second team’s turn to try to hit the other children with the ball.
The game starts from the beginning.
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