Nursery Rizario School -Trikala –Creece

Traditional children’s games

1. O Manolis.

The children make a circle and one of them sitting in the middle of the circle, but his eyes are cover.The children go around the circle and they sing:

Gyro, gyro oli sti mesi o Manolis Heria podia stin avli ki oli kathonte sth gi.

(It means: We going around of the circle, but Manolis stay inside. We are sitting in the ground and try to catch one of us.)

At the end of this song they are sitting on the floor.Then the child who is sitting in the middle of the circle stand up and try to catch another child who will take his position.

2. The bees Two children give their hand and make a brigde.One of them is the moon and the other the sun. They sing this song:

Perna ,perna e melissa me ta melissopoula ke me ta paidopoula.(It means: Pass the bee with the little bees and with all the little children.)

The rest of the children (must be at least 8) make a line and passunder the bridge (like a train) and at the end of this song the bridge catch the child who that time try to pass. The two children who are make the bridge ask the child what prefer: the moon or the sun. The child chooses and goes behind of the child who has this name.This is repeating until there are not other children in the line.Then the two teams try to pull the other team by their side.The stronger team is the winner!

3. The cat and the mouse.

The children make a circle. One of them is mouse and stay inside the circle. Another one is the cat and stay outside of the circle. The children sing:

Trexe, trexe pontikaki, min se piase to gataki.( It means :(Run, run little mouse because the cat will catch you)

The child who pretends to be the mouse goes out of the circle and run around of it. The cat tries to catch it because only out of the circle can catch it. If the mouse return inside of the circle is safe.The game goes on, until the cat catches the mouse.Then other two children replace them.

Presentation by Ann Magkiosi ----------------------------------------