Giants, Dwarfs, Birds and Witches: One Rainbow stands in the centre of the circle. If she calls out 'birds', the Rainbows pretend to fly around the circle. If she calls out 'giants' the Rainbows stretch up high with their arms in the air and walk towards her. If she says 'dwarfs' the Rainbows crawl on their hands and knees away from her. If she says 'wicked witch' the Rainbows run away from her whilst she tries to tag someone. Whoever is caught becomes the new person in the middle.



Little Soldiers: One child is the soldier on guard. She stands with her back to the rest and shouts, "Little  soldiers  immovable, silent, sullen!" and then turns round. All the children must stand as still as they can. The first child pulls funny faces at them trying to make them laugh. The first person to laugh or move becomes the next soldier on guard.

Handkerchief: The Rainbows are spilt into two even teams. Each child is given a number. A handkerchief is placed in the middle of the two teams. An adult calls a number. The child from each team with that number run to capture the handkerchief. The team that gets the handkerchief wins a point.

Berlina: One Rainbow is chosen to leave the room. The other Rainbows say nice things about 'Berlina'. 'Berlina' comes back into the room. A leader tells the 'Berlina' one nice thing that was said and she tries to guess who said it. When she guesses incorrectly, she has another guess until she guesses correctly. The child who said the nice thing then becomes Berlina.

Decorating plates: Give each Rainbow a paper plate to decorate and then toss them. (Explain about the tradition of smashing plates.)


Komboloi (Greek worry beads): Thread five or more beads onto a piece of wool or decorative thread. Knot the thread in continuous, loose knots to finish. For more information about Komboloi try this site.

Zorba dance: Brownies form a circle, linking arms around shoulders or waist. They step right with their right foot, then right with their left foot, then right again with their right foot and then kick with the left leg. This is then done in reverse (left with their left leg, then left with their right leg, then left with their left leg and kick with their right). The steps gradually get faster as the music continues.

Rainbow Olympics: Try some wacky races. For example, passing a balloon over your head and under your legs, relay races with a beanbag on your head, egg and spoon race, dressing up in silly clothes as part of a relay race.

Greek themed palminism: Played in groups of 3 to 6. Print out two sets of these pictures for each group. Stick them on to card and cut out. Lay the pictures face down. Each Brownie takes it in turn to turn over two pictures. If they match they can keep them. If not they turn them face down. The winner is the player with the most pairs.

Reading a Greek folk tale: You can find some Greek stories on this site. You could turn them into action stories by getting the Rainbows to do certain things each time a word is spoken.