Instructions:

Parts can be split over a few meetings or done one after the other. Feel free to adapt the amount of words/instructions based on the group, the leader might want to start with 3 or 4 and add more as the group gets more confident.

 

Part 1

• Participants walk around the room and when the leader calls out a word the group do the action.

English	Polish	Action
Go	Początek	Start Walking
Stop	Zatrzymać	Freeze
Hello/Good Morning	Dzien Dobry	Shake hands
Thank you	Dziękuję	Bow
Bye	Cześć!	Wave
Good	Dobry	Thumbs up
Bird	Ptak	Jump

 

• Leader should call the word in Polish and participants should repeat it while doing the action
• To make the game harder, the Leader can call out the words in the groups own language and have participants say the words in Polish

 

Part 2 – Numbers

• Leader calls out a number in Polish and participants get into groups of that number
• Start with a few practice runs, then anyone who isn’t in a group or if a group is of the wrong amount is out

1	Jeden
2	Dwa
3	Trzy
4	Cztery
5	Pięć
6	Sześć
7	Siedem
8	Osiem
9	Dziewięć
10	Dziesięć

 

Part 3 – Colours

• Leader will call out a colour and participants must run and touch something of this colour (Adapt based on the colours in your room)
• Last person/group to touch the colour is out

Red	Czerwony
Orange	Pomarańczowy
Yellow	Żółty
Green	Zielony
Blue	Niebieski
White	Biały

 

Suggestion:

• If the group is confident that they remember all the words, combine all 3 parts into one big game!

Part 4 – Dance

It’s time to learn very easy Polish classical dance called polonez. This dance is danced at the major events in Poland such as proms.

Here you will find two tutorials:

Basics of polonez:

Getting fancy (adding impressive figures to basic version):

The most popular polonez music:

Part 5 – Culture

Print or paint the map of Poland (you can use this one here: ).  Next, encourage the participants to write down (on the post-its or on the blank space around map) all the things that remind them of Poland. If someone writes down a word from the following list, he/she gets one point. Once you finish the game, sum up all the points and get participants acquainted with the words from the list.

• Warsaw – the capital of Poland
• Pierogi/dumplings – traditional Polish dish made of pastry with various fillings
• Cracow – the most touristic and historical city in Poland;
• Gdansk – the city where European Jamboree 2020 will take place and a big city by the Baltic Sea;
• Solidarity Movement – a non-violent, anti-communism union that contributed to the fall of communism;
• John Paul II – the first and only Pope from Poland, the head of Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005;
• Frederic Chopin – Polish composer and pianist, born in Poland but spent majority of his lifetime in exile in France;
• Maria Sklodowska-Curie – Polish physicist and chemist who conducted research on radioactivity, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only person to win 2 Nobel Prizes;
• Lech Wałęsa – a former president of Poland, a leader of Solidarity movement, a Peace Nobel Prize laureate;
• Baltic Sea – the only sea that is in contacted with Poland;
• Tatra Mountains – the highest mountain chain in Poland, with the highest peak: Rysy (2503 m)
• Slavs – are Indo-European people who speak the various Slavic languages of the larger Balto-Slavic linguistic group. Polish are included to this group.
• The Witcher – the game series and TV series based on Polish book written by Sapkowski, story of Geralt of Rivia;
• Bison – in Polish żubr, one of two extant species of bison that lives in the forests of Poland;
• Warsaw Uprising – was a major World War II operation, in the summer of 1944, by the Polish underground resistance, to liberate Warsaw from German occupation.
• Vistula River – the longest river in Poland, it crosses Cracow, Warsaw and Gdańsk;
• Amber – fossilized tree resin, the native gemstone of Poland. The country’s coastline once supplied ancients with it via the famous Amber Road that used to connect the Baltic Sea with the Mediterranean.
• National flag – consists of two horizontal stripes of equal width, the upper one white and the lower one red;
• Krówki/Polish fudge – literally meaning “little cows,” semi-soft milk toffee candies
• Pierniki/gingerbreads – is a traditional Polish gingerbread that has been produced since the Middle Ages traditionally in the city of Toruń;
• Eagle – The White Eagle is the national coat of arms of Poland. It is a stylized white eagle with a golden beak and talons, and wearing a golden crown, in a red shield.
• Stork – is a large bird in the stork family, is mainly white, with black on its wings; During winter it migrates to Africa to come back to Poland during warmer months.
• Nicolaus Copernicus – the creator of the theory of the universe placed the Sun rather than Earth at the center of the universe;
• Bigos – hunter’s stew, is a Polish dish of chopped meat of various kinds stewed with sauerkraut and shredded fresh cabbage.
• Oscypek (smoked cheese) – a smoked cheese made of salted sheep milk exclusively in the Tatra Mountains region of Poland