Play a game of Ddakji

You’ll need

Square paper

Before you begin

Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers

Running the activity

Gather everyone in a circle.
Explain to everyone you’re going to play a game called Ddakji. It’s a traditional South Korean game that’s played using folded paper tiles.
Tell everyone that first, everyone needs to make a tile, then you’ll all play the game.

Create the tiles 타일 만들기

Take a piece of square paper of any colour
Next, fold the paper into thirds and leave it folded, so that you’re left with a rectangle shape.
Take the rectangle shape’s bottom left corner and fold it upwards, until what was the left-hand side of the rectangle meets the top edge of the rectangle.
Take the rectangle shape’s top right corner and fold it downwards, until it the right-hand side of the rectangle meets the bottom edge of the rectangle.
Repeat this process and make another shape, exactly the same, using another square piece of paper.
When you have two rectangles with folded triangle edges, place one on top of the other to create a cross shape. One should be vertically led on top of the horizontal other.
Fold the left and right-side flaps from the horizontal rectangle in, so they overlap and ‘trap’ the vertical led rectangle shape.
Now fold the top flap down of the vertical rectangle, and underneath the right flap of the horizontal rectangle.
Then fold the bottom flap up of the vertical rectangle, and underneath the left flap of the horizontal rectangle.
It should now have formed a square!
If you want to see what a Ddakji looks like, take a look at this guide on how to make one.

Play the game 게임하자

When everyone’s made a square, they’re ready to play the game. This game is best played in pairs. Throwing Ddakji may look or seem simple, but getting the angle and force necessary to flip the other player's tile takes practice, so remind everyone to be patient.
Each pair should choose a throwing player – they may want to play Rock, Paper, Scissors to help them decide who this’ll be.
The non-throwing player places their Ddakji tile on the table or floor.
The throwing player tries to throw their tile so that it makes the other player’s tile flip over. They should try to throw from downward angle.
If they are successful, they get a point.
After each turn, whether successful or not, the players should swap roles so that the non-throwing player is now the throwing player.
Keep playing, and switching who the throwing player is, until a player reaches 5 points.

Top tip

You may want to make tiles using several different sizes of paper to see what is easiest for you to flip. It's also helpful to try to aim for the fullest or puffiest part of the disk when you're trying to flip it.

Reflection

This was a traditional Korean game. How is it different to games we play here? Is it similar to any games that you know?

This was all about learning about different cultures and countries. Why do you think it’s important to learn about different countries and cultures? Do you know any games from other countries? What game would you teach someone from another country?

You needed a lot of patience to make the Ddakji and while playing the game. Was it hard to fold the Ddakji? Did anything make it easier? Or did you help someone who was struggling?

During the game, it took a lot of turns to flip the Ddakji. How did you make sure you were resilient and kept trying again? Did you want to give up? What stopped you from doing so?

You had to experiment with different angles, speeds and forces. Did it get easier as the game went on? What worked best? Did you find any good techniques to help you flip it?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Active games: The game area should be free of hazards. Explain the rules of the game clearly and have a clear way to communicate that the game must stop when needed. Take a look at our guidance on running active games safely.