EVANS CITY - Who needs football, baseball or basketball when you've got Korfball, Buka Ball or Kameshi Ne Mpuku?

Evans City Elementary School students learned the latter three games and others like them Tuesday when the touring Passport to Play program stopped at the school.

The Evans City school was one of two Pittsburgh area schools - Zachariah Connell Elementary School in Connellsville being the other - to host the program, which teaches grade school students how to play recreational games played by kids in other countries.

The program was developed by McDonald's in a partnership with Kaleidoscope Education Support Group.

"The idea is to promote a balanced, active lifestyle for kids," McDonald's representative Dave Minella said. "This gets them outside, involved in physical activities while teaching them about other parts of the world."

Third through fifth-graders learned about seven kids games: Tai Chi Chuan from China, boomerang golf from Australia, Tlatchtli in Mexico, Rayuela in Columbia, Kameshi Ne Mpuku from The Congo, Korfball from Holland and Buka Ball from Thailand.

Amyr Heard, one of the program's coordinators from Atlanta, Ga., said kids learn much more than how to play a game.

"They learn about creativity," she said. "Obviously, they're not going to have the equipment to play some of these games as they're taught, but they can substitute other things … a garbage can for a hoop, for example."

Korfball uses a small version of a basketball and a smaller-sized hoop. Games are four-on-four and involve two boys and two girls on each team.

There is no contact, no running or dribbling with the ball. The object is to continue passing the ball to a teammate until somebody shoots it through the hoop. Passes can be intercepted and both teams shoot at the same hoop. The key is running and moving without the ball.

Buka Ball - a national sport in Malaysia - is a combination of volleyball and Hacky Sack that involves teammates passing and kicking a five-pound rubber ball over a small net to the opposing team - without using their arms, hands or head."When we teach these games, we show where its origin is on a globe," Heard said. "We let the kids read about the history of the game, who developed it and why."There's math involved because counting is involved. Science may come into play because of speed and velocity and angles. And, of course, there's the physical fitness aspect."Tai Chi Chuan is a form of warm-up exercises in China. Kameshi Ne Mpuku means "The Cat and The Rat" and is played among large groups of kids throughout Africa.One child is designated as the caller. Another is the cat and another is the rat. All the other children line up in four rows, holding hands, the rows two or three feet apart. The cat chases the rat up and down the formed aisles.When the caller shouts "mpuki ekale" - meaning "let the rat stop" - the children all switch hands with the person in front of him, thus forming new aisles to house the chase. The game ends when the cat touches the rat.Boomerang golf is as it sounds. A boomerang is tossed toward a basket or cage. A missed shot is shot again from wherever the boomerang lands. However many throws it takes to land the boomerang in the basket, that's the player's score.For purpose of teaching the kids, frisbees were used instead of boomerangs."I like the diversity of these games," Evans City elementary gym teacher Chris Jackson said. "I love the physical activity."They (Passport to Play) gave us close to 30 games we can teach the kids. It can become part of the curriculum."Passport to Play is visiting 96 schools nationwide. The program has been accepted in 31,000 United States schools and is expected to reach seven million school children this year, including students in 179 elementary schools in Western Pennsylvania."It's a fun, active way to learn," Jackson said. "We're certainly in favor of that."