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Home > Arts and Crafts Projects > Games and Toys > Ring the Stick Game
This is a game I'd thought I'd invented, until deflated by two Indian students here, who told me that a similar game has been played with by rural children in northern India for quite some time. Anyway, this should prove its worth. Like the other hand games to follow, it is suitable for individual, partner, or group play.
awl
brace and bit
pencil
ruler
sandblock
garnet paper
scissors
cardboard tubing
string
wood
There are two ways to make this game. The simpler version is made from a pencil-sized stick, about 5 inches long, a string, and a one-inch section of 1 1/2-inch cardboard tubing. Smooth the stick with the sandblock and garnet paper, and tie the string through a hole bored in one end of the stick (with parental help). Poke a hole in the side of the cardboard tubing and attach the other end of the string. The string should be about 15 to 18 inches long. Decorate the stick and the cardboard tubing with crayons. If paint is used for this instead, decorate before attaching the string. Do not try making a ring out of paper. The game needs the weight of cardboard in the ring to work properly.
A more permanent version of the game is made with a wooden ring. The same sized stick and string are used. With a brace and bit, and parental supervision, bore a one-inch hole in a block of wood 3/4 inch thick. When boring, have a scrap of wood underneath the block to protect the table and also to prevent the bit from shredding the underside of the wood and making it splinter. Mark and cut about 1/4 inch around the hole, and smooth into a ring with a sandblock and garnet paper. Assemble the same way as the first version.