Transcript Colonial Games and Toys

Outdoor Games
Games
 To Early Americans these games helped
children learn skills that they would need
later in life as a farmers and parents.
Games taught children how to aim and
throw, how to solve problems and do things
with their hands, and how to follow
directions and rules. They also leaned to be
fair, to wait their turn and to use their
imaginations.
Outdoor Games
 Although boys and girls played many of the
same games indoors, they often played
different games outside. Boys did not take
part in clapping, skipping, or string games.
Graces History
 The historical game of Graces is
meant to be played outdoors by two
people. It was brought to America by
the French where it was known as La
Grace. Also known as The Flying
Circle and French Hoops, it was most
popular during the Colonial period,
particularly with young ladies, and
used for exercise and to teach
gracefulness. Young men never
played this game together but were
willing to play with a lady. Times
have changed and we now encourage
everyone to play this game, young
and old, boys and girls, men and
women.
The Three Graces
 The Three Graces: The
game of Graces is named
after the Graces In Greek
mythology. The Graces
were three goddesses who
gave beauty and grace to
girls. In the 18th and 19th
century America, girls
were encouraged to be
graceful in everything
they did.
Graces Instruction
 Instructions: To play “Graces,” two
players stand directly opposite one
another, approximately 10 feet apart, each
player equipped with two wands. Each
player begins the game with 20 points.
One player places a hoop over the crossed
wands. By quickly moving the wands
apart, the hoop is sent flying towards the
opposite player. The object is to catch the
hoop on one or both of your wands and
return it. The hoop is kept moving back
and forth until one player misses. Each
miss costs a point. The first player to use
all his/her points loses the game. After
you have mastered one hoop, try tossing
two hoops back and forth simultaneously.
Hoops
 Trundling a hoop has been a
favorite outdoor activity for
children for centuries. Hoops
were shown in an engraving for
Jacob Cats's poem Kinderspel as
early as 1628 and were
frequently included in
illustrations of children's
activities and games in the late
18th and 19th centuries. Early
hoops were of metal; in the
1800s, handmade wood hoops
were all the rage as a favorite
plaything. The child's hoop was
propelled by stroking a one foot
dowel or stick along the top.
Rolling, Bowling and Trundling
 "Rolling", "bowling" and
"trundling" a hoop really came into
its own in Victorian times. Hoops
were raced and used for skipping.
The Youth's Best Friend, an early
book of instruction, illustrates
trundling a hoop with the comment
that, "This is indeed a very good
sport for little boys, but only in cool
weather; some little boys make
themselves very hot... by which they
often become very ill." Many 19th
century portraits and photographs
include a hoop along side the posed
child.
Hoop and Stick game
 Using a stick children
rolled a hoop along the
ground as fast as they
could. Sometimes
children rolled multiple
hoops. Races were
created to have a friendly
competition between
friends. Contests for both
the fastest and the longest
were popular.
Through the Hoop
 In this competitive game, one person rolled
a hoop in a straight line along the ground
while one or more players stood about 15
feet away and tried to get their stick through
the hoop as it passed them. The winner was
the person who got it through the hoop the
greatest number of times without knocking
the hoop down.
Hornbook Battledore and
Shuttlecock (Badminton)
 “Battledore and shuttlecock is an historic
game that can be played by one or two
players. It is played by one player, the
game merely consists of batting up the
shuttlecock into the air for as long a time
as possible. If two people are playing,
the game consists of batting the
shuttlecock into the playing, the game
consists of patting the shuttlecock from
one to the other. If more than two
people are playing, rules for the modern
game of badminton are used. In colonial
America, as well as the 16th and 17th
century England, “Battledore and
shuttlecock” was a popular game with
peasants as well as with the aristocracy.
Youngsters in early America who did not
possess a battledore (paddle) substituted
their hornbooks for the game.
Battledore and Shuttlecock Rhymes
 One, two, three, four
Mary at the Cottage door
Eating cherries off a plate,
Five, Six Seven, eight.
 Up the ladder, down the wall,
A two penny loaf to serve us all,
You buy milk and I’ll buy flour,
And we’ll have pudding in hald an hour.
One, two, three, four, five,six, ect.
 This year, next year, long time, never.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor.
Silk, satin, cotton, rags.
Coach, carriage, wheelbarrow,
donkey-cart.
Jacks History
Jacks, in its original form, was
played in ancient Greece, Rome,
and Egypt. This game was also
known as Jackstones, Five
Stones, Knucklebones, and other
names. Knucklebones eventually
led to the game of dice (which
was mostly played by boys) and
to the game of jacks (which was
mostly played by girls). Jacks is
a game of skill, as are earlier
games that involve throwing the
jacks into the air and catching
them, or bouncing a ball and
picking up a certain number of
jacks from a surface.
Playing with seeds bones stones
Jacks is centuries old, it’s played
with seeds, bones, stones, small
filled cloth bags or other such
materials. In ancient times, each
player would toss five or more of
these objects into the air and try
to catch them in one hand.
Occasionally, the player would
toss another object in the air,
while attempting to pick up the
ones he missed.
Archeological digs have uncovered
evidence that primitive forms of
jacks wee played in prehistoric
caves, in ancient Greece and
Rome and, much later in colonial
America.
Jacks Instructions
 To Begin: To determine the order of play, the players take
turns ‘flipping’. To ‘flip’, each player grasps the jacks in
the palm of one hand, tosses them into the air and catches
them on the back of his hand. Whoever catches the most
jacks goes first. In the event of a tie, the player take turns
flipping until the tie is broken.
 Ones: The basis of Jacks involves a series of moves in
which the player bounces the ball, then first picks up the
jacks, and so on before the ball bounces a second time.
This is continued until all the jacks have been picked up
and put in the other hand, or until.an error has been
committed.
 Twos: In the game, the jacks are picked up by twos.
Otherwise, the procedure is as in ‘Ones’. The game can be
carried on to play the game of Threes, Fours, and so on.
Quoits History
 The game of quoits may have
evolved from ancient Greece, where
athletes enjoyed throwing a discus
for competition. Peter Brown,
president of the National Quoits
Association, believes that the
Greeks passed quoits to the Romans
as a weapon of war. His theory
continues with the thought that the
Romans brought the game to
Britain. He even suggests that the
origins of the game go back to the
Minoan Empire circa 2000 B.C.
because the boy king of Knossos
evidently used quoits as a weapon
on slaves if they tried to escape.
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Rules for Quoits
 Quoits was made illegal in 1388 by Sporting Regulations,
but by the 15th century, it had become a favorite organized
sport in English pubs and taverns. The first official rules
for the game of quoits were printed in the April, 1881,
edition of The Field in northern England. The National
Quoits Association was formed in 1986.
Backyard Quoits
 There are several different games
of quoits being played in England
today: The Northern Game, The
Long Game, East Anglian
Quoits, and Sward or Lawn
Quoits. Sward Quoits is played
with a clay square to which the
stake or hob is set in, but it can
become muddy and difficult to
maintain. Many people happily
adapt this game and its rules for
backyard play with the hob or
stake set in the grass.
Quoits to Horseshoes
 Quoits was played during
the American
Revolutionary War by
both British and
Continental soldiers to
pass the time. It has been
said that the game of
horseshoes was derived
from quoits because some
people could not afford to
have quoits made, so they
used what was similarly
available: old horseshoes!
Indoor Quoits
 Miniature versions of indoor quoits were
played near the Welsh-English border for at
least a century. It seems that the game was
invented toward the end of the 19th century,
but the history of indoor quoits is not really
known. A game called Rings was played in
Northern England. Now, many variations of
the game exist. "Deck quoits" were made
from rope and used on cruise ships. "Rope
quoits" is probably the same game and is
popular in Australia. English and Welsh
descendants in parts of Pennsylvania play
the game with the hob set at a slight angle
on a slate board instead of a clay bed
because they resided in "the slate belt."
Quoits Rules

1.
2.
3.
Rules:
Place the stake (hob,mott) on a flat surface at an
agreed-upon distance from the tossing line.
Toss a coin to determine the order of play.
The first player tosses two quoits (rings) from
behind the tossing line, aiming at the stake. The
second player then follows with two tosses.
Quoits Scoring
Scoring
 Each time a player ‘rings’ the hob, score 3
points. (This is called a ringer)
 If the ring just touches the bob or the base
it is called a learner and is worth 2 points.
 If a player’s quoit is closer to the mott
than his opponent’s one point is scored.
 The winner is the first player to score 21.
Nine Pins (skittles, bowling)
 Nine Pins, the forerunner of
10 pin bowling, has been a
popular game for centuries
and made most famous in
Washington Irvings’s
famous account of the
legend of Rip Van Winkle.
Nine pins was also called
skittles. Colonist from
Germany and the
Netherlands brought this
game to North America.
Nine Pins Colonial Era
 The Colonists used a long
board to roll the ball on, but
the game can be played
without it.
 In the colonial days, both
the nine pins and the
bowling ball were carved
from wood. To play Nine
Pins, the pins were set up in
a diamond pattern as shown.
An agreed-upon distance
was then marked off, which
served as the point from
which the ball was rolled
into the pins.
Two versions of the game
 The oldest version of the game called for
each player to knock down all the pins
except the center one. Another version of
the game called for each player to roll the
ball two times in succession. The first
person to knock down 100 pins won the
game.
Nine pins to modern bowling
 The game of nine pins
continued well into the
nineteenth century.
Because of the widespread
betting on the game, the
sport was outlawed by
Connecticut in 1841, and
other states soon followed.
The law was circumvented
by using ten pins.
CAT'S CRADLE
 The game of Cat’s Cradle has a rich and varied history. Cat’s Cradle is
believed to have traveled from Asia to Europe with the tea trade in the early
17th Century. History reveals that children in England played Cat’s Cradle as
early as 1782. In Colonial America, Cat’s Cradle’ (Or ‘Cratch Cradle” as it
was sometimes known) was among the earliest and most popular of all know
string games. Cat’s Cradle is played with a piece of yarn, string or cord 6 feet
in length, folded in half and knotted.
 One player stretches a length of yarn over the extended fingers of both hands
in a symmetrical form. The second player uses his fingers to remove the yarn
without dropping the loops and tries to make another figure.