I received a lovely letter this morning from the year 1 pupils at Highters Heath Community School in Birmingham, that are currently studying toys from the past. When I opened the letter, it contained many letters mainly asking how a spinning top works, and does the spinning top contain a spring? In an attempt to settle these curious minds, let me tell you a little bit about the history of the spinning top, and then how a spinning top works. The History of the Spinning Top The spinning top has been in existence for thousands of years. Like many traditional toys, such as marbles, the earliest spinning tops are made from clay, and were discovered in the Middle East as early as 3500 BC, although it is likely that children would have been spinning small rocks or acorns long before. Later wooden spinning tops emerged in around 2000 BC, and early spinning tops made from bone have been found in Europe. These spinning tops would have been much simpler than many tops found in old fashi...
If you ask me what my favourite dice game is, there has only ever been one answer, ZILTCH! This is an exciting fast passed game of chance suitable for all ages and great for kids who can beat their parents fair and square. It's good for developing basic arithmetic skills too! This has been a family favourite in my house hold since I was a nipper, I have since taught it to hundreds of people and everyone loves it! All you need is six dice and a pen and paper to write down the scores. These days this can be downloaded as an app or played on line but to me the whole fun is seeing peoples reactions as they roll the dice. If you take away the actual dice and play by clicking a button, then you have taken away the fun of the game! Dice are inexpensive and fit in your pocket and I guarantee that once you have learned to play this game you will always carry six dice with you! It can be played almost anywhere and doesn't blow away at a picnic or get wet ...
A couple of weeks ago I posted the instructions for the card game Pairs on Wheels . Another popular traditional family card game is Farmyard Donkey. Again, this game is fairly straight forward but a great way to keep children occupied and get them thinking. The card game consists of 17 pairs and the "Donkey Card". Firstly, shuffle the cards then deal them in a clockwise direction to each player. All players then look at their cards and take out all their pairs, the player to the left of the dealer arranges their remaining cards in their hand like a fan. The back of the cards are shown to the player on the left who then picks a card. If this card makes a pair then the cards are put in the middle of the table with the other pairs. If the player isn't able to make a pair then they keep the card and continue the game by offering their cards to the next player. When a player eventually loses all their cards they are 'saved' and stop playing. At the end of the gam...
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