Sticks
Stick walk
While on a walk look for sticks/twigs of all different sizes. Try to find sticks as:
- tall as you
- shorter than you
- the same length as your foot and longer than your foot
Can you find sticks the same size as all your families’ feet?
Can you find ones that are smaller than your hand?
Can you put your sticks in size order:
- from the biggest to the smallest
- any that are the same size
If you put all your sticks in a straight line how long will it be?
Look at the shapes of your sticks what else could they be?
Stick person
When you are out and about, collect different size and shaped sticks.
To make a stick person, put one stick across the other to make the arms. You could hold it together with Sellotape/wool/ or a pipe cleaner.
How will you do their face? You could draw a happy face on your stick, or you could stick goggly eyes on if you have some.
Why not make some clothes for your stick person. You could make them out of bits of wool or scrap material that you have around the house.
When you have made one stick person, maybe you could make a whole stick family!
Read the book “Stickman” by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler.
Memory stick
When you are next out on a walk, on holiday, in the woods, on the beach or somewhere special, find a stick.
As you continue your adventure, pick up bits and pieces that you find along the way, anything that you find interesting. For example, a:
- leaf or flower
- feather or grass
- stone
- acorn or pinecone
- shells or pebble
If you have any string/wool or tape with you, you could start to attach your special objects onto your stick.
If you haven’t got anything to attach them with, then you can collect them all up and attach them to your stick when you get home.
Start to build your memory stick to remind you of your wonderful adventure.
Why not share your memory stick with a friend or family member, retelling your journey of what you did along the way? Why not make up a magical adventure story about your stick!
Make wind chimes
Collect a few sticks. Choose ones that are different lengths and shapes, but not too big.
Decide how many sticks you want to have on your wind chime. You will need one longer stick to hang the rest of the sticks from.
You could take the bark off the sticks if you want to or give them a rub down to take off any loose bark.
You may want to paint your sticks or decorate them in different patterns. Why not add some shells/ feathers/bells to your sticks.
To make your wind chime, start by tying string to both ends of the longer stick. This is the stick you will hang your other sticks from.
When you have decorated your sticks, wrap/tie some coloured wool or string around the end of each one, leaving some wool/string free to dangle from the main stick.
When all your sticks are ready, tie each one onto the long stick and let them hang down.
You could hang your wind chime in the garden or near a window where the air can flow through.
Find somewhere comfortable to sit, close your eyes and listen to the sounds of your wind chime.
Bug house
Collect a range of sticks and twigs, of all different shapes and sizes.
Cut a plastic bottle in half or you could use a 4-pint milk bottle or a carton. Make sure the containers are free from milk, juice.
Put the container on its side and start to put your sticks in one on top of the other until it is nearly full. If you don’t want to use a container you could just stack your sticks in a pile or make a shape with your sticks.
In between the sticks you could put some fir cones, bits of hay/grass/ straw/ moss.
When it is full and the sticks are secure, tie string around the container so that you can hang your bug house up in the garden.
Find a safe place where you could put your bug house so the bugs can easily crawl in and out.
Pick up sticks
A game you can play with sticks.
Hold up a couple of handfuls of sticks. You could use lolly pop sticks or sticks that you have found outside.
Drop the sticks on the floor. Take turns carefully picking up a stick without moving any other sticks.
When you have picked up your stick, it’s the next person’s turn to try to pick up a stick without moving any others.
The game continues until someone moves a stick when picking up their stick.
When you have played this game why not make some shapes with your sticks. For example, rectangle, triangle, square, star.