Pick-Up Sticks
In this activity, children construct their own pick-up sticks and then have fun playing the game.
Pick-Up Sticks
Materials
- 30 wooden skewers
- Colored paint or felt pens black, red, blue, green, and yellow
- To make your set of pick-up sticks, paint the ends of the skewers with the following colors: one black, three red, five blue, nine green, and twelve yellow.
- Assign points to each color as follows: black ten points, red five points, blue three points, green two points, and yellow one point.
- Use a table or the floor to play the game.
- Hold the sticks upright in a bunch in one hand just above the floor or table.
- Release the sticks and let them fall.
- Now try to remove the sticks one by one without moving any other stick in the pile.
- You can use the black stick to help you remove other sticks.
- Continue removing sticks until you move another stick by mistake.
- Now count the value of your sticks.
- Play the game again and see if you can beat the number.