Colonial toys and games were usually created by someone for his or her own use, or
maybe by a parent for a child. The toy or game was changed little as it was handed
down from generation to generation. A study of toy designs shows that the people
of the past were inventive and resourceful. They took an idea and made an effective
toy for themselves by using materials they had in their environment. The toys and
games usually had little or no monetary cost.
Le s s on : Making Colonial Toys
PRE-VISIT SUGGESTIONS
Review Background material.
Introduce Literature relevant to art and historical period.
Review Keywords & Vocabulary.
Discuss Guiding Questions.
Toys made at Pricketts Fort
Keywords & Vocabulary
Colonial - time period of U.S. History before the
American Revolution
homemade - objects made by people, one at a
time, in their own homes
kaleidoscope - an instrument which exhibits by
mirror reflection a variety of beautiful colors and
symmetrical forms
marbles - small glass balls children played with
rolling hoops - wooden ring around the barrel
that children rolled using a stick
zoetrope - a drum-like contrivance with a series
of pictures inside, that when rotated creates a
moving image
Guiding Questions
Do you know of any toys or games that were around
in the 18th century?
How did Colonial children get their toys and games?
What were Colonial toys and games made of ?
Who has more toys, Colonial children or children
of today?
Differentiated Instruction
As needed for the less able, students will be paired to
facilitate activity successes. As needed for gifted, use
Resource list for additional information and challenges.
Grade Ranges
Materials Needed
Fort provided RESOURCE BOX will contain
the following: Period examples and all materials and
tools needed for hands-on activity.
K-2 make a cornhusk doll
Teacher will provide the following: a room and tables
for the students to work on and access to water.
3-6 make a cornhusk doll
7-12 make a cornhusk doll
Literature Relevant to the Art and Historical Period
Games often incorporated rhymes and songs.
These were used as rhythm for clapping games
and jumping rope.
Miss Mary Mack
Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack
All dressed in black, black, black
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons
All down her back, back, back
She asked her mother, mother, mother
For fifty cents, cents, cents
To see the elephant, elephant, elephant
Jump the fence, fence, fence
They jumped so high, high, high They touched the sky, sky, sky And didn't come back, back, back Till the fourth of July, July, July
Mary Mack
18th Century line art drawing
Leisure Unit: Making Colonial Toys
— (Jump rope rhymes)
Background
Toys and games have been a form of amusement to
children and adults from the beginning of human
habitation on the earth. These amusements were
as complicated as the imagination of the people
and were made of materials that were available in
their immediate environments. Greek and Roman
children played with balls, clay, rattles, clay dolls,
hand carts, hobby horses, hoops, and spinning tops.
Between the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages, when
children were old enough to play, they also learned
to work and use weapons and tools. They would
play outdoor games using pebbles, knucklebones,
and barrel hoops. Some would have made wooden
toys such as tops, hobby horses, and puppets.
Attitudes have changed over the centuries.
The 18th century saw mass-produced toys which
were cheaper to make and buy. Wealthy parents
spent their money on printed instructional toys that
would aid learning and morality, such as pictorial
alphabet cards, dissected map puzzles, books, and
board games.
In the 19th century, the main retailers of technical
toys were opticians who sold steam engines, magic
lanterns, building blocks, and optical toys such as
the kaleidoscope and zoetropes. Many famous toy
companies started business in the 1890s and 1900s.
In the 20th century, the cinema and later television
had a major influence on the retail of toys.
Games are spread and perpetuated by people’s
propensity to imitate and want to participate in
what others have and do. Many toys and games
have long histories like follow the leader, which goes
back to the 12th century. Many games have also
been transmitted orally from child to child.
American Indian games frequently reveal the
habitat, habits, and principal occupations of the
tribes that played them. It is not surprising that
hunting was featured in a number of games.
Grains, such as corn, and weather have been
incorporated into a number of American Indian
games.
The games played most by Indian children can be
sorted into well defined categories. Imitation and
dramatic games, often portraying social customs,
ceremonies, hunting, and warfare, formed the most
distinctive patterns of recreation.
Indian children had to play with objects provided
by Mother Nature, such as logs, poles, branches,
twigs, sticks, bark, leaves, seeds, pine cones, vines,
grasses, straws, reeds, ferns, corncobs, pebbles.
stones, rocks, gourds, fruit pits, berries, shells,
animal hides, intestines, bones, rawhide, feathers,
and many other basic materials provided by nature.
Many toys and games of the 18th and 19th
centuries are the same. Of course, with time, new
ones were developed with which children played.
Some of the games and toys of both centuries are
in the following list: the Bilbo catcher, checkers,
dolls, tops, hoop and stick, hopscotch, Jackstraws
or pick-up sticks (invented by American Indians),
marbles, needle’s eye, Jacob’s ladder, Noah’s ark
(acceptable Sabbath toys), and the whistle. Toys
that were new in the 19th century included the
following: bandy or shinny, a cloth ball, hand
shadows, the pop-gun, and the see-saw.
Toys and games have been around since the
beginning of human existence and continue to
improve. People enjoy being entertained and
amused.
Artist P rofile
Dick Schnacke
Dick Schnacke is a living folk toy maker from New
Martinsville, West Virginia. He decided to make
folk toys his specialty after helping to organize the
Mountain State Arts and Crafts Fair for the West
Virginia Centennial, in 1963. He later owned
and operated the Mountain Craft Shop in New
Martinsville. He has been the nation’s leading
producer of folk toys. His shop, under new
ownership, continues to sell handmade toys from
some forty craftsmen who are his neighbors. Their
products are in demand throughout the country.
Dick Schnacke’s toys can also be purchased at
Tamarack. Mr. Schnacke has recently won the
BB Maurer Award from the West Virginia Folklife
Center at Fairmont State University. He also wrote
American Folk Toys: How to Make Them.
Leisure Unit: Making Colonial Toys
Toys at Pricketts Fort
American Indian and Multicultural Connection
Games and toys were also used by American Indians. Two that were common in the Eastern
Woodlands area were the Ring Pin Game and Begging Sticks.
Ring Pin Game
Begging Sticks Game
The ring pin game was one of the most
popular and common games played by the
indigenous people of North America. Both
adults and young adults played the game and
even the women of the tribe often played it.
Begging Sticks was a game often played by
Indians here in the East. It was played in idle
time and as a gambling game.
In its simplest form, a small hoop is attached
to a stick with a cord. Holding the stick in one
hand, the ring is then swung in the air and the
player continues to play until he or she does
not catch the ring. In the simple form, each
catch is worth one point.
More than 200 different varieties of this game
have been recorded. In all their forms, this
game involves the use of a ring and a pin.
Both the ring and the pin were traditionally
made from a variety of natural materials
gathered from the environment including
wood, animal bone, rawhide, leather and rope
made from natural plant fibers. During the
1700s and 1800s, the materials used in this
game were principally the same with perhaps
the addition of trade items such as iron bugle
beads or trade cloth being incorporated into
the manufacturing process of the game pieces.
To play Begging Sticks you'll need an even
number of wood or antler disks painted red
on one side and left white on the other, several
sticks painted red, an equal number of sticks
unpainted (left white), and a wooden bowl that
will hold all the disks (in one layer).
Begging Sticks was usually played by two
people, but you can play with two teams. Place
all the disks in the bowl with equal numbers of
each color showing. The red and white teams
should both have an equal number of sticks
before the game starts. Either team may start
the game by picking up the bowl and tapping
it on the ground hard enough to make most of
the disks flip over and jump around. After the
bowl is flipped, each team counts the number
of disks of their color. The team who has
the least disks of their color must give one of
their sticks to the other team. Then the other
team taps the bowl on the ground. The teams
alternate tapping the bowl and winning/losing
sticks until one team has all the sticks. The
team with all the sticks wins.
BEGGING
COLONIAL
HOMEMADE
HOOPS
HOPSCOTCH
LEAPFROG
LENAPE
MARBLES
RINGPIN
ROLLING
STICKS
Leisure Unit: Making Colonial Toys
TOYS anD GAMES
Vocabulary Word Search
ASSESSMENT RUBRIC
Completion of top, animal, doll or game.
Participation and cooperation.
Name of student _________________________________________________
Title/topic of art lesson____________________________________________
Date _____________________
Analytic Performance Rubric:
Ratings:
1. Takes ownership of the skill or art learned with mastery.
2. Takes ownership of the skill or art learned with proficiency.
3. Takes limited ownership of the skill or art learned.
4. Takes little ownership of the skill or art learned.
5. Takes no ownership of the skill or art learned.
________
________
________
________
________
A. Knowledge of the art/skill.
B. Knowledge of the historical connection.
C. Knowledge of the guiding and evaluation questions.
D. Skill of the art presented.
E. Total points.
Feedback to student:
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Constructive direction to student for further learning:
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Conversion of analysis to grade: ______________
Works Cited & Resources
Bruchac, James and Joseph Bruchac. American Indian Games and Stories, Golden, Colorado: Falcum
Publishing, 2000.
Culin, Stewart, Games of the North American Indians, Bureau of American Ethnology, no. 24, 1902-1903.
Dean, Nora Thompson. “Pahsah-Indian Football.” Newsletter of The Lenape Land Association. New Hope,
Pennsylvania, April 1971.
Goddard, Ives. Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 15. Northeast Smithsonian Institution, 1978.
“History of Toys and Games” www.historychannel.com
Howard, James H. The Ceremonialism of a American Indian Tribe and its Cultural Background, Athens, Ohio:
Ohio University Press, 1981.
“Jump Rope Ryhmes” http://www.gameskidsplay.net/jump_rope_ryhmes, 2007.
“Mary Mack” http://www.emlis.com/images29/marymack.jpg, 2007.
Schnacke, Dick. American Folk Toys: How to Make Them. Chelsea, Michigan: Book Crafters, 1973.
Leisure Unit: Making Colonial Toys
“Dick Schnacke” www.wvculture.org, 2007.
Post-Visit
Suggestions for Extended Learning
Play Colonial children’s games:
Leapfrog – Play in partners. One player squats down while the other gently places his hands on the
squatter’s back and leaps over. You can have classroom races.
Hopscotch – Use a stick to mark hopscotch squares in the dirt. Find a rock to throw as a marker.
Hop, Skip, and Jump – Three motions are done in the order – hop, skip, and jump – for distance, without
a pause. Class members can take turns measuring the distance to determine the winner.
Squat Tag – A player is safe when in a squatting position. Another player tries to tag players not squatting.
Stone Poison – A player is safe when standing on a rock or stone. If you cannot collect enough stones to
play, cut stones from paper or cardboard to scatter on the playground.
Cat’s Cradle – One player stretches a loop 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.
Students can research Colonial toys and games:
Students can research a toy or game. These could include: yo-yo, jig saw puzzle, balls, rattles, hoops,
spinning tops, puppets, bilbo catcher, checkers, dolls, hopscotch, jackstraws, Jacob’s ladder, marbles,
needle’s eye, Noah’s ark, and the whistle.
As students gather information, they should record the date when each toy was first introduced, who
created it, and other pertinent or interesting facts. Have the students record the following information
about the toys they are responsible for researching: the year in which the toy or game was introduced –
in large, bold numbers; an illustration of the toy or game (hand-drawn, cut from a catalog, or
photographed using a digital camera); the name of the toy or game; interesting researched information
about the toy or game.
The students can present their information to the class and the toys can be displayed around the room.
Leisure Unit: Making Colonial Toys
Related Lesson in Curriculum: Dulcimer Music
Use dancing doll to accompany music.