Category Archives: Jacks
I have found another store…
I have found another store that may sell chinese jacks! It is in LA and is called Imperial Toys. They have a picture of them on their website. I sent out an email to see if they really have them! Try for yourself! www.imperialtoy.com And many thanks folks! I appreciate all of your help! I am a 3rd/4th grade teacher and am really looking forward to sharing this with my kids. On another note, a jewish friend of mine shared a similar traditional game that was played with ceramic square pieces. I will let you know more.
jacks is very simular to…
Oh, I forgot the skill is…
You don’t need rules to…
You don’t need rules to play jacks, it’s a no-brainer. You throw the jacks down, throw the little ball up in the air and catch 1 jack. You do this until you have all the jacks in your hand. you throw the jacks down again and do this for two’s, threes, fours, etc. The skill is in knowing when to throw the jacks out from a wider pile (when you’re picking them up by ones), to an increasingly smaller pile (it’s easier to catch sets of two’s,threes, fours, and etc. when the jacks are closer together. Also you can pick jacks up seperated jacks in two moves as long as the ball only bounces once. Finally, when you”re up to the last number you just put the jacks down, toss the ball up and pick up the hole pile (flatsies). The more skilled of jack players would then proceed to play in revers. leave one down, then two, then three, etc. then pick up the whole pile when finished.
this is a fun site! brings…
this is a fun site! brings back a lot of memories. a young friend had never played jacks so i got a set and was trying to find rules. who’d have thought they’d have books of rules now. I can still remember when my grandma gave my bag of jacks and balls to younger neighbor. yes, i was too old and didn’t play with them anymore but i still was quite upset. now it’s off to the library to see if i can find the books mentioned. did anyone else peel the cover off of a golf ball and unroll the “miles” of rubber band to get to the ball in the middle? it was a good bouncer.
I’ve lately had occasion…
I’ve lately had occasion to recall a few more fancies than these. Do you remember “Elevators”? After picking up the jacks and catching the ball, we’d throw the jacks up in the air as well as the ball, catching the jacks in the other hand and catching the ball in the throwing hand. How about “Around the World”? After picking up the jacks, we’d have to circle the bouncing ball with the throwing hand before catching the ball. As we got older, we played more challenging fancies like “Black Widow.” That was onesies to tensies without missing. If you missed, you had to start from the beginning. We also played a longer version (onesies to tensies and back again) which we called “Blue Widow.” Don’t ask me why this wasn’t “Black Widow;” it
Has anyone been able to…
I got my kids some jacks,…
I got my kids some jacks, but they don’t seem to know enough about how to play, so they aren’t being used. I played jacks a lot as a kid; though we didn’t call them “fancies”, we did have a lot of variations. Eggs in the basket was always first, just putting the jacksinto your cupped left hand on placed on the floor. Then came pig in the pen: you held your left hand on the floor making a semi-circular “pen”–the little finger and thumb resting on the floor, fingers together but with a space between thumb and fingers. You did onesies, twosies, etc., each time sliding the required number of jacks into the pen. There was another that I can’t quite recall, something like “sheep over the fence”; you placed your left hand with the little finger resting on the floor and the palm vertical; you picked up the jacks and put them on the far side of this fence. I know we played about ten variations, but can’t remember more. Please post any more you can recall so I can teach my daughters.