The Stick Book: Loads of things you can make or do with a stick

by Fiona Danks, Jo Schofield

Overview

'A beautiful and inspiring book, bursting with practical suggestions which will appeal to every child’s imagination. Reading it, I wanted to rush out to my nearest wood immediately!'
Julia Donaldson, author of The Gruffalo
 
Who doesn’t love a stick? The universal toy for children and adults alike, sticks can provide endless opportunities for outdoor adventures, creative play, woodcraft and conservation.

Packed with 70 ideas and projects, The Stick Book will give you loads of inspiration for using the wonderful, free and all-natural toy: the stick. As The National Museum of Play (New York) pointed out when they put the stick in their National Toy Hall of Fame, 'It can be a Wild West horse, a medieval knight's sword, a boat on a stream, or a slingshot with a rubber band …' A stick can be anything you want it to be. This book will give you loads of inventive ideas for spending quality time outdoors with your children – from the adventurous to the magical, getting creative to playing games, making music to building bug hotels. Try your hands at:

• Making a DIY tent or den
• Creating a woodland monster or magic carpet
• Wild weaving or making your own natural wind chimes
• Playing capture the flag or a woodland mapping game
• Making a bird feeder or bug hotel

With 70 ideas and projects, there will be something for every little adventurer, dreamer or budding ecologist in The Stick Book. All you need to get started is … a stick!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780711232419
Publisher:	Frances Lincoln Adult
Publication date:	02/21/2012
Series:	Going Wild Series
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	281,224
Product dimensions:	5.62(w) x 7.87(h) x 0.37(d)
Age Range:	8 Years

About the Author

Fiona Danks did a degree in Ecology at Edinburgh University followed by a PGCE in Rural and Environmental Science at Bath College of Higher Education. She worked in environmental education for a number of years, first for the Shropshire Wildlife Trust and then for the Berkshire Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust, organizing training for teachers and taking groups of children out to nature reserves and other wild sites. She then went on to write books about the Chiltern Hills and the Cotswold Hills while working part-time running activities in a pre-school nursery. She currently runs the Trust for Oxfordshire's Environment, a non-profit making company providing grants for a wide range of community and environmental projects across Oxfordshire. Fiona lives in Watlington in Oxfordshire. Through their website www.goingwild.net Jo and Fiona provide more ideas for outdoor activities and an opportunity for debate on the importance of real world adventures for all young people.

For more information on how to encourage children to go outdoors, visit Fiona and Jo's website click here

Jo Schofield gained a degree in psychology from Exeter University and began her career working for an educational psychologist in London. After getting involved in the production of a film, she went on to work in the creative department of a TV advertising agency where she began taking still photographs. This led on to her becoming a commercial photographer in Australia and then London. She worked mainly for national editorial magazines such as Country Living. When her children were small she worked in Watlington Primary School and the Dragon school in Oxford, applying her creative knowledge to the classroom with children aged 6-9 years. More recently she has been focusing on writing and photographing for a series of books with co-author Fiona Danks. Jo lives near Watlington in Oxfordshire. Through their website www.goingwild.net Jo and Fiona provide more ideas for outdoor activities and an opportunity for debate on the importance of real world adventures for all young people.

For more information on how to encourage children to go outdoors, visit Jo and Fiona's website click here

Table of Contents

Discovering sticks
Adventure and bushcraft sticks
Make a fire
Cook over a fire
Build a den
Make a DIY tent
Make a staff
Make a stick sword
Make a catapult
Make an ancient spear-thrower and a spear
Make a bow and arrows
Make a pea-shooter
Magic sticks
Make a star wand
Make a wizard's wand
Make scavenging sticks
Make a witch's broomstick
Make a wiggly snake
Make shadow pictures
Make stick characters
Make stick and clay animals
Make a fairy house or an elf castle
Make miniature worlds for toy people and animals
Make hobby animals
Make woodland monsters
Make woodland magic carpets
Make a flying creature
Make fairy and fish sticks
Make wild storyboards
Creative sticks
Draw in mud and sand
Make charcoal pencils
Make a paintbrush
Make a picture frame
Make a woody crown
Make a necklace
Create stick art for a woodland gallery
Choose a stirring stick
Make a nest
Make a dream-catcher
Make a loom for wild weaving
Weave a wild basket
Make stick and paper lanterns
Make natural mobiles and wind chimes
Make a wreath
Decorate a seasonal stick tree with stick stars
Stick games
Throw a stick for a dog
Play pick-up sticks
Make a flying machine
Play capture the flag
Play quoits
Play Aunt Sally
Invent your own stick games
Do the stick tower challenge
Play tracking with sticks
Play the woodland mapping game
Sunny sticks
Navigate with a stick and the sun
Make a sun clock
Measure the radius of the earth
Musical sticks
Make percussion sticks
Make stick rattles
Bushcraft busking with a can guitar
Watery sticks
Play Pooh sticks
Mini raft challenge
Make a pond-dipping net
Make a fishing rod
Measure the depth of a stream
Woodcraft and conservation
Make your own walking/tracking stick
Make a stretcher
Make a mouse trap
Plant a tree
Make a habitat pile
Make a creepy-crawly hotel
Make a bird feeder
Stick stuff
Index
Acknowledgments

Editorial Reviews

"The stick is perhaps the best-loved toy of all time, the starting point for endless adventures," note Schofield and Danks (Make it Wild!: 101 Things to Make and Do Outdoors) in their opening chapter. Here, they've collected dozens of activities, games, and crafts that use sticks as their basic ingredient for fun. Almost every idea is given both a full-color photograph and a page of instructions, so the book works best as inspiration. The projects are clearly ranked from one stick to three, with the three-stick projects requiring an adult's supervision. While the simplest selections-a game of (Winnie the) Pooh Sticks or making a loom for wild weaving with found natural objects-are easily grasped, some of the more complex projects-such as the one-string guitar or sun clock-need much more instruction than provided. This handy volume would be especially well-received by children who have access to a large swath of the outdoors, or those going on a camping trip. For future Henry David Thoreaus and Rachel Carsons, this book will open up new worlds outdoors.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

'it is the most practical lessons this book can teach a young outdoors enthusiast (how to build shelters and sun clocks) that make The Stick Book something special'

When I leafed through the book, I was so enthralled that I immediately planned a den-building party and picnic for my daughter's tenth birthday.

This book, which offers over 70 interesting things to make or do with a stick, will open up a world of creativity: from fashioning a plain staff to wild weaving or making stick and paper lanterns. Simplicity and a deep satisfaction go together, as where two sticks and a piece of string achieve the sophisticated job of measuring the earth. There are loads of photographs to add inspiration. 

Fed up with your children's demands for the latest electronic gadgets? Why not give them a stick instead?

Delights in this most universal of playthingsâ?¿ I have been removing sharpened sticks from under beds all half term.

A book bursting with the most brilliant ideas - you will never have reluctant country-walkers again.

These ideas will help the whole family get more hands-on with nature.

A guide to the ultimate free toys for children...Packed with ideas to suit the most adventurous and boisterous youngsters  and those who'd rather take their time creating things to take home.

This book, which offers over 70 interesting things to make or do with a stick, will open up a world of creativity: from fashioning a plain staff to wild weaving or making stick and paper lanterns. Simplicity and a deep satisfaction go together, as where two sticks and a piece of string achieve the sophisticated job of measuring the earth. There are loads of photographs to add inspiration. 

Explores the almost limitless potential for play offered by sticks. It is an attractively packaged book of 70 activities for children in a handy format for stuffing into a rucksack or coat pocket. The book teems with colour photographs and the text is easy to follow.

Truly more ideas than you can shake a stick at!

Will open up a world of creativity: from fashioning a plain staff to wild weaving or making a stick and paper lanterns. Simplicity abd a deep satisfaction go together as when two sticks and a piece of string achieve the sophisticated job of measuring the circumference of the Earth.

What are you waiting for? Go outdoors, grab a stick, have The Stick Book handy, fire up your imagination and off you go. This is an amazingly different book bursting with ideas, a unique guide to fun and games, grab yourself one now!

Musical instruments, dens and bush craft are all within one's grasp, with a stick! (So is poking an eye out so do be careful.)

This book offers masses of suggestions for things to do with a stick, in the way of adventures and bush craft, creative and imaginative play, games and more.

A book jam-packed full of ideas of sticky stuff!...a great resource for practitioners.

This book might just get you out of one of those, 'Mammy I'm bored' situations.

Ideal for entertaining all ages.

This is an excellent addition to the authors' other books on outdoor play.

A great book to encourage outdoor play and exploration at very little cost!

When I leafed through the book, I was so enthralled that I immediately planned a den-building party and picnic for my daughter's tenth birthday.

'it is the most practical lessons this book can teach a young outdoors enthusiast (how to build shelters and sun clocks) that make The Stick Book something special'

From the Publisher