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
Publication date:	03/13/2012
Series:	Going Wild Series
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

About the Author

Fiona Danks is an environmental educator and author who works with her writing partner Jo Schofield to create beautiful books about the natural world. Fiona and Jo believe that reconnecting everyone with nature is vital if we are to understand our reliance on a healthy and biodiverse natural world, and ensure it is protected for the future. They believe that all children and families should regularly spend time outdoors in green spaces where nature can weave its magic upon them.  

Together they have been writing and photographing the Going Wild books for the last fifteen years.  Through their books and website, they inspire families everywhere to get outside and become immersed in the natural world. They have run events, lead training courses for teachers and environmental educators, presented at conferences as keynote speakers, written articles, and they are helping to build the Leaves for Life Campaign (@joinleavesforlife) to raise awareness of the ecological emergency.. 

They both live at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire, where they enjoy natural history, walking and exploring the local countryside. For more information on how to encourage children to go outdoors, visit Jo and Fiona's website - www.goingwild.net  

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.

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 playthings… 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