MuffinBoy #2 here! When I was playing football with my friends, I started thinking about where ball games came from. How did they evolve? Have people always played games? They Played What?!? by Richard Platt was an especially helpful book I found at the library when answering these questions.
I learned that many of the games we play today evolved from ancient games that disappeared over the years and reappeared with new names and more modern playing rules. Basketball, for example, is based on a Mayan game called Pok-A-Tok. Soccer came from a mob game played in Italy called Calcio Storico, which had just one rule: no killing. Lots of games we know today used to be much more violent. In the early 1900s, 18 people died in one football season!
Did you know that you can make up your own game? This is what you'll need to decide:
- How many people can play - are they individuals or do they play on teams?
- What equipment you need - balls, sticks, a goal area, flags, etc.
- What you have to do to win the game.
- How to play fairly - come up with a set of basic rules that make it equally difficult for either person (or team) to win.
You can even make up a game using household objects like bags, paper, tiny balls, tissue paper boxes, string, spoons... your imagination is the only limit! I made up my own game that I call Yo-Stick! Here's what you do to play:
- Find a stick that is longer than your arm - a tree branch works well if you take off all the leaves, or a length of PVC pipe, or a karate stick.
- Attach a yo-yo to one end of the stick by tying the string around the stick.
- Let go of the yo-yo and use the stick to bring it back up.
- Count how many times the yo-yo comes all the way up to the stick (you'll hear it hit the stick).
- Take turns with your opponents - whoever hits the stick the most is the winner! Or compete against yourself. How many times in a row can you hit the stick??
This is what the game looks like:
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