Instead of “You’ll Poke Your Eye Out:” Saying YES to Stick Play

A child builds a "ninja castle" in an urban outdoor school using long sticks. Sticks often a source of fear for adults, but offer so much more for young children.

By: Rachel Franz (she/her), WaNPA Advisory Board Member

Sticks. For grown-ups, sticks often produce fear of injury and foul play. Yet, for young children, sticks provide a platform for deep, meaningful play, social skill development, emotional self-regulation, and physical growth. If fact, the stick was actually inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2008 (a little unnecessary for us nature-preschool folks, but cool nonetheless). So, how do we balance the fear of injury with the important role that stick play has in children’s development and experience outside?

Setting Clear Stick Expectations

One of the first things I loved to do in my outdoor classroom was to address the question head on: “How can we play with sticks safely?” Posing this question directly to the students created the most buy-in in the rules and generated an authentic investment in safe conduct. Answers ranged from “No playing with sticks!” from students who had received this advice before to “No hitting” and “Sticks point down!” This was a wonderful start to dialogue all about sticks. From there, we generated questions like, “How can we tell if it’s the right type of stick to play with?” “How should we move if we have a stick?”

Ultimately, with the children’s help, we generated some tools for helping the children to hold each other accountable for stick safety (with some adult help, of course):

• Strategy 1 “The Arm Test:” The spectrum of children’s spatial awareness fluctuates greatly in the early years. One concrete tool is to invite children to consider: “Is the stick bigger than your arm?” We determined that sticks that are bigger than a child’s arm are trickier to navigate. If a stick is shorter than one’s arm, they will have more ability to control where it swings and how it moves.
• Strategy 2 “Big sticks, Big spaces:” Attributed to Cedarsong’s founder, Erin Kenny, this philosophy states that when we have a large stick (such as one that’s longer than an arm), we need to make sure there are no others around and be reminded to have more focused movements when they are using a big stick. 
• Strategy 3 “Big sticks, big focus:” One exception to ‘big sticks, big spaces’ is during fort-building activities- help children to communicate that they are bringing a large stick nearby if other children are present. Pointing the stick down toward the ground and dragging it is a helpful solution. Another exception is hiking sticks; if children are walking with a stick, it can help them to stay balanced on rocky terrain. Talk about the plan ahead of time on walks when children can be moving in many different directions.

Scaffolding a Stick’s Possibilities

So, what can children do with sticks anyway? The possibilities are endless. Of course, there’s the hilarious YouTube Video by How to Dad called “How to Play with a Stick,” which provides two and a half minutes of joyful imaginative stick opportunities (see the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr2OKTAMdQM).

Sticks can be food, swords, horses, provide the beams for a home, sculpt a nest, dig, dance and more. It is the educator’s job to also model the uses for sticks and, in alignment with best practice, to play alongside children as they use sticks. One book I love to use to spark ideas around stick play is Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis. It is a beautiful provocation that challenges the adult mindset around sticks and gives children permission to use their imagination around everyday objects.

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Great Resources for Stick Ideas

Stuck on stick ideas? Lean on the children to inspire what’s next! Additionally, here are a few resources to keep the inspiration going:

The Stick Book by Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield. 

20 Ways to Play with Sticks by Childhood 101.

Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis.

Share YOUR Stick Play Ideas by commenting below!