Everyone knows the Mikado game, those little sticks that you drop and have to try to catch, without the other sticks moving. We will play this game with branches from the forest. Let the children take branches of different lengths and thicknesses from the forest and put them in a pile. Now each child gets to take a branch from the pile, without the other branches moving. If the branch does move, the child is out and has to wait for his/her turn. Who has collected the most branches at the end?
A Mikado to play in nature. You combine play, creativity, cooperation and important skills such as problem-solving and resilience.
Skill focus
Primary Skill Focus
- Problem-solving
Complementary/Secondary Skill Focus
- Resilience
- Creativity
- Emotional awareness (emotional regulation and communication)
| Age group | Student number | Duration |
| 6-10 years old | 2+ children | 10-30 minutes |
How to play – brief game rules
- Gathering sticks (collaborative & problem-solving):
- Let the children find their own sticks in a park, forest or garden.
- Provide guidelines for length (e.g. about 30-40 cm) and thickness (e.g. about finger width).
- The longer the sticks, the harder to find and the more challenging the game becomes.
- The straighter the sticks are the easier the game becomes, the curvier the more challenging.
- You can ask for X number of straight and x number of crooked ones to collect
- They have to find at least 20-30 suitable sticks.
- As a teacher choose a challenging number to collect.
- The smaller what needs to be collected the more you can ask.
- Have them reflect on what constitutes a “good” stick: straight, smooth, solid?
- Problem-solving: What do we do if there are too few sticks? Or if they are all crooked
- Marking sticks (creativity & problem-solving):
- Have the children mark the sticks with rubber bands, colourful wool or string, washi tape, chalk or natural pigments. Colour or number of rings determine the value.
- Determine together a point system as in traditional Mikado (e.g. one stick with lots of tape = 50 points, others 10, 20, 30).
- So, they make their ‘own’ Mikado set.
- Game flow:
Game rules (age appropriate)
- Throw all sticks loosely in a heap on the ground.
- Teacher or students can also lay the sticks on top of each other.
- One by one, players try to remove a stick from the heap without other sticks moving.
- Does another stick move? Then the turn is over.
- Player with most points wins.