Exploring
Nature Play
Activity recipe: Bows and arrows
Difficulty: Tricky.
Age range: Over five years old.
How many can do it? Any number but it’s best to work in small groups.
Where can you do it? Outdoors or indoors.
Why we like it? A safe, but exciting way to take the honourable pointy stick to the
next level.
Ingredients
A bendy stick approximately the thickness of an adult’s finger and as long as
an arm. A second stick that’s about as thick as your finger, and as long as your
forearm (from the tip of your finger up to your elbow), a whittling knife in a sheath,
scissors, a safe place to sit and string.
Method
1. With the whittling knife, carefully make a small slit at each end of the longer stick.
2. Tie a knot in one end of your piece of string and put it through the slit in one end
of the stick.
3. Put the loose end of the string through the slit in the other end, pull it in until
the stick makes a bow shape. Ask someone to hold the string tight for you while
you use a pair of scissors to cut the string, then tie a knot and your bow will be
formed.
4. For the arrow, carefully whittle your shorter stick and form a flat point at one
end. It should look a bit like the head of a screwdriver.
5. On the other end of the arrow, make a wider notch, it needs to be able to fit the
string into it, but not hold it tight.
6. Make a circle out of stones or sticks on the grass about five to eight feet away
from you and practice firing your arrow into the circle.
7. Make sure that everyone knows what is happening so they don’t walk in front of
you when you are firing!
Top tips
1. Enjoy a nature walk through your local woodlands to collect sticks. Check Play
England’s play map to see if your woodland is on there – and if it isn’t,
why not add it at www.playengland.org.uk/map.
2. For more information on whittling, see The Wonderful World of Whittling
at http://bit.ly/180agNt.
Play England is a registered charity,
no. 1150216, and is hosted by the
National Children’s Bureau.
What the
kids say
‘I’m like Robin
Hood.’
‘Can I make some
more arrows?’
‘Wow look how far
that went!’