Activity 52 - Ten-pin skittles

For 2-4 players

Build the tabletop skittles model and the ten "pins" shown opposite. There are more photos showing how to build this model in the Guide.

To play, stand the ten pins upright at equal spacing around the tower, and throw the weight so that it spins around the tower on the end of the string. You will need to adjust the length of the string so that a typical throw knocks over some, but not all, of the pins.

The simplest game is to score one point for each pin knocked over, with play then moving on to the next player.

A better approach, if the number skill of the players are good enough, is to score the game as in ten-pin bowling, with each player having two throws before play moves on to the next player. In this way, a player can get a "strike" (all 10 pins on first throw), or a "spare" (all ten pins in two throws), and this causes the score on the next throw(s) by that player to be doubled.