How to Play Jacks



The game of Jacks is played outdoors, on the concrete steps or floor or indoors on wooden or linoleum floor. It can be played with as little as two people, or as many as six, You will need 15 Jacks and a small ball. Jacks is a great family game. You can enjoy many hours of fun, especially on rainy days. Jacks can also be played alone, giving you time to develop your skills!

Steps   [edit]

  1. Play Jacks with two people, sitting face to face. Decide who goes first, by either counting using a rhyme, or just by counting, one, two, three and putting out either one or two fingers. Whoever wins the finger count, goes first.
  2. The player gathers the jacks in one hand, and gives them a gentle toss to scatter them onto the ground between her and the opponent.
  3. The idea of the game, is to pick up the jacks, one at a time, while, at the same time tossing the ball into the air and catching it with the same hand you used to pick up the jacks. Put another way:

    • Toss the ball with one hand.
    • Pick up the required number of jacks with the same hand.
    • Catch the ball, still with the same hand. The ball should only bounce once.
  4. You start with "onesies", which means you pick up one Jack, then go to "twosies", which means you pick up two jacks, at the same time. The play continues but gets more difficult as you have to scoop up three at a time, and so on.
  5. Continue the game in this manner, until someone succeeds at picking up all the jacks at once, at a single bounce.


Tips   [edit]

  • Don't spread the jacks too far apart when you toss them, because if you have to pick up four, and two are near each other, and the other two are spaced further away, it makes it difficult, if not impossible to scoop them all up at the same time.
  • You can play with as few jacks as you choose.
  • The first game you might only want to play with 5 jacks, making it a faster, easier game.
  • The more you practice, the faster you will learn. You could learn to pick up 10 or even 15 jacks.
  • When you toss them, make them scatter rather than having them jacks land on top of, or very near each other. This will make it hard to pick up more than one at a time.


Warnings   [edit]

  • Jacks are small and pose a choking hazard for small children. They hurt if you step on them, so put them away as soon as you're done playing with them.