Card toys.
- joneworlds@mailbox.org

I  was reading  in some  book about  old-fashioned
childrens' playthings.  There was a part about how
you  can  make  little cardboard  squares  out  of
playing cards, and all the  kinds of games you can
play with them.  I  don't remember these from when
I was a  child, but the games I  read about remind
me  of pogs  and marbles  and hockey-card  tossing
games.  Apparently  these little  folded cardboard
squares are  traditional playthings in  some parts
of  South America.   They are  called cartitas  or
cartellas, or  something.  I  don't have  the book
any more.

A. How to make them.

Here  are the  steps  for how  to  make one.   You
should make a whole bunch of them.  

1.  Cut  a playing  card in  half, cutting  up the
long side.  Now you have two strips.

2.   Lay one  strip on  the table,  card-back side
up. That  is strip  #1.  And  lay the  other strip
perpendicular to  that, so that the  ends overlap.
That is strip  #2.  Now you have  an upside-down L
shape  on the  table, with  the colored  card-back
sides facing up.

3. Fold the  top strip (strip #2)  back behind and
then  back around  strip  #1.  Don't  fold it  too
tight, or else step 5  will be hard.  Now you have
strip #2 folded around the top of strip #1.

4. Fold  strip #1  up and around  over top  of the
folded square.

5. Tuck the end into the folded square.

Now  you  have a  pretty  tight  little square  of
cardboard.   It should  have  a white  side and  a
colored side.


B. Ideas for games and play.

- Tossing games.  Take turns throwing them against
  a wall, or  onto the ground, and see  if you can
  get them to land near  a target.  Or fall on top
  of a previously thrown card.  Or land face up.

- Games like  marbles.  Everyone  put some  into a
  circle  on the  ground.  Slide  something larger
  and heavier like a flat  rock or a piece of wood
  through  the circle,  and see  if you  can knock
  some cards out of the circle.

- Games like pogs.  Stack  a few and throw another
  down on  top of the  pile, and see how  many you
  can get to land face up.

- Games like jacks.  Bounce a ball and try to grab
  some off the ground.

- As bricks.  You  can stand them up  in thick mud
  or  with lumps  of plasticine  or playdough,  to
  form the walls of a house for other toys to play
  inside.

- As  stiff  cardstock   for  making  other  toys.
  Paint, cut,  tape or glue them  together to make
  things, or mosaics.

- As play money, like poker chips.