Conkers

The teddy bears have all been walking in the woods today, and there were loads of conkers all over the floor! It must have been the very strong winds last night which had blown them off the trees.

First of all, what is a conker? A conker is the seed of the horse chestnut tree (not the sweet chestnut tree where we get edible chestnuts from, so don't ever attempt to eat conkers because they aren't very good for you!!). It is a hard, brown nut which is found inside a prickly casing. The green outer casing of the seed will turn brown and crack open to reveal the conkers inside. Each seed pod can house many conkers.

The bears managed to collect quite a haul of conkers, but then couldn't think what to do with them?

Scary told them about a game you can play with conkers. It involves very carefully boring a hole through the conkers (they would need to let Jane help them with that). Then a knot is tied at the end of a length of string, and this is threaded through the conker until it stops at the knot. If you don't have any string, you could use shoelaces. Every player would need their own conker made the same way.

The idea of the game is that two players, each with a conker threaded on a piece of string, take it in turns to hit each other's conker, until one is completely destroyed (though the winning conker might end up looking very battered too!)

One player holds out their conker at arm's length, hanging down, ready to be hit. The string is wrapped around their paw, to stop it being dropped.

The second player then wraps the string of their conker around their paw, draws it back and takes aim, trying to hit their opponent's conker with theirs. If they miss it, their opponent has a turn. If they hit it, they get another go, then it is their opponent's turn again. They take it in turns like this until one conker is completely destroyed.

Everyone who wanted to play (actually that WAS everyone!) then had their conkers drilled through by Jane. Then they each chose a length of string and tied a knot in the end and then threaded it through the conker. Then they split into twos - well, that was a bit difficult because there were an odd number of bears, so they took it in turns to play each other so that everyone had a go.

It took some time for the bears to even be able to hit each other's conkers, but once they got into the swing of things (get it?) they all managed to successfully knock bits off their opponents' conkers. In the end, the final two playing were Scary and Crackers. They each had their go until one conker was destroyed. Who do you think won? It was Crackers! But they all had a great time playing the game.

There are some rules, though, so that you can play safely:

1. Be careful when you go gathering conkers and don't throw things into the trees. Wait till the conkers fall naturally.

2. Ask an adult to help make the holes in the conkers as this could be very dangerous.

3. You may get bruised paws, so practise your aim without too much force!!

4. When you play or watch, don't stand too close.

5. Take good aim and keep conkers well away from heads and paws!

6. Enjoy your conkers and remember it is a game and a bit of fun.