Where to Play a Game of Jacks

Series Summary

Jacks is a classic playground game for children that has been played for hundreds of years. The basic point of the game of jacks is to collect the small metal pieces known as jacks, in between the bounces of a ball. With each bounce of the ball, more and more jacks must be picked up. In most games, the number of jacks that is picked up is sequential, going from one, “onesies” to two, “twosies”, and so on until all the jacks are picked up. Typically there are ten or fifteen jacks, a rubber ball and several players.

In this free video series for children, our expert will show you how to play jacks. You will learn how to determine who goes first in jacks, how to start the game and the best way to throw jacks. You will also get expert tips on how to avoid clumping or spreading the jacks too far apart, and how to use proper jacks terminology. If you have a child interested in this fun and easy game, let our expert get you started with these basic rules and tips for the game of jacks.

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Jamie Peterson. I'm here on behalf of Expert Village and I'm here to teach you how to play jacks. Jacks is a really fun game and it can be kind of tricky. But once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy. The first thing you need to do is play jacks, is a playing area you can play pretty much anywhere as long it's a flat area and it's hard. Today I'm playing inside on the tile but you can also play outside back on the porch if you have a concrete porch or you can play out front on the side walk. But make sure that you don't play on the road. If you play on the side walk, sometime I really don't like to play on side walk cause the concrete starts to hurt my fingers a little bit. You can also play inside if you have a hardwood floor or linoleum floor. I'm playing on the tile today and I like the tile because when you throw your jacks, they spread out nice and easy and the ball bounces really high too, see."