Pooh Sticks Activity

a stream
a bridge over the stream
some sticks, leaves, or pinecones

As Winnie the Pooh discovered, Pooh Sticks is a contagious activity that is fun to play for quite a long time. The basic activity is very simple, thus making it fun for anyone to play.

Everyone finds a small stick or other floating item.
Everyone stands on the upstream side of the bridge and holds their item out at arms length.
On 'Go' signal, all items are Dropped (not thrown or tossed) into the stream to float under the bridge.
Everyone runs to the downstream side of the bridge to see whose item floats past first.

A bridge for a busy road is a bad idea. A bridge in the country with no traffic is best.

As people tend to do, Pooh Sticks has gotten a little too serious in some places. It could be an interesting fundraising event as the Rotary Club of Sinodun had done with their World Pooh Sticks Championship.

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From "The House at Pooh Corner"

He had just come to the bridge; and not looking where he was going, he tripped over something, and the fir-cone jerked out of his paw into the river.
"Bother," said Pooh, as it floated slowly under the bridge, and he went back to get another fir-cone which had a rhyme to it. But then he thought that he would just look at the river instead, because it was a peaceful sort of day, so he lay down and looked at it, and it slipped slowly away beneath him ... and suddenly, there was his fir-cone slipping away too.

"That's funny," said Pooh. "I dropped it on the other side," said Pooh, "and it came out on this side! I wonder if it would do it again?" And he went back for some more fir-cones.
It did. It kept on doing it. Then he dropped two in at once, and leant over the bridge to see which of them would come out first; and one of them did; but as they were both the same size, he didn't know if it was the one which he wanted to win, or the other one. So the next time he dropped one big one and one little one, and the big one came out first, which was what he had said it would do, and the little one came out last, which was what he had said it would do, so he had won twice.