How to Play Fivestones

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Fivestones is a hand-skill game for two or more players, played with five small stones, cubes, or purpose-made playing pieces. One stone acts as a 'jack' that is tossed into the air while the player picks up the remaining stones from a flat surface in a strict sequence of moves, catching the tossed stone before it lands.

Its appeal is its simplicity: no board, no cards, no batteries. A patch of flat ground or a smooth floor is all the space you need, making it a genuine pocket game. Children and adults both find the progressive difficulty of the stages genuinely satisfying to master.

A little history

Tossing and catching games using small stones or bones are among the oldest recorded games in the world, with depictions found in ancient Greek and Roman sources. The precise lineage of the modern British version called Fivestones is unclear, but the game has been widely documented as a children's street and playground pastime across Britain and Ireland for at least two centuries. The name itself simply reflects the traditional use of five smooth pebbles or knucklebones, the latter lending a common alternative name: Knucklebones.

Setting up

1. Choose a smooth, flat surface: a paved yard, a wooden floor, or a low table all work well.
2. Decide the order of play, traditionally by each player tossing one stone into the air and seeing who catches it most cleanly, or simply by agreement.
3. All five stones are placed loosely on the surface in front of the player whose turn it is. There is no formal arrangement.
4. Agree which full sequence of stages constitutes one complete game (see How to Play). First-time players may wish to play only the first four or five stages.

How to play

1. The active player holds all five stones loosely in one hand to begin each turn.
2. STAGE 1 - ONESIES: Scatter all five stones onto the surface. Pick up one stone, toss it into the air, pick up one of the remaining stones from the surface with the same hand, then catch the tossed stone with that same hand before it lands. Transfer the collected stone to your other hand. Repeat until all four scattered stones have been picked up one at a time. If you drop the tossed stone or scatter other stones while picking up, your turn ends immediately and passes to the next player.
3. STAGE 2 - TWOSIES: Scatter all five stones. Pick up one stone, toss it, pick up two stones at once from the surface, catch the toss. Repeat to pick up the final two stones. (Two throws in total.)
4. STAGE 3 - THREESIES: Pick up three stones on the first toss, then one on the second toss.
5. STAGE 4 - FOURSIES: Pick up all four scattered stones in a single toss and catch.
6. STAGE 5 - PECKS: Scatter all five. Toss one stone, and instead of picking up others, tap the remaining stones on the surface one at a time, then catch the toss. Repeat for each stone.
7. STAGE 6 - BUSHELS: Scatter all five. Using the back of your hand as a scoop, sweep as many stones as possible onto the back of your hand, toss them upward from the back of your hand, then catch them in your palm. Any stones not scooped up are set aside; you must then toss and catch those singly.
8. STAGE 7 - CLAWS: Scatter all four stones. Curl your hand into a claw shape. Toss the fifth stone, pick up one stone with your claw hand, and catch the toss without uncurling your fingers. Repeat for all four stones.
9. STAGE 8 - STABLES: Arch your hand like a bridge on the surface, forming a 'stable' entrance between thumb and forefinger. Scatter three stones and flick each one through the arch using your free hand, then toss the fifth stone and complete the standard catch.
10. When a player fails at any point within a stage, their turn ends. On their next turn they restart that same stage from the beginning.
11. Once a player completes a stage without fault, they immediately proceed to the next stage on the same turn.
12. The game is won by the first player to complete all agreed stages without error.

Winning and scoring

The first player to complete every stage of the agreed sequence without fault wins the game. There is no points system in the standard version: it is a race through the stages. In a longer session, players sometimes play a set number of rounds, awarding one point per stage completed in each round, with the highest total points winning overall.

The fine points

The most common dispute concerns the 'no scatter' rule: when picking up stones, if your hand nudges any stone you were not intending to collect, your turn ends. Players should agree before play whether a stone must visibly move to count as a fault, or whether any contact is sufficient. The stricter ruling (any contact) is traditional and recommended for older or experienced players.

In Bushels, there is frequent argument about whether a stone balanced awkwardly on the back of the hand counts as 'held'. The standard ruling is that a stone must remain on the back of the hand unaided until the toss is made; if it rolls off before you toss, the attempt fails. Similarly in Claws, the fingers must stay curled throughout the pick-up: straightening even briefly to grip a stone ends the turn.

How to win more often

• Keep your toss consistent: a low, vertical toss of about 20-30 cm gives you the most controlled pick-up time without rushing.
• In Onesies and Twosies, group the scattered stones loosely before you toss rather than leaving them spread wide, keeping your pick-up movement tight.
• Use the pads of your fingers rather than a full-hand scoop when collecting stones; it reduces the chance of nudging adjacent pieces.
• Practise Bushels on its own. Most players stall here. Focus on keeping your hand flat and horizontal before the upward toss.
• Watch your opponent's stone scatter each turn. Mentally note which stages they struggle with; you can afford to play steadily rather than rushing when they are stuck on a hard stage.

Variations

Donkey

If a player fails the same stage three turns in a row, they earn a letter: D, then O, then N, and so on, spelling DONKEY. A player who spells the full word is eliminated. Last player remaining wins. This variant works particularly well with larger groups as it prevents one player sitting idle for long stretches.

Reverse Order

Once a player completes Stage 8 (or whichever is the final agreed stage), they must work back through the sequence in reverse, from the last stage to Stage 1. The first to complete the full out-and-back journey wins. This is a straightforward way to double the length of a game without introducing new rules.

Left Hand

All stages are played identically but with the non-dominant hand only. This is traditionally used as a tiebreaker or as a challenge round after a winner has been decided, but some groups play entire games this way to level the field between younger and older players.

Seven Stones

Played with seven stones instead of five, extending Onesies through to Sixsies before the skill stages begin. The additional stones make every stage harder because the scatter covers more surface area and the pick-up windows are tighter. Recommended only for players already comfortable with the standard five-stone game.

Fivestones: frequently asked questions