Five Stones

I found a cute tutorial on how to make the five stones for the game "Five Stones."  I've never played myself, but it sounds similar to Jacks.  Here are the instructions from www.mastersgames.com.  They sounded a bit confusing to me, but I got the general idea.

"To start a turn, the player throws five stones into the air with one hand and tries to catch as many as possible on the back of the same hand. The stones that were caught are then thrown up again from the back of the hand where they came to rest and as many as possible are caught in the palm of the same hand. If no stones end up being caught, the player's turn is over.

If, however, at least one stone was caught, the player prepares for the next throw by keeping one of the caught stones in the same hand and throwing all remaining stones on the ground. The player then tosses the single stone into the air, attempts to pick up one of the stones that were missed and then catches the stone that was tossed, all with the same hand. The player repeats this until all the stones have been picked up.

That done, the player throws down four of the stones again, throws the single stone in the air, attempts to pick up two stones with the same hand before catching the tossed stone. This is repeated again and a final toss sees the player picking up the last stone. The process is then repeated for three stones followed by one stone and finally, all four stones are picked up before catching the single tossed stone.

For skillful players, the game can continue in an agreed way with further permutations and challenges according to the player's whims. For instance, the other hand could be used to throw, the player may have to clap hands before doing the pick up or perhaps slap both knees."

And here's the link to the tutorial for making the fabric stones.  Sounds safer to me.  Tossing rocks, even up in the air, isn't the best idea for me.  I'd probably hit someone...