What Are Waldorf String Games, and How Do You Play Them?

Waldorf string games are cat's cradle and the other string figures children make from a single loop of string: the Witch's Broom, Jacob's Ladder, the Cup and Saucer. In Waldorf classes they're often played while the teacher tells a short story, so each twist of the fingers belongs to a moment in the tale. Many Waldorf teachers use them in the early grades, for nimble fingers and the handwork to come. At home you need one loop of thick string, one easy figure and about ten minutes.

What are string games?

A string game starts with one loop of string, long enough to stretch between your child's hands, with the ends tied or joined. Your child puts it on their hands, then hooks, drops and pulls the strings with their fingers until a shape appears between the hands. The International String Figure Association describes string figures as designs made from "nothing more than a loop of string."

Some figures are made alone. The Witch's Broom and Jacob's Ladder are both one-person figures. Cat's cradle is a two-person game. One player makes the first figure, the cradle, and the other takes it off their hands with a pinch and a pull, turning it into a new shape. You pass it back and forth: the cradle might turn into Diamonds, then Candles, then the Manger, which is the cradle turned upside down.

String games are old and found almost everywhere. In 2024, researchers compared 826 string figures from 92 societies around the world. Some figures, like Jacob's Ladder, turned up on every continent. Others belonged to one region, like the Hare and the Seagull in the Arctic. Children playing cat's cradle on your sofa are part of a long line.

Why do Waldorf teachers use string games?

Waldorf teachers tend to give three reasons, and they overlap.

They ask a lot of the fingers. On her Moon Child blog at Bella Luna Toys, Sarah Baldwin writes that string games need "visual and spatial reasoning and dexterity." She links that to handwork. The finger skills and muscle memory children build with a string are the ones they'll use later for crafts. If your child is about to start knitting, a few weeks of string figures beforehand is a gentle warm-up.

They teach left and right, up and down. To make a figure, your child has to know which hand and which finger to use. They also have to see whether this string goes over or under that one. Orchard Valley Waldorf School describes its grades 2 and 3 working with "body geography and spatial orientation": right or left hand, above or below, inside or outside. The publisher's description of Michael Taylor's Finger Strings also says string games can be especially useful for children learning "left and right" and "up and down."

They hold a sequence in memory. A figure is a set of steps in the same order every time. Orchard Valley's article points out that remembering a sequence and picturing where it will end up are the same habits a child uses later on longer maths problems. That's their teachers' view, and a reasonable one, but string games are a game first.

And there's a quieter reason. A loop of string fits in a pocket. On a train, at a waiting room, on the floor after lunch, it's something for two pairs of hands to do together without a screen.

Where string games fit in a Waldorf day

String games don't get a block of their own. In Waldorf schools they turn up in a few places:

• In movement lessons. Orchard Valley describes its movement teacher bringing a huge string to grades 2 and 3. Each child stepped in to be one "finger," and the class made the figure together with their bodies while he told the story.
• At recess. Sarah Baldwin lists string games alongside clapping games and circle games as classic Waldorf playground games.
• In handwork and circle time. A figure with a short verse makes a calm end to circle or a bridge into handwork.

At home, the easiest places are the ones that are already a bit restless: the few minutes after main lesson, the wait before lunch, the car. If you keep a loop in your bag, it gets played with.

String games and stories

This is what makes a string game feel Waldorf. The teacher doesn't say "now drop your thumb loop." She tells a story, and the figure grows with it. The broom is for the old woman who sweeps the path. The two diamonds are windows in a tower. When the string slips off at the end, the bird flies away.

Michael Taylor's Pull the Other One! (Hawthorn Press) is built this way. Its description says songs are often sung as the figures develop, so the string becomes part of each story. You can make up your own just as well. Keep it to three or four sentences, one sentence for each move. If you already tell fairy tales at home, borrow a picture from this week's story.

How to start string games at home

You don't need to know any figures yourself yet. Learn one the evening before, from a book or a diagram, and practise it three or four times until your hands remember.

1. Make the loop. Use thick, soft string or wool. Sarah's Silks says any thick string tied into a loop will do. A loop that stretches between your child's hands with the elbows a little bent is about right. A bright color is easier to follow than white.

2. Begin with the Witch's Broom. Sarah's Silks notes that Waldorf teachers often start here because it's made mostly with one hand at a time, and suggests it from age 5. It's four or five moves, and the finished broom is easy to recognize.

3. Show it slowly, with a story. Make it once in front of your child, telling the little story as you go. Don't explain the steps. Just let them watch.

4. Make it together. Your child puts the loop on their hands, and you guide one finger at a time. Say the same words at each step every day: "thumb and little finger," "reach across and pull." The words become the instructions.

5. Let them teach it back. When your child can make it alone, ask them to show you, or a younger brother or sister. Explaining a figure helps it stick.

6. Then try cat's cradle together. Once your child has one or two figures of their own, the two-person game is the next step. Make the cradle on your hands and show them the pinch that takes it off. Pass it back and forth for a few turns, and stop while it's still fun.

Ten minutes is plenty. A figure a week, played most days, is a good pace for a 6- or 7-year-old.

String games by grade

There's no fixed sequence, but a rough shape helps.

Grade 1. One-person figures with a story: the Witch's Broom, a cup and saucer, a simple star. Your child may need you to guide their fingers for a while. The grade 1 curriculum guide shows how movement and handwork run through the year beside the main lessons.

Grade 2. Two-person cat's cradle, passed back and forth. A child of 7 or 8 can often remember a string of figures and knows which one comes next. The same finger work shows up in the grade 2 times tables, where children wind yarn around a circle of ten points. The grade 2 curriculum guide sets out the rest of that year, and the best Waldorf homeschool curriculum for grade 2 compares the programs.

Grade 3. Longer figures like Jacob's Ladder, and figures that move, like tricks where the string seems to pass through a finger. This sits well beside crochet and fibre arts, and Starpath's Fibre Arts guide lays out that block.

Grade 4. Some children start inventing figures of their own, and Finger Strings has a whole section of figures children made up. Over and under is also the heart of braided and knot forms in grade 4 form drawing. Laying a knot out in yarn before drawing it links the string games to the page.

When it gets tangled

Every child ends up with a knot of string and a cross face at some point. That's part of learning a figure.

• Slow down and go back one step. Most tangles come from a finger dropping the wrong loop. Take the string off, shake it out and start again from the opening.
• Sit side by side, not face to face. Facing each other, your right is their left, and that confuses children. Beside each other, your hands move the same way.
• Pick a thicker string. Thin string slips and knots. Chunky wool is more forgiving.
• Stop while it's fun. If your child is frustrated, put it away and try the broom again tomorrow. It will often come easily after a night's sleep.

Books and supplies

You need almost nothing. A ball of thick wool will make loops for the whole family.

If you'd like a book, Michael Taylor's are the ones Waldorf shops tend to carry. Finger Strings has more than 80 string games and stories with step-by-step color diagrams, ringbound to lie flat, and comes with two strings. Pull the Other One! pairs string games with the stories and songs that go with them, for ages 5 and up. Some Waldorf toy makers, such as Sarah's Silks, sell ready-made string game loops in bright colors, if you'd rather not tie your own.