jacob’s ladder

‘attempting to give a visual description of how to play with a jacob’s ladder for a class’

a jacob’s ladder is a small toy, often made out of wood, that is flipped back and forth and appears to cascade downward. it has been incorporated into book format as a way to illustrate moving images; for example one tile has a cup on it, the second has an image of the same cup tilted, the third it’s falling over, etc. As you tilt the tiles back and forth you get a semblance of the glass falling.

jacob’s ladders have also been used traditionally to teach children their abc’s. images of letters and words are printed on the different tiles so as children play with the intriguing structure they also note the letters and their corresponding images.