20 Years of Caine's Arcade

Step right up, get your chance to win a prize!

Today is the 20th annual fourth grade Caine’s Arcade at C.V. Starr Intermediate School. The arcade features fully functional carnival games created by students using recycled objects and their imagination. 

The games, which are on display in the gymnasium, run the gamut from pinball machine to ball toss from skeeball to foosball to snookers. Many are made from cardboard, a hot glue gun, and paint–all are individually inspired.

“Caine’s Arcade is not only STEAM based, but it also integrates 21st century learning skills such as perseverance, communication, collaboration, critical thinking and adaptability,” said teacher Frank Lamorte.

Michelle Marzziotti, another fourth grade teacher, said, “It’s great for kids because they have to explain their games–what are the rules, how do you win a prize.”

Elmedina Nuza created a brown revolutionary warship with a white sail out of cardboard, paper, paint and wooden treasure boxes from Michaels. It is an impressive sight.

“I read about the ship in my English class and thought it would be a great idea for a game, “ said Elmedina. “You try to throw the revolutionary coins into the treasure boxes on deck–the hard part is getting the coins, which are really balls, to stay in the boxes.”

Like Elmedina, Jackson Heiminger, built a game with a personal theme: wrestling. His game, Wrestle Rumble, is a 6-foot-tall toss game–you get three chances to toss a ball into one of the holes labeled with wrestling terms: pin-2 points, near fall-2 points, escape-1 point, reversal-1 point, take-down-3 points. 

“I like to wrestle, I am good at wrestling, and I thought it would be cool to make something original,” said Jackson.

One game, a pitch-and-hit baseball game created by Ben Cody was of another order–one player pulls back a cardboard rod attached to rubber bands which propels a marble up and into a baseball field where another player hits the ball with a separate cardboard bat into a beautiful field called “Cody Field.”

Another basketball cup game was created by triplets: Jasmine, Jocelyn, and Josh.

“We worked together on it at home,” said Josh. "You just throw a tinfoil ball into a cup–there are three levels, easy, medium and hard. Do you want to try?”

Students stood by their games, called customers, explained the rules and for the lucky winners handed out candy.

Ben of Ben’s Baseball said, “It’s a really fun day because I like explaining the rules of my game to kids and the whole school gets to play our games.