I’ve written about hopscotch over the past few years (try here and here) as there are often very good examples of complicated and unusual formats on the sidewalks near my house.  I like the idea of creating a hopscotch game in the classroom using tape for the outline and bean bags for the toss.  I once used masking tape but it was a nightmare to get off, so try using painter’s tape, as it is designed for easy removal.

Start simple.  Use the tape to create 5 spaces and once the children become comfortable with this, you can add more.

At first, encourage the children to jump with both feet in each space as they might be working on this skill before they are ready to hop on one foot and skip spaces.  They can play cooperatively before they play competitively, simply taking turns tossing their bean bags and jumping or hopping through the course.  There is plenty of time for complicated and cut-throat games of hopscotch later.  For now, use this indoor version as gross motor opportunity that encourages number recognition, turn-taking, following directions, spatial relations, body awareness, and gross motor skill-building.

I grew up with two sisters and we spent countless hours outside in the summer playing hopscotch.  When we were super little, my mom drew the hopscotch pattern on the sidewalk and when we got bigger, my big sister did it.  Over the years we got really creative with the hopscotch outlines and the rules of play but when we were little hopscotch was all about hopping on one foot or two through the pattern until we got to the top and yelled out”Sky Blue”.

I never thought much about it, but Hopscotch is a great outdoor, summer game that includes all sorts of early mathematical concepts.  Depending on the rules of play, children may need to call out the numbers as they land on them, skip the number that their rock is on (and then figure out which number comes after the skipped one).  The rules can include   calling out “one foot”, “left foot”, etc.  Children also have to hop backward to return, which requires the reversal of the numbers!

There are all sorts of ways to lay out the field. We always wrote “Sky Blue” at the top. There are several ways to play.  Click here or here to see some descriptions of how to get started.