Hopscotch

Hopscotch is a wonderful hopping game that can be played on a bare patch of ground or on a floor indoors.

We used a stick to draw a hopscotch pattern on the ground or used strings of yarn on a floor. Created a diagram with 7 sections and number them. Each section represented a day of the week. We started drawing a big square topped by a semi arch, then we divided the big square into six smaller squares. Each square was a day of the week. On the left squares we hade Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On the right squares we had Saturday, Friday and Thursday. The top arch was Sunday. We could only put both feet down on Sunday. Each player has a marker such as a flat stone or bottle cap.

The first player stands behind the starting line to toss her or his marker in square 1, had to prod the flat stone with the tip of the toe from square to square, counting the squares and naming the day of the week as we hopped square 1 to square 2 and then continue hopping to square 7, put both feet down, turn around, and hop back again. Pause in square 2 to pick up the marker, hop in square 1, and out. Then continue by tossing the stone in square 2. All hopping is done on one foot unless the hopscotch design is such that two squares are side-by-side. Then two feet can be placed down with one in each square. A player must always hop over any square where a maker has been placed.

A player is out if the marker fails to land in the proper square, the hopper steps on a line, the hopper looses balance when bending over to pick up the marker and puts a second hand or foot down, the hopper goes into a square where a marker is, or if a player puts two feet down in a single box. The player puts the marker in the square where he or she will resume playing on the next turn, and the next player begins.

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The face of life by Tina C. Hartley