[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPAJDRphnO0&w=560&h=315]
Hopscotch is one of my favorite games to play. It allows kids to work on so many skills. It works on jumping, hopping, sequencing, balance, timing, visual motor and coordination to name a few. That means it takes many skills to create the final result. I love to take these higher level coordination and motor planning skills and break them down into pieces to make them more manageable for the kiddos I am working with. The great thing about the hopscotch board is it provides a visual cue for jumping practice. In fact, I have used it just to help kids work on figuring out how to jump forward into the next square or even further by skipping a square. Once a kiddo can jump forward, I help them to work on jumping with their feet open (for the double squares) and together (for the single squares). This helps them figure out sequencing as well as can carry over to learning jumping jacks! After that I try to work on getting the single leg stance on the single squares. In between all this we are working on balance on one leg as well as hopping on one foot. Sometimes this breakdown can look like the kiddo walking into each square and recognizing that they need one or two feet and then they have to work on being able to jump into the squares and figure out how many feet. Even the timing of switching from one to two feet and then back again takes time to learn. Once they have these components its putting it all together for the finished product. Then I usually start having them practice putting a marker on a number and having to avoid the marker on the way out and picking it up on the way back. Its so much fun to watch the kiddos progress with these skills!