Category Archives: Hopscotch
iam only 9 and i know how…
Hopscotch: Chicago, circa…
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Hopscotch: Chicago, circa 1970: Hopefully you remember the hopscotch diagram. These varied, I’m sure from neighborhood to neighborhood. Colored chalk was always the best, but we’d use peeled drywall (garbage picked from the alley!) if necessary. Ours were in this format: …………………………..TOP…………………………………….. …………………..was in an arc……………………………… ……….inside was written ‘Sky Blue’………………….. the squares were drawn and laid out in this ………………………..order by #………………………………. …………………………… 10 …………………………………….. ……………………………. 9………………………………………. ………………………….7……8…………………………………… ……………………………..6………………………………………. ………………………….5……4…………………………………… ……………………………..3………………………………………. ……………………………..2………………………………………. ……………………………..1……………………………………….. …………………………_______……………………………….. ………………………..(start line)………………………………. Squares 1, 2, and 3 took up one sidewalk paver, (about 3 feet by us), 4&5, 6, 7&8 the next, 9, 10 and Sky Blue the next for a total of 9 feet. For an easier game, or younger kids, we’d sometimes eliminate #’s 9 & 10, and make sky blue only in the 3rd paver. (Don’t make it too big! You have to be able to jump over it!) Get stones. ( ours were from the alley— again!) The best were roughly round , but with some flat sides, to allow it to land and stay-not roll out of the box. They should be about as big as a ping-pong ball, and try to find ones that don’t look alike. Players throw their stones from the start line. Whoever gets closest to the middle of sky blue goes 1st. Player must throw their stone from the start line so it lands in square #1. If it lands there they hop through the squares, they may not hop in a square containing a stone. On squares 1, 2, 3,6, 9, and 10 it is a single hop–one foot–no changing feet! Squares 4&5, and 7&8 were hit simultaneously, one foot in each square. Player would have to turn as they jumped to sky blue so they’d land facing start-could land on both feet. They’d return jumping through the squares in reverse order now, and at the #2 square, bend, pick up their stone (on one foot as 2 is a single square), jump on #1 (no stone now) and across the start line. If they completed this sucessfully, they can continue their turn, now throwing their stone in square #2, and continue as before. Their turn ends when they make one of the following faults: missing the square when throwing the stone, switching feet on single jumps (you must stay on the foot you started on until you reach sky blue or start), touching the other foot down during single jumps or when picking up your stone, touching the ground with your other hand when picking up the stone, or jumping on a square that contains a stone. When player 1’s turn ends, they leave their stone on the square that they faulted on; they must successfully complete this square on their next turn to continue, and player 2 takes their turn. (No player can jump on any square that contains a stone, so the game gets a little hard with 4 or more players. In that case, a round-robin is better. ) Players continue through the squares in order. Sky Blue is treated as a numbered square. On the approach, the player must jump over Sky Blue and turn, and land facing start. They then pick up their stone and return to start.The first player to complete this wins the game. For an extra-long game, we’d continue back through the squares in reverse order, with square #1 being the end. Guess we just had alot of energy! Hope this helps!!! Have fun!!!!!
i dont know if anyone has…
How about “Categories”?…
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How about “Categories”? We drew a court on the ground similar to hopscotch (“potsy”) with two rows of rectangular boxes, 5 in one row, 5 in the other, and inside the boxes were different categories like girls, boys, cars, teachers, flowers, actors, actresses, and oh I forget the others. We rolled the ball up from the bottom left box and stepped into that first box (“Girls”) and picked up the ball from within the box. When we picked the ball up, we said, “Girls are such as…” and we’d say girls names, one for each box (Barbara, Susie, Mary,…) and bounce the ball once and step into each of the boxes in sequence from bottom left and up and over to the second row (no stepping on the lines!) until you get to the last box and then stepped out with one last name and bounce. On the second turn we rolled the ball from the bottom left row and rolled it up to the second category: “Boys”. Back then it was always, “Boys are such as: Paul, John, George, Ringo…” right?! The challenge came when you got to the second row, because if you were up to the last few boxes, you had to roll the ball up from the right column slowly enough to catch up to it by stepping quickly through all the other boxes from the left row and picking the ball up in the box you were up to. I think actresses was usually last and you only had to name one to step out.
How about “Categories?”…
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How about “Categories?” Anyone remember that one? You drew a court on the ground similar to hopscotch (“potsy”) with two rows of rectangular boxes, 5 in one row, 5 in the other, and inside the boxes were different categories like girls, boys, cars, teachers, flowers, actors, actresses, and oh I forget the others. You roll the ball up from the bottom left box and step into the first box (girls) and pick up the ball from within the box. That was a real feat when you got to the second row, because if you were up to the last few boxes, you had to roll the ball slowly enough to catch up to it by stepping quickly through all the other boxes and picking the ball up in the box you were up to. If someone can remember any of the other three categories, I can send a drawing of the court to the webmaster and perhaps he can post it somewhere.
When I was growing up in…
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When I was growing up in Australia we used to draw the hopscotch in the dirt at a particular time of the year, which was the season. It was used by us so often that the squares became dented and the outline didnt go away for a long time. We used stones or bits of broken smoothed glass found lying around the school yard probably. I dont remember having a circle at the end of the game to turn around in, we just used to jump around in the 7/8 squares.