Perhaps one of the most difficult movements to teach toddlers is hopscotching. While one toddler will hopscotch away on his own, the other will find it a bit tricky to balance on one leg, let alone jump on it. In this article you can read how to get all the pre-schoolers in your gym class to hopscotch!
Balance
Before you can get pre-schoolers to hopscotch, they need to be familiar with standing on one leg. You can practise this by using fun shapes of balance in your lessons, for example in the introduction. Play tag: when the children are tagged, they must stand on one leg until they are freed by a friend. Make it even more difficult by having the children close their eyes.
Balance exercises can also be used in the teaching core, on the equipment, which contribute to learning the movement. Some ideas:
- Walk across a narrow bench, with variations such as backwards/forwards/on your toes
- Throw and catch a ball on one leg
- Bounce and catch a ball on one leg
- Walking over a moving object, e.g. over a mat lying on balls
Methodical exercises
Once toddlers are familiar with the balancing exercises, hopscotching can be started. This can first be done in a methodical way. Here are some examples:
- Hooping with the help of 2 sticks
- With the help of a friend/teacher, by giving them a hand
- On the spot, holding the wall or a device
- In a mini-tramp, holding ropes
Keep repeating hopscotch
By doing these exercises frequently, you will notice that all pre-schoolers make progress at their own level. The assignment ’10x hopscotch with one leg and 10x hopscotch with the other leg’ is getting closer and closer, and will eventually be achieved by most pre-schoolers with ease!
Exercises
On this platform you can become a Premium Member and get access to 2500 exclusive drills & exercises videos for gymnastics coaches.
You will also get access to the Toddler Gym Exercises Bundle: more than 500 creative exercises on video that you can use to teach various basic forms of movement in the gym. Even when you have little material at your disposal.
Also take a look on our YouTube Channel for more inspiration!
