This document provides instructions for playing the game of hopscotch. It describes laying out a course on the ground by scratching or chalking numbered squares. The first player tosses a marker into the first square and hops through the course on one foot, skipping the square with the marker. Upon returning through the course, the player must pick up the marker. The goal is to complete the course for each numbered square without missing a step. There is no time limit and any number of players can participate. Hopscotch originated in Europe in the late 17th century under names like "scotch-hop" or "scotch-hoppers".

1. Play with me
PARADISO o CAMPANA (IT); HOPSCOTCH;
Title of the activity
SALIGAROS (GR); RAYUELA (ES)
ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO MONTE ROSELLO ALTO
School
Sassari, Sardinia, Italy.
Age group / Level Any age and several levels
To know and master's body
Aim/s
To interact with other children
The court (or course)
To play hopscotch, a course is first laid out on the ground.
Depending on the available surface, the course is either
scratched out in dirt, or drawn with chalk on pavement.
Designs vary, but the course is usually composed of a series
of linear squares interspersed with blocks of two lateral
squares. Traditionally the course ends with a "safe" or
"home" base in which the player may turn before
completing the reverse trip. The home base may be a
square, a rectangle, or a semicircle. The squares are then
numbered in the sequence in which they are to be hopped.
Playing the game
The first player tosses the marker (typically a stone, coin or
bean bag) into the first square. The marker must land
completely within the designated square and without
Instructions
touching a line or bouncing out. The player then hops
through the course, skipping the square with the marker in
it. Single squares must be hopped on one foot. For the first
single square, either foot may be used. Side by side squares
are straddled, with the left foot landing in the left square,
and the right foot landing in the right square. Optional
squares marked "Safe", "Home", or "Rest" are neutral
squares, and may be hopped through in any manner without
penalty. After hopping into the "Safe", "Home", or "Rest"
the player must then turn around and return through the
course (square 9, then squares 8 & 7, next square 6 and so
forth) on one or two legs depending on the square until he
or she reaches the square with their marker. They then must
retrieve their marker and continue the course as stated
without touching a line or stepping into a square with
another player's marker.
Upon successfully completing the sequence, the player
continues the turn by tossing the marker into square number

2. two, and repeating the pattern.
If while hopping through the court in either direction the
player steps on a line, misses a square, or loses balance, the
turn ends. Players begin their turns where they last left off.
The first player to complete one course for every numbered
square on the court wins the game.
Although the marker is most often picked up during the
game, historically, in the boy's game, the marker was kicked
sequentially back through the course on the return trip and
then kicked out.
Timing There is no limit
There is no limit to how many can play (from one
Grouping and interaction
to…………..)
There are apocryphal stories of hopscotch being invented by
Romans or Chinese, but the first recorded references to the
game in English date back to the late 17th century, usually
under the name 'scotch-hop' or 'scotch-hopper(s)'. A
manuscript Book of Games compiled between 1635 and
1672 by Francis Willughby refers to 'Scotch Hopper‥.
They play with a piece of tile or a little flat piece of lead,
upon a boarded floore, or anie area divided into oblong
figures like boards'. In Poor Robin’s Almanack for 1677, the
game is referred to as "Scotch-hoppers." The entry states,
"The time when schoolboys should play at Scotch-hoppers."
Origin The 1707 edition of Poor Robin’s Almanack includes the
following phrase… "Lawyers and Physicians have little to
do this month, so they may (if they will) play at Scotch-
hoppers." In 1828 Webster's An American Dictionary of the
English language also referred to the game as 'Scotch-
hopper'...'a play in which boys hop over scotches and lines
in the ground.'Since the game was known and popular in the
seventeenth century, it is logical to suppose it may have
existed at least a few decades (or perhaps even many
centuries) before its earliest literary reference; but no
conclusive evidence has yet been presented to support this
theory.
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Bibliography