Hopscotch
классы
A course of squares drawn in chalk: the marker is thrown into the next square up, and the whole course is hopped without touching a line.
Chalk
Under these rules: The same course as in plain hopscotch.
A stick of chalk for drawing markings on asphalt.
Chalk markings last exactly as long as they need to: until the next rain. So the pitch is drawn again each time and fitted to wherever the game is happening today.
Marker
Under these rules: One per player.
A flat object thrown into a square and picked up again.
A flat pebble, a shard of tile, a tin filled with sand — what matters is that it neither rolls nor bounces, but stays where it landed.
The rules of hopscotch with tasks
What differs
The course, the marker and the order of turns are those of plain hopscotch. What changes is how the course is taken: each grade demands its own manner, and all ten must be passed in a row.
The tasks by grade
- Free passage — as in plain hopscotch.
- The marker thrown with the eyes shut.
- The poker: on the right foot, nudging the marker leftward.
- The same on the left foot, nudging the marker rightward.
- Hopping on both feet only. This is the one grade where standing on two feet in the marker's square is allowed.
- Every other square.
- Passage without laughing: a laugh is a fault.
- The marker thrown from the fifth square rather than from the start of the course.
- Passage with the eyes shut.
- The stream: ten hops on one foot from the first square to the tenth without a stop.
Faults
To the ordinary faults of plain hopscotch is added failing the task of this grade. A missed throw, a foot on a line, shuffling and a nudged marker pass the turn as before.
Landing in the burns a grade.
Winning
The first player through all ten tasks wins.
Worth knowing
Neither the set of tasks nor their order is fixed anywhere, and both differ noticeably from yard to yard. One well-known sequence is written down below; another company will have some tasks different, and the stream may not come last.
Glossary of terms
- Grade
- The number of the square the player throws into on this turn. To pass a grade is to throw the marker there and get through the whole course without a fault.
- Marker
- The flat object thrown into a square and picked up on the way back.
- Pot
- The square at the top of the course the marker should not land in: doing so takes back what the player has already won.