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Hopscotch
Hopscotch is a playground game in which players toss a small object, sometimes called a piggy or lagger, into numbered triangles or a pattern of rectangles outlined on the ground and then hop or jump through the spaces and retrieve the object. It is a children's game that can be played with several players or alone. Hopscotch is a physical and cognitive workout.
To play hopscotch, a court is first laid out on the ground. Depending on the available surface, the court is either scratched out in the dirt or drawn with chalk on pavement. Courts may be permanently marked where playgrounds are commonly paved, as in primary schools. Designs vary, but the court is usually composed of a series of linear squares interspersed with blocks of two lateral squares. Traditionally the court 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.
The first player tosses a marker onto the court. The marker (typically a small stone, coin, bean bag, or small chain with a charm) should land in the square without bouncing, sliding, or rolling out. (In Scotland and Ireland, the marker is usually replaced with an old shoe polish tin or flat stone, called a piggy.[citation needed]) In the United States the marker was called a "lagger" and in the 1940s Hopscotch Laggers made of rubber were sold by the Hoppy Taw Company of Utah. The marker must be thrown in sequential numerical order completely within the square without touching the line. The player then hops through the course, skipping the marker's square. Single squares must be hopped on one foot, except for the first single square, where 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 "Safe", "Home", or "Rest", the player must then turn around and retrace their steps through the course on one or two legs, depending on the square, until reaching the marker's square. The player stops in the square before the marker and reaches down to retrieve the 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 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.
According to Ulrich Schädler, the origin of hopscotch is still enigmatic, although he firmly states it is an early modern game. Nonetheless, there are claims for a greater age of this game. B. B. Lal states (without evidence) that hopscotch was played c.1200 to 600–500 BCE during the Painted Grey ware era of India. Among the games prohibited by Buddha there is an entry that is reminiscent of hopscotch, but not specific enough to enable us to actually identify the game. Despite speculation that an ancient form of hopscotch was played by Roman children and soldiers, there is no evidence for this.
The first recorded references to the game in the English-speaking world date to the late seventeenth 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 floor, or any 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." 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 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.'
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Hopscotch AI simulator
(@Hopscotch_simulator)
Hopscotch
Hopscotch is a playground game in which players toss a small object, sometimes called a piggy or lagger, into numbered triangles or a pattern of rectangles outlined on the ground and then hop or jump through the spaces and retrieve the object. It is a children's game that can be played with several players or alone. Hopscotch is a physical and cognitive workout.
To play hopscotch, a court is first laid out on the ground. Depending on the available surface, the court is either scratched out in the dirt or drawn with chalk on pavement. Courts may be permanently marked where playgrounds are commonly paved, as in primary schools. Designs vary, but the court is usually composed of a series of linear squares interspersed with blocks of two lateral squares. Traditionally the court 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.
The first player tosses a marker onto the court. The marker (typically a small stone, coin, bean bag, or small chain with a charm) should land in the square without bouncing, sliding, or rolling out. (In Scotland and Ireland, the marker is usually replaced with an old shoe polish tin or flat stone, called a piggy.[citation needed]) In the United States the marker was called a "lagger" and in the 1940s Hopscotch Laggers made of rubber were sold by the Hoppy Taw Company of Utah. The marker must be thrown in sequential numerical order completely within the square without touching the line. The player then hops through the course, skipping the marker's square. Single squares must be hopped on one foot, except for the first single square, where 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 "Safe", "Home", or "Rest", the player must then turn around and retrace their steps through the course on one or two legs, depending on the square, until reaching the marker's square. The player stops in the square before the marker and reaches down to retrieve the 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 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.
According to Ulrich Schädler, the origin of hopscotch is still enigmatic, although he firmly states it is an early modern game. Nonetheless, there are claims for a greater age of this game. B. B. Lal states (without evidence) that hopscotch was played c.1200 to 600–500 BCE during the Painted Grey ware era of India. Among the games prohibited by Buddha there is an entry that is reminiscent of hopscotch, but not specific enough to enable us to actually identify the game. Despite speculation that an ancient form of hopscotch was played by Roman children and soldiers, there is no evidence for this.
The first recorded references to the game in the English-speaking world date to the late seventeenth 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 floor, or any 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." 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 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.'