Monday, May 9, 2011

Indoor Hopscotch with a Yoga Mat

The weather is fine for hopscotch outside, but the rest of India is not so accommodating. Even if we could find (or make) chalk, the road inside our complex is kind of cobblestoned and not really great for hopscotch drawing. Also, I'm afraid the new security guards would frown on things like chalk drawings. So we made our own for use indoors!
All you need is a yoga mat (you can find one for around $10), a permanent marker, and a ruler. I just used the ruler to measure out squares - the grid on the yoga mat helps line them all up. The squares are around 8". I marked all the corners with a washable marker, then used the ruler to connect the dots.
I saw a yoga hopscotch mat on another blog after I made this. She taped out her squares and outlined them. I thought of doing that, but had already decided that was too much work when I removed the small amount of masking tape I used and discovered it was peeling part of the mat off with it. So if you use that method, I recommend testing the tape first.

As you can see, I had a guilty little helper add the 10th square while I was doing dishes. Luckily, she used her own markers so it washed off. I drew the 10th spot in a semi-circle by tying a string around the marker and swinging it like a compass in math class. (See the first photo.)

John did the numbering (he is the one with nice handwriting). Apparently, the mat is also great for playing cars on.
I hand-stitched a couple of circular bean bags, but I like the idea of small square bean bags appliquéd with each player's initial.

5 comments:

Jamie @ hands on : as we grow said...

Simple way to make a portable/indoor hopscotch! Terrific! I'm so glad you linked it up to It's Playtime today because I also featured you from last week's post (of Water and Ice) for my sensory theme! Yay!

Jamie

Let the Children Play said...

Gross motor play indoors - gotta love it!

Jamie @ hands on : as we grow said...

Thanks so much for playing with us last week at It's Playtime - I shared this post in the We Teach Bodies to Move discussion forum. I love gross motor activities!

I Am Rachele said...

I featured you this week on It's Playtime! Stop by and grab a feature button and thanks for playing with us!

Laura said...

What a great idea! So creative.