Long Rope Activity for All: School
This activity works well with grades 1st to 5th. It’s also a great recess activity.
Equipment: One long rope with one end attached to a wall or pole. At our school we like to attach the rope to a moveable post that can be easily moved around the gym or outside.
- The teacher is the rope turner.
- Students line up at one end behind a cone, facing the rope and the teacher begins to turn the rope.
- Students take individual turns to see if they can pass the grades K-12.
- One advantage in doing this with a large group of students is that the turns are fast at the start. This gets more involvement with everyone in the line, because they are not just standing and watching everyone else jump. You can certainly continue beyond 12th grade, if the line is shorter and there is time.
- To pass Kindergarten: Students must run through the rope.
- 1st Grade: Run into the middle and make one jump, then run out the other side, and run around to the end of the line.
- Students continue to run in to the middle and make the number of jumps that corresponds to each grade level.
- If you fail to make the jump for a certain grade, you may try that grade again on your next turn, though we usually give some leeway, so we create a more inclusive atmosphere..
- It helps to put a line on the floor where the rope hits when you’re turning it. There is a tendency for many students to run past the best place to jump the rope, which is in the center of the rope.
Class Jumping Activity: Work together as a class and see if you can get everyone to run through the rope each time it circles around. The teacher will turn the rope with one full swing in between each turn. Students will really have to focus and run hard to do this. You can have the class do this activity a number of times until they are able to do it together.
Ultimate Class Jumping: Do the same activity as above, but this time work together as a class and see if you can get everyone through the swing of the rope with no extra swings between each student. This will be very challenging for any class to accomplish.