A New Jumping Game Outside

7 February 2018. Written by T Liz

Late last year Teacher Mohammed painted some white squares outside. I painted some numbers
inside the squares Children have been practicing jumping from square to square as they counted from
1-30 (the numbers on the squares).

Today Ayrah jumped onto square ‘1’. She called “Teacher; what comes next”? I replied “What number
do you think comes after ‘’1’ Ayrah”? She thought for a moment then replied “‘2’, it is ‘2”. “Yes” I
replied, so Ayrah called “2” as she jumped between the squares. Ayrah repeated this process for
each number all the way to 10. Hodo, Ayan, Mohammed, Ayaan, and Jumanah joined Ayrah as soon as
she started jumping and there were several children calling “teacher what comes next” when they
wanted to jump from square to square. The children were so keen tip kay the jumping game that I
had to encourage them to wait until the person in front of them had left the square in front before
they jumped onto it, and they needed to wait for their turn. Ayrah stopped when she got to number
’10. When I asked her “what number comes after 10” she said “I don’t’ know”. I explained it was
number ‘11’ so Ayrah repeated “11”; as she jumped into the next square. We repeated this process all
the way up to number 30. I saw the other children watching when I counted for Ayrah., and they
soon echoed "Teacher what comes next” when they wanted to jump to the next square. I counted for
each children as they jumped between squares along each row.

Ayrah and Hodo kept jumping and counting all the way to number 30 , while the other children
enjoyed jumping between squares and along each row and learning how to go along one row then turn
and start the next row in the opposite direction to what they had come.

Through this game our children were expanding their neracy skills as they learnt to count. They also
developed their social skills as thy learnt to wait for their turn. Spatial awareness was also enhanced
as the children learnt about how to fit their feet inside the boundaries of each square.