1 Play the Game Get Set! Look at the children playing in the park. Identify and name the games. Discuss in class. Do you play any of these games or do these sporting activities? Where do you play them? What is the difference between these games and games such as Test Cricket, One-day Cricket, League Football or Grand Slam Tennis? 5 © Ratna Sagar for Central Academy Jodhpur SECTION One Hopscotch A street game is a sport or game that is played on city streets rather than a prepared field or area. Street games are usually simple playtime activities for children that can be played near where they live. The one street game every little child in squares on the ground like this. India has played is Stapu, Ekhat-Dukhat or Paandi or as it is commonly known, Kith-Kith. Kith-Kith is played all over India 7 8 on the streets and in playgrounds. It is 6 known as Kunte Bille in Karnataka, Paandi in Tamil Nadu, Tokkudu Billa in Andhra 4 5 Pradesh, and Khané in Kashmir. The game, called Hopscotch in English, is a part of 3 our childhood. 2 1 To play the game a player needs a marker such as a flat stone, tile or shell. The player stands behind the starting line SCAN HERE* SCAN and tosses the marker into the first square. Then she hops over the first square to the second one, and continues hopping It is a good game for children because to the eighth square. At the eighth square it needs very little space to play and can be the player turns around, hops through the played both outdoors and indoors. A chalk squares once more to the second square. is used to draw a course of eight numbered Here she pauses and picks up the marker from the first square, hops over the first a course a series square and steps out. Then she tosses the marker a counter used for playing the game 6 *For detailed instructions, see inside front cover. © Ratna Sagar for Central Academy Jodhpur marker into the second square. The game Escargot (snail) or Marelle Ronde (Round continues like this, until all eight squares Hopscotch). In Germany, Austria and have been played and the player completes Switzerland it is called Himmel und Hölle the lap successfully. All hopping is done (Heaven and Hell). The first square is on one foot, unless there are two lateral called Erde (Earth) while the second last squares, where the player has to land on square is the Hölle (Hell) and the last one both feet, with one foot on each square. is Himmel (Heaven)! Hopscotch is a simple yet a skilled The Numbers Hopscotch game is a fun game. It requires physical agility and variation on an old favourite. You don’t need nimbleness and tests the player’s balance to toss a stone or use a marker for this version and precision. A player is considered ‘out’ of Hopscotch – just keep hopping on one if the marker does not land in the right foot and try not to step on the wrong square. square, touches the line, or the player loses Think it’s easy? Give it a try! balance and touches the line accidentally. There are several other rules and variations of the game which add to the fun and lateral here, side by side difficulty level. skilled here, requiring a particular ability or expertise agility ability to move with ease and quickness Many forms of Hopscotch are played nimbleness swiftness and lightness of movement across the globe. Stapu’s name in Persian variant alternative version form or type *For detailed instructions, see inside front cover. is Laylay. A French variant is known as 7 © Ratna Sagar for Central Academy Jodhpur What you will need: Chalk A space – paved or made of flattened mud 10 12 11 12 How to Play By the Numbers Hopscotch Step 1: Make a grid of 12 squares on the 9 11 9 10 sidewalk. (Squares of 2 feet by 2 feet are 6 7 7 a good size.) 6 8 Step 2: Number the squares 1 to 12. 8 5 5 (Do not number them in sequence, but do make sure that a number isn’t more 3 2 3 4 than one row away from the number that 1 4 1 2 came before it.) Step 3: Hop on one foot from square number 1 to square number 2 to square 3 and so on. A player is out when he or she accidentally steps out of a square or lands out of sequence. Does that seem too easy? Make it They teach us many things – to learn to win trickier for players by making them put and lose, to observe keenly and to develop their hands behind their backs and repeat our Maths and sensory skills, to improve the process or jump only on even or odd- motor skills and hand-eye coordination, to numbered squares in sequence. plan and think logically and last but not least, Such traditional games act as learning aids. to have fun! Read and Write . A In each pair of sentences, tick the statement that is more appropriate about Hopscotch. 1. Hopscotch is not a very popular game. It is a well-known and simple game. 2. It is easy and needs very little space to play. The preparation makes it easy to play. 3. The main aim of the game is to hop on one foot without touching lines. The main aim of the game is to hop across the squares of the grid. 4. After tossing the marker you must hop across 8 squares. After tossing the marker you must hop across 8 squares forwards and backwards. 5. The skills required for Hopscotch are nimbleness and balance in movement. 8 The skills required for Hopscotch are speed and quickness in movement. © Ratna Sagar for Central Academy Jodhpur 6. There are different rules for the game of Hopscotch. There are variations with different rules for the game of Hopscotch. 7. Children all over the world play this game. Children all over the world play some variation of this game. 8. Hopscotch is a street game because it is played only in the streets. Hopscotch is a street game because children can play it wherever convenient. B Discuss the answers in class and then write them in your notebooks. 1. Describe how you play a game of Hopscotch. 2. How is the game of Numbers Hopscotch different from the normal Hopscotch you play? C. Think and discuss with your partner. Share your answers in class. 1. Do you think children still play street games? Where do they play them? HOTS questions 2. Do you play these games with your friends? What games do you play? D. Discuss in class. CRITICAL APPRECIATION 1. Why should children play informal, outdoor games with their friends? 2. Try out Numbers Hopscotch during your playtime. Discuss the experience in class. Words in Use E. Sport and game mean more or less the same. Such words are called synonyms. Read these sets of synonyms. Look up their meanings in a dictionary. Add a third synonym of your own. 1. commonly, normally, 6. amazed, surprised, 2. variations, alternatives, 7. known, recognized, 3. lateral, adjacent, 8. toss, throw, 4. space, area, 9. balance, poise, 5. simple, uncomplicated, 10. agility, suppleness, F. Which word from the box can you add at the beginning or at the end of each word in these sets to make a new word? Write the new words on the blanks. out body over ship some able 1. read, watch, think, enjoy 2. turn, do, come, with 3. took, draw, make, do 4. hard, head, wreck, yard 9 © Ratna Sagar for Central Academy Jodhpur 5. fear, one, whole, thing 6. no, every, work, guard Understand Grammar WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSEs G. Complete these sentences using the words in brackets. 1. Hopscotch, Stapu or Paandi (game children India) 2. It is (game played hopping squares grid) 3. Hopscotch is (a good test of and) 4. The game (fun interesting) v Words are the smallest units of language that have a meaning. game played hopping squares grid fun interesting We put words together to make a phrase or a single unit of meaning. An interest Hopscotch is played on a grid a hopping game v We join phrases to make a clause. A clause is a larger word group and has more information than a phrase. A clause has a noun (and words that go with the noun) and a verb (and words that go with the verb) We had no TV! We played Hopscotch. v If we complete our meaning using one clause, it becomes a sentence. We played Hopscotch in the evening. v When the sentence is a part of a larger group of words, we call it a clause. We had no TV so we played Hopscotch in the evening. We played Hopscotch in the evening because we had no TV. clause 1 clause 2 Use Grammar H. Use the words in the box below to make five phrases, five clauses and five sentences. of the house jack-fruit on including a world Granny cook casting shadow bungalow giant tree its rambling outskirts was town grounds were had best many most walls in trees large fruit 10 © Ratna Sagar for Central Academy Jodhpur SECTION Gulli-Danda Two Gulli-Danda is an amateur sport played rather like cricket. It is an informal street game played in the rural areas and small towns all over South Asia as well as Cambodia, Turkey and Italy.