Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: The games we can play

20 minutes

Find Out: Skipping well skills

25 minutes

Take Action: Becoming super skippers

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will:

learn about the importance of balance, coordination and rhythm in skipping.

Success criteria

Students can:

move their bodies in play-based physical activities
practise balance, coordination and rhythm in preparation for learning to skip with a jump rope
identify how skipping helps healthy hearts.

Preparation: This lesson requires a lot of movement. For the ‘Find Out’ and ‘Take Action’ phases, you may want to run the lesson outside so there’s space for the class to participate safely. Otherwise, ensure you have enough room in your classroom for students to spread out to practise their skills.

Tune In: The games we can play

Step 1

Gather the class in a group to look at a jump rope. Facilitate a class discussion using the prompt: “What games could we play using this rope?” Encourage students to think of ways to use ropes with friends, such as ‘I can use a rope to jump over.’ Write a list of students' thoughts and ideas on the whiteboard.

Step 2

Select and show some clips of kids using a jump rope to skip in many different ways. Before playing the videos, remind students that when they are watching it, they need to pay attention to how the kids use jump ropes.

Jump Rope for Heart playlist - (youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh8a3llPdCcjCvr5ovrV5dUnFV_i77Pxt)

After watching the video, guide students in doing a ‘turn and talk’ discussion, where they turn to the person sitting next to them to talk. Ask pairs to discuss the question, “How did the kids use the rope in the clip?”. A ‘turn and talk’ is a quick way to encourage students to discuss their own ideas and encourage listening to each other.

While pairs do their ‘turn and talk’, roam the classroom to listen to students’ thoughts and ideas. After a few minutes, return the focus of the class using the phrase, “3-2-1 stop sharing”, and summarise what you heard the class discussing amongst each other. You can use the wording, “I heard …. talking about how they jumped”. Use keywords to build vocabulary and introduce terms like ‘jump’, ‘balance’, ‘turn’ and ‘skip’.

Find Out: Skip well skills

Step 1

Tell the class we will explore the skills needed to skip well. You can check with your students if they have thoughts about the skills needed for skipping to elicit prior knowledge and understanding. If any students respond with ‘balance’, ‘coordination’ or ‘rhythm’, highlight that these are really helpful with skipping and that we will learn more about developing these skills in the next part of the lesson.

Step 2

Explain that the students will participate in three activities focused on balance, coordination and rhythm.

Firstly, we will look at the skill of balance when we skip. Point out that balance is the ability to maintain a stable position. Demonstrate standing on one foot.

Invite the whole class to stand and see if they can balance on one foot by lifting one foot off the ground and shifting their weight onto one leg. Firstly, ask the students to place their toes on the ground of the leg they are going to lift until they feel stable enough to lift their foot fully off the ground. Suggest that students hold their arms out, which also helps with balancing.

Encourage students to try their other leg and see if it is easier or harder to balance. Ask the students: “Which leg is easier for you to balance on?”. Ask students to show you which leg they feel more comfortable balancing on.

Step 3

Invite students to play a game of ‘balance statues’. Play music for the students as they walk around the room. When the music stops, they need to freeze in a balanced pose. Posses can include balancing on one leg or standing with a leg out to the front. Congratulations to the class for their great balancing skills!

Step 4

Next, explore how coordination helps us when we skip. Highlight that coordination is the ability to move different body parts together smoothly to make a coordinated movement. In skipping, coordination uses our arms and legs in one movement. Demonstrate hand-eye coordination by doing a star jump.

Now, ask students to follow you in a simple star jump. Talk aloud about how you are coordinating your body movements.

For example, “Standing still with legs together and arms by your sides, jump up and reach your arms out in a big Y-shape and stretch your legs apart. This makes a star shape by using both your hands and legs”. Repeat the movement 2-3 times. Invite the students to follow, making star jumps as a whole group. Continue to jump like stars 3-5 more times. Ask students to take a moment to notice the beating of their hearts – has it increased after the star jumps?

Step 5

Next, combine balance and coordination movements by introducing hopping and jumping patterns. Talk aloud as you demonstrate the movements and guide the class through the activity.

For example, “We’re going to try a hop first. Can you hop on one leg?”. Have a student demonstrate this (or demonstrate it yourself) by standing on one leg, hopping up and down and keeping arms out to the side to help with balance if needed. Now, try a jump, using both legs together to jump into the air. Put the movements together to create a hop, hop, jump pattern.

Lead the class in practising this pattern. Once students get the hang of it, call out the movements “hop… hop… jump” as you go. Repeat the pattern with the whole class 2-3 times. Again, ask students to check in on their heartbeats at the end of the hop and jump pattern – can you hear or feel the beat of your heart? Is it beating fast? Has it increased compared to before moving your body?

Extension: If time allows, use a bean bag or small ball for a series of toss-and-catch exercises. Begin by encouraging the students to complete this by themselves, throwing the item in the air and catching it again. Then, invite the students to work with a partner and throw the ball or bean bag at each other, working on fine motor skills and coordination.

Step 6

Finally, it’s time to learn about how rhythm is used in skipping. Explain that when skipping involves jumping over a rope, the rope is being turned, and the turning creates a rhythm or beat as the rope and jumper touch the ground. The rhythm is the beat pattern repeated. Use a clap pattern to demonstrate this to the class. Simple songs can also highlight this, such as ‘teddy bear, teddy bear turn around’. Invite the students to mimic the clap pattern by clapping along with the song. Alternatively, play the clip of this rope jumping song:

Jump Rope, Jump Rope | Kids Song from Treetop Family | Super Simple Songs (youtube.com/watch?v=tgUDYOlgx1M)

Take Action: Becoming super skippers

Step 1

Encourage the students to use the movements they have been practising as they take part in ‘Skip well’ activity stations. Students should spend approximately six minutes at each activity station as a rotation. Set a timer on a device to help provide clear starting and finishing times. Divide the class into three groups, allocating them to each station. Quickly demonstrate each activity station to show how it is completed (instructions are below).

Step 2

Organise the students at the activity stations. Ask the students to ‘check in’ and think about their heart rate before they start the activity. Is it calm and slow? Can they feel it, or is it gently beating without them noticing? Direct the students to begin the activities and start the timer.

Skip well activity stations:

Balance challenge course

Create a simple obstacle course in the gym or outside in the playground (e.g. balance beams, stepping stones or hopscotch patterns). Encourage the students to follow the line, jump to reach the next stepping stone, or hop to complete the hopscotch pattern. Alternatively, ropes can be placed on the ground to create a simple balance course by walking on the rope line. As the students navigate the course, they should focus on maintaining balance.

Coordination relay race

Organise a relay race to help develop students' coordination skills. The relay race should involve hand-eye coordination activities like bouncing a basketball or hopping while balancing a bean bag on their head. Organise the relay to begin at one end of the space you are using, where students line up behind the relay race items on the ground. Each student should take a turn to bounce a ball or hop to a defined point, then return to the group for the next student to take over. Encourage the group to sit in a line behind the item to be used in the relay. Remind the group to be supportive as the relay takes place by encouraging other students to use their coordination skills to complete the task. Once students return from completing the relay, ask them to sit back in the line.

Rhythm skipping activity

Use a rope placed on the ground as a mock jump rope. Invite students to practise jumping either side of the rope to a rhythm (clapped out by other students in the group or playing music through a device). Gradually increase the complexity of the rhythm skipping by adding hand movements or varying the rhythm. This can be adjusted to suit students' needs and challenge them as they develop their skills. Jumping to a rhythm helps develop the skills to perform multiple tasks simultaneously while skipping.

At the end of each activity station, ask the students to notice their bodies and tune into their heartbeats. Ask, “Is it beating faster or slower? What do you notice?” This will help students become aware of their bodies' responses as they move, hop, jump, and run.

Step 3

At the end of each 6-minute time block and before students need to move to the next station, ask them to return or reset any equipment (e.g. bean bags put back into a tub or one location) ready for the next group. Direct the students to move to the next activity station, waiting once they arrive for the starting signal to begin. Set the timer before they begin the next activity. Keep the small groups moving to the next station until they all have been completed.

Reflection

Invite the students to sit in a circle and reflect on the activities they just participated in. Begin by asking questions like, “Which activity did you find fun today?” and “Which activity was the most challenging?”. Encourage them to think about why they found certain activities challenging. Did they need to use skills like balance, rhythm and coordination (such as moving hands and legs simultaneously)?

Explain to the students how balance and coordination help them to become better skippers. These skills help us build muscle strength and keep our hearts healthy when we move. When we move, our heart pumps blood throughout our body, helping to strengthen our heart muscles. We also improve our wellbeing as we move – it can be fun, making us feel happy and challenging our minds.

Jump Rope for Heart – The Practice of Skipping

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