Jumping rope is hard when you’re in Kindergarten. Actually learning any new skill is hard, but especially jump rope.
It takes a lot of coordination, practice and it can get pretty frustrating.
It helps to approach teaching jump rope just like any skill, taking those baby steps and allowing kids to explore the different stages and then combining them together.
Also, use some of the basic goal setting strategies to motivate your kids to believe in themselves and help them remember how important it is to persevere and avoid giving up.
Below are the steps and progressions I’ve found to be very useful when teaching jump rope to my Kindy and First Grade Kiddos
Get Them to Buy In and Commit
Just like that new workout plan or your Masters Degree – you have to realize the benefits, remind yourself why it’s important and then commit to yourself that you are going to finish – “begin with the end in mind” – Steven Covey
One helpful thing that I talk to my kids about when they come to me saying “I can’t do this” is the Power of Yet, check it out below
Learn and Practice the Jump
It’s helpful to just start on the basics.
It’s a lot easier to work on jumping before you start turning the rope, just put it on the ground and practice jumping over it correctly.
The easiest way to “jump-rope” is when the rope is on the ground and you jump over it
Once kiddos get the hang of this we can learn how to turn the rope
Learn the Turn
Now try to practice turning the rope nice and slow – don’t jump yet
The focus should be to figure out the turn the rope first and then you can add in the jump later.
Many times a common problem is kids trying to turn the rope too fast, so on this step I really focus on praising kids turn their rope nice and slow and make a “Big Slow Circle” with their arms
Combine the Jump and Turn
Now that you’ve learned the Jump and the Turn you are ready to go!
Lets add those 2 skills together and remember “TURN FIRST…THEN JUMP” make sure to turn nice and slow, not too fast.
On this step the most common mistake I see is turning and jumping at the same time or turning too fast
Once I get kids to the point of combing the turn and jump, I sometimes work one on one with a student using the strategy you see in the video below:
This is great for a station activity or after you’ve given the whole class some instruction, but obviously you can’t do this with 25 kiddos at once, so you have to be smart about how you implement it, but I’ve found it to be a helpful exercise to go through with kids when learning for the first time.
Celebrate those Wins
Give your kids some encouragement and really celebrate their improvement, even if it’s just getting better at line jumps with the rope on the ground, it’s important to realize that practice leads to skill improvement
I like to highlight students who are successful as well because it helps the students realize that someone their age can do it, which helps them believe they could do it as well if they don’t give up
Check out the way I teach the progressions in the video below:
Chelda Johnson says
Everything you said sounds great gonna try this week
Marcus says
Glad you’re enjoying the resources Chelda!
Jordan says
Hey Ben,
Do you teach pre-k? I’m brand new to PE and I don’t know what to do with the littles. We have been playing a lot of tag-type games, and individual bean bag games, but I’m not sure how to incorporate their age group into sports units. Any thoughts?
Ben Landers says
Yep – we have a 4K program. I just do stations with them for the most part. They are in the exploratory stages of most skills so it works out well. We work on locomtors and do a few tag games too – but my staple is station activities.
I just create stations based on the unit I’m teaching (during basketball, they might practice, dribbling, passing to the wall, passing to a partner and shooting in a basket)
Kristin says
This is great! Thanks from a homeschooling mom.
Julie says
Hi Ben! I see your Jump Rope unit lasts 4 weeks. Could you share with me what your unit looks like? Stations?
Ben Landers says
Hey Julie – I do a lot of stations with K-1st (hula hoops, hula jumps, single rope tricks).
With 2nd – 5th I work on Single Skills the first week, Partner Skills the 2nd Week, and Team Jumprope the 3rd Week.
The last week we do a practice run through for our Jump Rope For Heart event and then I do stations with K-2nd and a long rope tournament with 3rd – 5th.
Julie says
Thank you! Since I have 90-100 kids a period, I have half the students doing single rope tricks and the other half doing long jump rope skills. What do you do for your tournament?
Ben Landers says
We use a concept from J.D. Hughes Book No Standing Around in My Gym called a Whirlwind Tournanament – check it out here: http://www.peuniverse.com/Videos/detail.cfm?post_id=1330
Jodi says
What do the kids do that get eliminated? Do you give them another activity so they are not standing around?
Ben Landers says
Yes, never a good idea to have kids standing around.
The kids go to a practice rope and keep playing a practice game until the tournament rope is down to the last 3 then we play again.
Jodi Barasky says
How many days would you devote to this jump rope instruction for KIndergarteners?
The PE Specialist says
We do jumpropes as a station throughout the year, but we actually have a jump rope unit that lasts 4 weeks right before Jump Rope For Heart. I see my Kindergarten students twice a week for 25 minutes and we focus on Jumprope and Hula Hoops for 4 weeks.