Stakeholders Identify Hopscotch Game as Pivotal Tool in Children’s Skills Development

The popular schoolyard game, hopscotch, has been identified by the Early Childhood Commission (ECC) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Jamaica as one of the ways to develop young children’s interpersonal and gross and fine motor skills.

With the addition of words, various colours and shapes to hopscotch courts, the ECC and UNICEF reason that early childhood educators have several ways of stimulating the minds of the young students while they are engaged in play.

According to UNICEF Education Specialist, Dr. Rebecca Tortello, the uniquely designed ten-squared game encourages outdoor play among the children, while they are learning skills and values.

“They are not the traditional 10 squares with the numbers. They have words in them that are core value words, such as ‘truthful, ‘powerful’, ‘smart’ and ‘brave’, among others. Each square is a different colour and they are also going to have numbers in the squares,” she tells JIS News.

“When they are on the ground like that, the children can just play the game. So they are moving their whole body; they are balancing, so they are building gross and fine motor skills; they are playing with each other, they are taking turns. So they are building life skills and they are learning to win and lose. But teachers can also use hopscotch to reinforce concepts by saying, ‘go and stand in the yellow square, where is this word responsibility; give me an example of someone who is responsible’,” the Education Specialist explains, in highlighting the various ways the game can be utilised.

The ECC brought attention to the importance of play in 2022 by designating the month of February as Play Month. This decision was taken when the Commission noticed that children were not engaged, as they were unable to play due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic limitations.

Consequently, the ECC created a proposal, titled ‘Reimagining Play’, in which it explained why learning is more impactful during play for children in early childhood institutions.

“During our ‘Reimaging Play’, we identified 70 schools that had received inspections below 50 percent and were in need of play learning kits. So we gave them play learning kits, which included balls, hula-hoops, puzzle games, board games and musical instruments. Additionally, these schools had hopscotch [courts] painted at their early childhood institutions,” recalls Early Childhood Development (ECD) Training and Development Manager, Nicole Morgan.

Additionally, she says in June 2024, during the United Nation’s (UN) International Day of Play, UNICEF Jamaica and paint manufacturer, Sherwin Williams (West Indies) Limited, came on board and identified 35 additional schools within the Education Ministry’s seven divisions to have hopscotch courts painted.

The Chetolah Mel Nathan Education Centre was the first school painted with one of the unique hopscotch courts last June. It is anticipated that by the end of ECC’s Play Month in February, the remaining schools will be painted with their own courts.

Dr Tortello applauds Sherwin Williams for its involvement in the hopscotch project, and encourages other corporate companies to partner with UNICEF.

“We are grateful for this partnership. We would love to see more partnerships like this that promote life opportunities for children and promote children’s rights. We would [also] love to advocate and realise more family-friendly play spaces around the island. We can’t do that on our own, we definitely would need more private sector partnerships,” she says.

Regarding ECC’s Play Month, Ms. Morgan says this is being undertaken in accordance with Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that the child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreation activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.

“Every Tuesday and Thursday we emphasise play; these include board games and cultural games day. So [on Thursday, February 6, for example,] we focused on ring games. At our workspaces, at the different resource centres and at the head office, we promoted ring games day; so we had our staff members playing ring games. Twitter (now ‘X’) chat is every Friday, where we talk about the importance of play, targeting parents,” Ms. Morgan informs.

She tells JIS News that, for 2025, the ECC will be focusing on the rights of the