Jumprope Activities for Kids

Simple Activities

• Create simple jump rope activities to allow children a chance to warm up. Have two children or adults hold the ends of a jump rope. Ask them hold the jump rope close to the ground and wiggle the rope to resemble a snake. Children will take turns jumping over the rope. Turn this activity into a game by eliminating any child who touches the rope, and the last child remaining wins the game. Another idea is to lay the jump rope in a line on the ground like a tightrope. Children can walk forward, backward and with their eyes closed on the rope.

Water Activities

• On a hot summer day, incorporate water into jump rope activities. Turn on a sprinkler and have the children jump rope in the sprinkler. They can jump rope individually or in groups by having two people swing the jump rope. For a game, have two people swing the jump rope and give two other players a cup of water each. The players must jump rope with the cups in their hands, while trying not to spill their water. The player who loses the most water from his cup loses the game.

Rhyme Activities

• Teach the children rhymes to sing while they jump rope. For example, children can sing "Cinderella went upstairs to kill a fella', made a mistake, kissed a snake, how many doctors will it take?" The children will count until the player messes up. The child with this highest number wins the game. Another rhyme is "Strawberry Shortcake, huckleberry pie, who is going to be your lucky guy?" Have the children say letters instead of numbers after this rhyme.

Relay Activities

• Divide the children into two teams. Mark a starting line and finish line 25 feet apart. Give the first player in each team line a jump rope. Have the children run while jump roping to the finish line and back. Children must hand off the jump rope to the next player in line who must do the same thing. The first team to complete the race wins the game. Alternatively, make the race more difficult by adding a series of jump rope activities. Spread out several jump ropes in between the start line and finish line. Children must complete different activities at each jump rope. Some ideas include jump roping backwards, on one leg and jump rope 20 times at one rope.