Hopscotch Games or Engklek

Preview: This hopscotch game in our neighbourhood known as "engklek" or "engkleng", I don't know how it got named. Usually played by children on breaktime at school or when in the evening after they bath. Engklek requires good coordinating movement, since it was use only one leg to hop and jump. Also use a piece of broken roof-tile [pecahan genting] called "kreweng" or "gacuk". For example, we draw five squares along ended up to a half-cyrcle area named "gunungan" [this means the highest place to reach as a goal]. Throw gacuk to the first square, then you have to jump over the first square, directly to the second square. Hop and jump to gunungan than turn back. Stop at the second square, take the gacuk then you're allowed to jump on first square. Repeat this step increasing to next square. Gacuk use as a mark that you can't jump over the square where gacuk layed. There is the challenge because you have to stop from jumping, stand with one leg, bow to take gacuk, stand again, then continue to jump, back to where you started. I guess that's what I remember how to play engklek, in my version. It may vary from different place. Any comment??

Hopscotch Games

Around the world, children have enjoyed drawing grids on the sidewalk or on the ground and then jumping or hopping from one end of the grid to the other. Here are two versions of hopscotch: one from Colombia and another one from Indonesia.

Rayuela    María C. López from Colombia

When I was a little girl, most afternoons I used to play games with my friends in our neighbourhood. Rayuela, as it is called in Spanish, was my favorite game.

HOW TO PLAY IT
There can be any number of players, and a stone is the only object you need to play it. If you are the first player, you draw a figure on the floor with a piece of chalk. Then you throw the stone inside square one. After that, you have to hop into each square, starting with square 1 and ending in square eight. If there are two squares together, you jump landing with one foot in each square; but if there is only one square, you must hop on one foot. When you reach squares 7 and 8, you have to turn back jumping again until square 1. Then you continue playing the next level. This time you begin by throwing the stone into square number 2. In the next level, you throw it into square number 3. You continue until level 8. The first player who does all the levels is the winner. The most important thing is that the player has to skip the square where the stone is.

RULES OF THE GAME
The game has some rules. If an of the following things happen, the player has to stop and another player takes a turn.

The player can't put his/her foot or feet on the lines of the square.
The player can't jump with two feet in squares 1, 2, 3, and 6.

The player can't fall down.

It is nice to remember playing games like Rayuela because it reminds me that I had a happy childhood surrounded by special people who always loved me.

One-Leg Jump    Yohanes Lie from Indonesia

When I was a child, my friends and I used to play many traditional games from my country, Indonesia, and a game I played a lot was called One Leg Jump.

HOW TO PLAY THIS GAME
This game is very simple. We only need chalk if we play on the floor, or something like a stone if we play on the ground. To play this game, we had to draw rectangles or squares arranged side by side. W drew four or five rectangles or squares about 1 foot by 1 foot each. Any number of children could play. To play this game, each player had to hop to the first rectangle, then to the second one, and then to the third one, and so on. After reaching the fifth rectangle, the player had to turn around still on one leg and hop back from the fifth rectangle to the first one.

SPECIAL RULES OF THE GAME
While hopping, the player must not step on the line between the rectangles, and must keep his balance. If, for instance, the player's other leg (the one which is lifted) touches the ground, the player fails. If a player breaks a rule, as punishment, the failed player must stand on one leg for about 5 minutes.

Teachers coordinators: Sandy and Thomas Peters
Topics Online, International Student Projects,
Houston, Texas, USA,

Source : http://www.geocities.com/childrenfolklore/about.html