Jump Rope Activities

Jumping rope is an excellent vigorous-intensity aerobic and bone-strengthening exercise that many children enjoy. Some of your students will be familiar with jumping rope and will be ready to perform a variety of jump-rope activities. Others will be complete beginners, or have poor form. The activities you can download from this page cover the full range of skill levels. Jump-rope activities are suitable for all students, grades K–5. Click a title below to open the activity PDF.

Beginning Jump-Rope Activities

When you begin to introduce jump-rope activities, spend a few minutes letting all of your students jump on their own, without instruction. Watch them closely. Notice who can jump continuously with good form and who needs help. Let the students with good form jump on their own; take the students who need instruction aside and teach them using the four steps outlined in this activity set. After a few sessions, you should notice improvement in these students.

Beginning Jump-Rope Activities

Advanced Jump-Rope Challenges

Once they have mastered the four beginning steps of jump rope, your students are ready for more-complex activities. The jump-rope challenges in this activity are variations on the basic jump-rope form; some challenges are for students to perform individually, others require a partner.

Advanced Jump-Rope Challenges

Rope-on-the-Ground Activities

You can also use jump ropes as props for other types of activities. For the activities in this set, students place their ropes on the ground, either stretched out in a line, or curled into a circle. The students interact with the rope on the ground, for example, jumping over the line in a zigzag pattern or jumping into the circle and then back out again.

Rope-on-the-Ground Activities