Hands and feet ladder hop

This week we've teamed up with Claire Balkind the creator of of a great new book Great Family days In. A book full of fun activities, perfect for keeping little ones entertained this half term.

This game is one for all the family and has had us in stitches just trying to do the moves. It involves placing your hands and feet on paper marked with either foot- or handprints in the shape of a ladder. For each rung of the ladder, there are three pieces of paper with two feet and one hand, or two hands and one foot, in a different pattern each time. Trying to hop and place your hands and feet on the right card is both challenging and hilarious, whilst also being great for coordination. Making the cards up is an easy art activity and so, all in all, that’s your afternoon inside sorted.

What you need

Plain paper (at least 18 sheets)
Masking tape or Blu-Tack
Washable paint or felt-tip pens

How it works

1: Imagine a ladder with six rungs. On each rung, imagine three cards. On each of these cards, imagine either a foot or handprint. This is the template for the game. All you need to do is make the cards and you’re good to go.

2: Now, you want to make nine footprints and nine handprints on separate pieces of paper. There are two ways of doing this. You can either draw around your kids’ or your own hands and feet nine times on separate pieces of paper with a felt tip, or paint your hands and feet with washable paint and print them onto the paper. This is messier – and you’ll need to do it well in advance so that they dry in time – but the shapes are clearer.

3: Choose a nice open space to play in and arrange your eighteen pieces of paper on the floor in a ladder shape, with three cards per rung. Make sure you only have two hand or footprints per rung and that they’re all pointing in the same direction, away from where you will start. Mix up the order so that each rung of the ladder has a different sequence of hand and footprints.

4: Stick down the prints using either Blu-Tack or masking tape. You want them to be fairly securely attached, as they will be trodden and jumped on.

5: Now let the games commence! Take it in turns to see if you can jump up the ladder, placing your hands and feet on the right card each time. You will always have one foot or hand spare, and so there is a bit of balancing involved. If you fall over or get it wrong, you have to go back to the start and join the end of the queue.

TOP TIP: If you are playing this with adults, use A4 paper. If you are playing with smaller children, cut the paper in half to make A5 so that it’s more manageable. And if you have a laminating machine, you can make your resources last by laminating them before first use.

As with everything we do at Pea we aim to make things as simple as possible for parents. We've created a hand and foot template you can simply print off if the easy art activity isn't possible straight away and the little ones are jumping up and down with excitement wanting to play.