Two-foot jumping

• I can bend my knees to jump
• I can take off with two feet
• I can land softly like a cat

• Physical Development: revise and refine fundamental movement skills (jumping, hopping)
• Physical Development: develop overall body strength, coordination, balance and agility
• Gross Motor Skills ELG: move energetically, such as running, jumping, dancing, hopping, skipping and climbing

1. Crouch low as bread in a toaster; on the 'ping', pop up tall.
2. Repeat 6 times, then jog around.

Frogs jump with two feet and land quietly. Show swing arms back, bend knees, jump up, land on toes then heels with knees bent. Say 'Bend, swing, jump, squash!'

Organisation: 6 mins. Whole class, one child per spot in the existing rows with 2m gaps. Children jump beside rather than directly on their spots. Teacher demonstrates centrally where everyone can see, then moves along the outside of the rows; any additional adult supports from a row end. Mats remain clear at the demonstration end.

1. Say, 'Wake up, little frogs!' Stand beside a spot and demonstrate bending knees, swinging arms and making a small two-foot jump; children copy the bend and swing beside their own spots.
2. Say, 'Jump and squash!' Children jump straight up once, taking off with both feet together and landing with soft, bent knees.
3. Invite children to make five small frog jumps at their own pace, standing steady between jumps; watch for both feet leaving and returning together.
4. Ask, 'Can your frog land so quietly we cannot hear it?' Children try another five gentle jumps, listening to their own landings.
5. Finish with 'Frozen frog!' Children make one small jump and hold their soft landing while you count to three.

Organisation: 7 mins. Start with one spot per child, then use 15 pairs of spots with two children per pair. Spots mark the ends of two parallel jumping lanes, so partners travel together without jumping towards each other. Leave generous space between pairs. Teacher stands along the outside with a view of all lanes; any additional adult checks jump distances and supports the changeovers. Everyone jumps simultaneously; no queues.

1. Demonstrate a tiny forward jump off a spot and a tiny backward jump onto it. Children try beside their own spots, checking the landing space before each jump.
2. Say, 'Out of the pond, back to your pad!' Children repeat slowly, making each landing steady before returning.
3. Ask children to stand still while adults arrange the spots into 15 pairs, each pair a comfortable small jump apart, with clear gaps between pairs.
4. Place two children at each pair, one beside each spot in separate parallel lanes. Say, 'Jump to the other lily pad!' Both jump alongside their own lane of spots, land and pause.
5. Children turn by stepping, then jump back. After several journeys, guide each pair to walk to another empty pair of pads together; repeat the jumping so children explore pads around the room.

Organisation: 8 mins. Begin with 15 pairs of children and two spots per pair, using the separate parallel lanes from Lily pad jumps. For sharing, use 15 spots, one per pair, with a clear landing space on either side; children share the pad as a marker, not as a surface to squeeze onto. Teacher calls from the outside centre; any additional adult watches shared-pad spacing. Removed spots are stacked outside the play area. All pairs play together without elimination.

1. Keep the paired-pad layout and say, 'You are frogs in a pond!' Children stand beside their own lily pad, looking towards their partner's end of the lane.
2. Call, 'Jump!' Children jump to the other pad along their separate parallel lanes, then stop; partners swap ends without crossing paths.
3. Call, 'Splash!' Children crouch comfortably beside their pad, then stand when you say, 'Ready, frogs!' Alternate the two calls.
4. Say, 'Some lily pads are hiding!' With children standing still outside their lanes, remove one spot from each pair and centre the remaining spot between the two lanes.
5. Explain, 'Two frogs share a pad, but each frog needs their own landing space.' On 'Jump!', partners make a small jump towards their shared pad, landing on opposite sides with room between them; on 'Splash!', both crouch.
6. Call, 'Pond grows!' Children step back to their starting places and repeat the shared-pad round, finishing with a quiet, balanced landing.

1. Slowly hop to a lily pad and crouch.
2. Stretch tall, then lie down.

• Jump on a non-slip surface, never in socks
• Children face the same direction with space in front
• Teach landing before height or distance
• For backward jumps in Lily pad jumps, keep the distance tiny and check that spots lie flat; children may step back if they cannot see or judge their return space.
• In Pond game, shared pads are markers only: give each partner a separate landing space so heads and arms cannot meet during jumps or crouches.
• Stop all travelling before adults reposition or remove spots; stack unused spots beyond the play boundary rather than leaving them in jumping lanes.