Hoppy

KNIGHT MOVE — *an L-shape: two squares one way then one square to the side; the ONLY piece that jumps over other pieces.*

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01 Opening

02 Hoppy

Poppy has the bounciest friend of all: Hoppy, the knight — a little pony with a springy mane and hooves that just love to jump.

03 Hoppy

Hoppy moves in a funny, wonderful shape. "Hop-hop this way," says Hoppy, going two squares forward — "then step to the side!" — one square across. Two-and-then-one. It makes a little L shape every time. Hop, hop, step!

04 Hoppy

But here is the most special thing about Hoppy: Hoppy is the only friend who can jump right over other pieces. Rooky must stop if someone is in the way. The twins must stop too. Not Hoppy! "Whee — over I go!" Hoppy sails right over everyone's heads and lands on the far square.

"Can you go straight, Hoppy?" asks Poppy. "Nope! I only know my hop-hop-step," says Hoppy. Once Hoppy tried to slide straight like Rooky and got all tangled hooves. Wobble-wobble-plop! Hoppy just laughed, shook it off, and did a happy hop-hop-step instead — the right way, the Hoppy way. No one minds a wobbly try in Pawnmeadow.

05 Closing

Say it with Hoppy, out loud: "Hop, hop, then step to the side — Hoppy jumps right over!"

When Hoppy leaps over a whole crowd and lands just right, everyone cheers. Hoppy feels proud and giggly and light as air. "Nobody jumps like me," says Hoppy, doing one more happy hop. "That's what makes me ME."

The PawnPals ensemble

Hoppy is part of PawnPals's distributed-narrative cast. Each character embodies a different curricular primitive; together they teach the full subject.