I don’t know about you, but I am loving this spring weather! We are trying to take advantage of it by spending as much time outside as possible before we start melting! As much as my kids love playing outside, sometimes we find ourselves stuck in a rut of playing the same things every day. Sidewalk chalk is a great addition to outdoor play and adds a fun, cheap activity for all ages to enjoy. Unless you have a budding artist though, even that can quickly lose its appeal. Here are a few ideas that you can do with sidewalk chalk to change up your outdoor play routine, and even sneak in some learning opportunities:
1. Flower Garden ~ I got this idea from a friend and it is such a fun way to incorporate sidewalk chalk and water play into a great learning activity! Draw some flowers on the ground to make your flower garden. Use a spray bottle (a squirt gun or watering can could easily work as well) to “water” your flowers and watch them disappear! The original idea is for a sight word garden, so in each flower you write a different sight word for your child to read. Then, when you call out a sight word, they have to find that word and water it. This can easily be adjusted for different ages and ability levels: draw shapes, letters, numbers, spelling words, math problems…anything you want your child to practice, or leave the flowers blank and simply enjoy squirting them!
2. Shape/Color Jump ~ Use those gross motor skills and get your child moving with this activity! Start by drawing various paths that intertwine using different colors and/or shapes. Then give your child instructions on which path to follow, such as “follow the red path” or “follow the triangles”, and have them jump from one shape to the next until they reach the end. You can make it more difficult by adding numbers for skip counting, following an ABC path, letters for spelling words, etc. You can check out the original idea here, as well as a lot of other fun ideas for sidewalk chalk!
3. Race Track/Road ~ My son’s favorite indoor activity is playing with his cars, so why not bring this love outside as well? Use sidewalk chalk to draw a road or race track for matchbox cars to drive on, or make a train track for some toy trains. Keep it simple with just the road, or make it more complex by adding in buildings, stop signs, bridges, etc. Soon you can have a whole town! If you have larger vehicles, such as cozy coupes, you can also make nice wide roads to drive them on.
4. Hopscotch ~ I find that I often forget to introduce my kids to some of the classic games from my childhood. Use your sidewalk chalk to draw a good, old fashioned hopscotch game. You can follow the traditional rules, or just let them jump. Add an educational twist by writing letters, words, shapes, etc, in the squares, or calling out spelling words or math problems to practice as they jump.
5. Sidewalk Paint ~ Change it up completely by making some sidewalk paint instead of chalk. It’s super easy and all you need is corn starch, water, and some food coloring. Find the recipe here and start painting! Add to the fun by spraying it off with a hose when you’re done.
What are your favorite activities to do with sidewalk chalk?
These are awesome! Seriously will be trying some of them this afternoon. I always make car tracks, but love the other ideas!