Break out the sidewalk chalk and think big!
With a yard stick, or a board to use for a straight edge, your kids can use the chalk to draw a giant checkerboard or chess game on the driveway or patio. As a plus, it takes a while to color in all those squares! And it’s a good lesson in measuring and parallel lines. For checkers you can use different colors of paper plates. For chess pieces, you could draw pictures on the plates, or even use stuffed animals. I’m thinking the kids could even be markers themselves and play a version of “wizard’s chess” like they do in Harry Potter. It would be a fun activity for a party, and a fun way to teach the kids chess. To save you from having to look it up, chess and checkerboards have eight squares on each side.
The kids could even come up with their own large sized versions of board games. For example, they might make a lot of extra slides for CandyLand, or make areas named after their favorite treats. And of course, tic-tac-toe and hopscotch are classic games.
Another favorite is to make roads out of sidewalk chalk. Usually kids get very carried with this and start drawing in houses and trees for their toy cars to drive past. Or if you have a toy train, making train tracks from chalk is fun. If your children disagree about which ways the roads or train tracks should go give them their own section of the pavement. You can even draw it off for them with chalk!
You can go super big and make roads with different street signs for tricycle drivers. A circular race track work for both the small cars and in large scale for tricycles too.
For brighter more intense colors, use Wet Sidewalk Chalk. Have fun with your sidewalk chalk and thinking up your own big games!
Also See:
Homemade Sidewalk Chalk
Cheap and Easy Homemade Sidewalk Chalk Recipe