10 Sidewalk Chalk Activities To Make Your Summer Fun

What is Summer Without Sidewalk Chalk?

Summer is just around the corner, and keeping kids occupied is on everyone’s to-do list. And what better way to keep your kids occupied than to let them go crazy with some sidewalk chalk. If you are looking for activities that keep your kids mentally stimulated, while having fun, this list of 10 sidewalk chalk activities is what you are looking for.

All of these activities are great for either the sidewalk or a driveway.

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Do Not Forget the Chalk!

hopscotch

Hopscotch is a fun activity that lets can keep your kids busy for hours jumping and hopping. Depending on your child’s skill level, you can make a hopscotch course anywhere from 10 to 100. If you can get the kids in the neighborhood involved, all the kids on the street can play it together and get rid of lots of energy.

snakes and ladders

Most of us, when we were young, played a board game called snakes and ladders. I think the name may have changed over the years to shoots and ladders, but the concept was still the same. It’s a board with 100 squares. When landing on a square with a ladder, the player climbs up one or more levels.  And the player slides down one more several levels if they land on a snake or shoot.

Making a playing board on your driveway takes about 10-15 minutes but can be used again and again until the chalk gets rubbed off or it rains.

All you need are some kids and a die to roll.

word search

This activity is simple to make. You need to pick out several words that will be searched for. I like to keep the words in a theme, for example, summer. I would use words like:

• sun
• pool
• sprinkler
• park
• swings
• swim
• water

The best way to start is to make your square frame the size of the longest word or one box longer. So from the list above, SPRINKLER is the longest with 9 letters. So my crossword frame would have a minimum of 9 boxes on the horizontal.

For younger kids, I start off writing the word one per line. When they get better, I increase the complexity by placing words on the diagonal and up and down.

When filling in the words into the crossword frame, I write the words in first, then fill in random letters in the remaining spaces. This makes the setup take about 5 minutes.
If you do not allow your kids to circle the words when they are found but leave the board untouched, you can replay them later. But, really, this is a once and done kind of game.

fitness/agility course

This is a neat little way to get your kids moving and using lots of energy, and it works well on sidewalks and driveways.

Using different shapes and words to detail what each station requires, you make an obstacle course of sorts. You require a designated starting point and multiple stations with activities through the agility course.

An example of what we use is as follows, and the order can be switched up to on future courses:

• X = jumping jacks. If you have XXXX, that represents 4 jumping jacks
• Spiral = spinning. Here the kids would follow the spiral with their feet and spin outward.
• Zig-zag = side lunges. Following the zig-zag, kids lung from side to side as they progress in the course
• RUN = running on the spot. This can have a time like 10 seconds.
• Circles = jumping. Children need to jump from one circle to the next. Either with their feet together or apart.

By combining several different items together, you can make a course for your children to run through. The more stations you add, the more energy your kids will use!

Tape designs

This is a simple activity that yields great results. All you need is some tape and chalk.

Using the tape, make a square or rectangle outline on the sidewalk or driveway. Once you get more advances, you can go for more exotic shapes, but as a starting point, trust me, squares and rectangles. Then apply more tape from one side to a corner or another side. Keep adding more lines of tape in all different directions to make a weird design.  

Once you have finished using the tape, let your kids color each section of the non-taped area with different color designs. Once they are done coloring in, remove the tape and enjoy your new art.

This can also work on fences but can be a bit harder depending on your fence type.

leave messages for the street

We often go for walks around the neighborhood, and so do many of our neighbors.  It is always a more enjoyable walk when we see a fun and encouraging messages on the sidewalks and driveways.  They do not need to be anything overly complicated.  Here are some that we like to do:

• Smile!
• Have a Wonderful Day!
• Don’t Worry, Be Happy.
• Dream Big!
• You Deserve Some Cake!

color in stones on the ground

If you have a walkway with paving stones, big or small, you can have your children color each stone a different color.  If you plan this correctly, you can have a beautiful walkway at the end of the event, and your kids will be busy for hours, if not days.

color bricks on the house

Similar to the above, but this involves the bricks of your house. You can section off an area that is okay to chalk on and let your children color each brick a different color. If they stay true to the brick design and color all of the bricks in their area, this turns out super and is very enjoyable!

random drawings

As always, random drawings and shapes can keep your kids occupied for quite some time, and they help enhance your children’s motor skills. As your children get older and progress with their skills, a line can turn into a multi-colored rainbow and an almost-circle and turn into a very detailed depiction of the earth.

make an adventure game with stations/characters

This is a favorite at our house. We will pull the cars off the driveway and make different drawings that will be part of the adventure. We will draw a castle, some dragons, a house, a restaurant, and some forests. Then we will turn on our imaginations and go on an adventure. The more you practice imagination play, the easier these stories come to life. We often jump on a dragon who will fly us to the forest to find a clue, a key, a fairy, or something else, and the adventure continues from there. 

This one is worth a shot.

Final Thoughts

As summer is coming, and playing outside can become a chore when you do not know what to do, having a bucket of chalk can provide hours of fun! My kids love it! 

This list of sidewalk chalk activities gives the kids something to do outside.  As an added bonus, your kids may have fewer fights and meltdowns. Participating and playing in these activities also encourages them to play more.

Just do not forget to apply sunscreen before you send them outside!

Do Not Forget the Chalk!

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Did you find this list of sidewalk chalk activities helpful?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

If you liked this list, be sure to check out my others here.