Chalk is such a fun medium for kids to be able to use. Chalk allows kids to be creative and to have a little freedom. Inside, you generally hear “Don’t color on the walls, fridge, chairs, etc.” Outside, with chalk, you can color all over the sidewalk, driveway… there are endless possibilities and its hard to run out of space to express yourself.
While it’s fun to just let the kids go and color with the chalk… We have also had some more structured chalk activities. These activities have been so fun and they make playing outside with chalk even more exciting!
Now whenever I pull down the chalk, the kids are beyond excited! I can pretty much get them to do anything if they know we’re headed outside to play with chalk. I’m not above the occasional bribe 😉
Let me back up and tell you about our chalk projects this summer.
The first project we did was during C is for Cars week. We made a Chalk Car Community.
I love activities like this that foster communication and vocabulary building. We sat down and talked about all the things that we drive in our car to do. We drive to the library and to go shopping. We drive to church, the park and to play with friends.
After creating all of the roads and buildings we pulled out the cars and spent some time driving around our little community and visiting all the different places!The week of July 4th we went to fireworks at a symphony in the park, it was a pretty late night. By the time Friday, the 4th rolled around, we were exhausted. Unfortunately, we had promised Lanae some fireworks. We didn’t want to go back on our word, but we knew that we would all be miserable waiting for fireworks…
The solution: Chalk Fireworks
It might seem like cheating. I know a lot of kids might not be satisfied with chalk fireworks. However, we worked hard to make it exciting!
Lanae helped us draw them and both Owen and Lanae made the “boom boom” noise of fireworks. Our whole driveway was covered in fireworks. After a while, we laid down and pretended to see the fireworks up in the sky.
I love it when my kids cuddle up with me and I love to see the wheels turning in their heads as they let their imaginations go! Next year, we are going to have some sparklers on hand, just in case! But we now know that chalk is a great way to inspire some amazing pretend play moments.
I know Hopscotch is a pretty simple and well-known game. So I’m just sharing this as a reminder of all the fun things you can use hopscotch to teach, while also helping kids develop some gross motor skills!
Hopscotch teaches kids how to hop with direction. Which depending on the kid, can definitely be a challenge. Also, you can eventually teach them how to hop on one foot!
Hopscotch can also be used to help teach counting and numbers in a fun and interactive way. My child still insists on shouting “1, 3, 2, 1, 3, 2” over and over again. I don’t know why she can’t just chant it the right way… I guess it will come with time and lots more practice.
Check out the rest of the Campers for this Summer Craft Camp!
You came up with some GREAT ideas! My son would be super excited about that cars track especially!! Thanks for playing along with us!
Thanks Randi! I hope you try it out and let me know how it goes! Thanks for having me.
fun ideas!!! pinning!
Thanks Emily!!
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Fun! I especially love the cars idea! Little J would probably love that! He loves little cars and knows that cars say “beep beep” haha. Thanks!