21 Educational Sidewalk Chalk Games

Sidewalk chalk is fun out of the box, but you can really take the fun to new heights with these educational sidewalk chalk games.

That way, you can really maximize your time and theirs by combining play and learning.

We’ll show you the best educational sidewalk chalk ideas in one spot so that you have plenty of ideas to break up those long summer days with a fun, educational activity for any age.

I love sidewalk chalk as a learning tool just because it’s so adaptable.  You can start teaching your kids colors as soon as they’re old enough to understand words.  Then, it’s easy to change the games to be more challenging as they grow and learn at their own pace.

For example, a bean bag toss game that starts out as a color challenge can evolve to include addition and subtraction and then multiplication later.  As we cover each idea, we’ll discuss how you can adjust the objective to keep older kids engaged too.

Sidewalk chalk games are also great because you can adjust the game to favor your kid’s interests

and preferences.  If your boys are into firemen and trucks, make up a number game where they squirt water on numbers to “put out fires”.

And, if they lose interest, you can start something else with a quick spray of water or brushing it away with a broom.

Alright, let’s move on to the games.

How to Play:

This just involves drawing a maze that has an exit to a really cool goal or objective. You can even give clues using shapes, colors, or numbers so that they progress through the maze by stepping on all of the triangles or by skip counting by 5. If you have a pre-school kid, he could count from 1-20 to get to the exit.

I’m working on the alphabet with my middle child, so we practiced letters with an alphabet maze.  For younger kids, you can even draw the traditional lines for walls to make it a little easier.  I wanted something challenging for my oldest too, so I left them out.

To make it easier on them, start with the A at the bottom so they don’t have to recognize upside down letters very often!

Here’s a picture with the path through the maze highlighted so that you can see it:

The possibilities are endless.

Learning Objectives:

• Colors
• Numbers
• Shapes
• Problem solving
• Patterns
• Math

How to Make it More Challenging:

• Remove the lines in the maze and just let your kids find their way using numbers or shapes
• Use extended patterns 4 and 5 elements long

How to Play:

This is an old classic. With hop scotch, your kids learn and get exercise!  You can lay out the board with different chalk colors and have the kids jump as you call the colors.  Or, as they get older, have them shout the colors at each hop.

Of course, you could do the same things with numbers and letters.  But, don’t just be a taskmaster, get in there and start hopping to show them how it’s done.

Learning Objectives:

• Colors
• Numbers
• Shapes
• Sight words

How to Make it More Challenging:

• After playing with shapes and colors, advance to letters and sight words for older kids

How to Play:

If you have ever played Sudoku, you know how satisfying it is when you finish a puzzle. Well, for your son or daughter, it does not need to be as complicated.  Otherwise, you’ll spoil the fun.

So instead of the 9×9 grid, have a 4×4 grid with shapes, colors or even numbers. If it is for shapes, each row and column can have a rectangle, square, circle and oval.

Then, you play the game just like you normally would by making sure that every square has one of each shape and that no row or column has 2 of the same item.

Learning Objectives:

• Colors
• Numbers
• Shapes
• Letters
• Sight words

How to Make it More Challenging:

• Leave more and more blanks in the puzzle that need to be filled in
• Advance from shapes and colors to letters and sight words
• Increase the size of the grid to 3×3 or 4×4

How to Play:

A bean bag toss is a simple but fun game that has many educational ideas.  If you don’t have a bean bag, a wet sponge is a great substitute on those hot summer days.

To play the game, you can draw different shapes and instruct your kids to toss to a certain shape.

For numbers, you can mix up the numbers and have your daughter name the particular number that the bag lands on to score a point.

Since you have chalks with different colors, you can easily substitute colors for the numbers or shapes.  With older kids, you can start working in larger numbers as solutions to math equations that you write out beside the game.

You could even use common objects to teach words to really small kids like the moon, sun, stars, birds, trees, etc.

Learning Objectives:

• Colors
• Numbers
• Shapes
• Letters
• Sight words
• Math
• Patterns
• Spelling

How to Make it More Challenging:

• Work on filling in operations for math equations
• Identify the next shape in a list of elements with a pattern
• Say a word and let your kids toss the bag to the first or last letter in the word

How to Play:

For connect the dots, it’s just a matter of dreaming up a simple picture that you can draw without lifting up the chalk.  Then, outline the shape with dots and number them in sequence.

Once they’re finished connecting the numbers, have them guess what they’ve drawn and help color it in!

Again, you could even use common objects to teach words to really small kids like the moon, sun, stars, birds, trees, etc.

Learning Objectives:

• Colors
• Numbers
• Animals

How to Make it More Challenging:

• More complicated shapes
• Have your kids dream up a puzzle that you can finish

How to Play:

What kid doesn’t like spraying things with water right?

Combine water play with firefighting pretend play with this game.  At the simplest level, you can start by writing out letters or numbers and letting them spray off the ones that you call out that “catch on fire.”

Then, you can advance to writing out patterns or equations and letting them “put out” the flaming mistakes and correct them with new numbers and shapes.

Thanks to Coffee Cups and Crayons for the great idea!

Learning Objectives:

• Numbers
• Letters
• Shapes;
• Sight words
• Patterns
• Math
• Skip counting

How to Make it More Challenging:

• Write out several equations and let your kids erase the ones that have mistakes
• Let them find misspellings in words

How to Play:

When it’s really nice out, why not adapt a board game that your kids already love to a driveway game with sidewalk.

Whether that’s Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders, you can adapt any game to outdoor play with sidewalk chalk.  You can reuse the cards or spinner from the board game and draw the game large enough so that your children can be the pieces.

This is a great break to a long day of homeschooling and can incorporate learning too.

Learning Objectives:

• Counting
• Numbers
• Taking turns

How to Make it More Challenging:

• Your only limit is the games that you choose

How to Play:

This is pretty self-explanatory, but why not trace your bodies to explore anatomy.  Or, they could just trace objects outside like bats and balls to practice artwork and fine motor skills.

Then, get them to draw a duplicate free-hand to practice drawing.

Learning Objectives:

• Teamwork
• Fine-motor skills
• Drawing
• Emotions and facial expressions

How to Make it More Challenging:

• The anatomy example is pretty limitless
• Have them fill in the drawings with details like clothes or facial features

How to Play:

Do you remember Simon Says?  To incorporate sidewalk chalk, simply color a big circle with wedges that are different colors.  Or, you can use squares if you like.  Then, you can call out the colors that you want your kids to stand on.  For all of the directions with “Simon says” at the front, your kids should obey the instructions.  For the ones without, they shouldn’t.

This game pulls double-duty teaching colors or geometry while also teaching your children to listen closely to every part of your instructions.

Which of us mothers can’t get on board with that?!?

Learning Objectives:

• Listening carefully and critical thinking
• Shapes
• Colors
• Numbers

How to Make it More Challenging:

• Use multi-step commands like “hop to the red square and then walk backwards to the blue square”
• Mix in other names in the commands like “Susie says”

How to Play:

These two are similar in concept, so I’ve grouped them together.  Why not draw a big bull’s eye and then have your kids compete to see who gets the highest score?

First, draw a bull’s eye using the sidewalk chalk, then assign the points to the circles.

Let them use a wet sponge as their lawn dart substitute, and it will be easy to see exactly where it landed!

Be sure to draw it at a reasonable distance so your kids can have some success to keep them motivated.

For young kids, you can keep score for them and for older kids, they can practice addition while doing their own score keeping.

As a variation, you can have different shapes in the circles and name the shape that you want them to toss the sponge to. It is also possible to toss first, then name or spell the respective shapes or objects. The number of points accumulated determines the winner.

Learning Objectives:

• Addition
• Taking turns
• Numbers
• Shapes
• Spelling

How to Make it More Challenging:

• Let them keep their own scorecard
• Have them score points by spelling the number or shape
• Call out the first letter of the word represented by the picture for bonus points (ex. A for apple)

How to Play:

Let your kids use their sidewalk chalk to draw on different items outside to explore the textures of items.  You can have them color on asphalt, concrete, and even tree bark or leaves.  Talk about the gaps in the color and whether or not they think it’s rough or smooth.

Be sure to discuss why some parts are raised high enough to get chalk on them and some low spots don’t have any color as you drag the chalk across them.  It works the best if you turn the chalk sideways.  Our triangle-shaped sidewalk chalk works really well for this since it’s easier to hold and drag across the surfaces.

Don’t worry about the chalk, it will be all but gone with the next hard rain.

Learning Objectives:

• Natural science
• Art

How to Make it More Challenging:

• Have them order the objects by roughness before they start
• Estimate the percentage of the surfaces covered by chalk for each object

How to Play:

Are you familiar with how a sun dial works?

To make the sun dial, just use a stick and prop it upright pointing towards the equator.  Then, mark the location of the top of the shadow at different times of the day.

To further explore the sun’s movement and shadows, you could also trace the shadow of an object like a car or a tree and write down the time and explain that we expect the shadow to move when the sun moves.

Learning Objectives:

• Astronomy
• Patience!

How to Make it More Challenging:

• Let them determine meal times for an entire day based on the sun (remind them eating too early will leave them hungry before their next snack/meal)

How to Play:

This game is similar to the previous one in that it takes an afternoon to really see the results of it.  It will work more quickly in the morning or evening.  First, stand a stick up or prop it up with a brick or some rocks.  Then, mark the tip of the stick’s shadow.

Now, play another game for an hour or so.

Then, come back and mark another dot for the tip of the shadow at the new location.  Next, draw a line connecting the two marks that you made.  That line runs from East to West.  The last mark is on the East side and the first mark is on the West side.  From there, you can mark North and South too.

While you’re at it, pull up your house on a map and explain how they would navigate to their grandparent’s house using their new skill.

Learning Objectives:

• Astronomy
• Navigation
• Direction Finding

How to Make it More Challenging:

–

How to Play:

This game is great for encouraging creativity.  First, read a book with your kids inside.  Then, have your kids draw a scene for a play.  Once the scene is in place, they can use figurines that they have to act out a scene using the landscape they “painted” using the sidewalk chalk.

Learning Objectives:

• Storytelling
• Drawing
• Coloring

How to Make it More Challenging:

• Instead of choosing scenes from known stories, have them create their own 5 act play

How to Play:

The Blind Painter game is great for encouraging cooperative play and concept visualization.

First, set up a divider between your kids like a cardboard box.

Put an object like a toy car in front of one child and give the other child the chalk.

Next, have the child with the object describe how to draw it to the second person.

After they’ve finished, remove the barrier and see how closely the picture resembles the object.  Then, they can swap roles to get a sense of playing both sides of the game.

Things you can talk about:

• Ask them how the picture is similar to the object and how it is different
• Have them describe what parts of the exercise were difficult
• Ask them how they could have described the object better to make a better picture

Learning Objectives:

• Teamwork
• Drawing
• Imagination / Visualization

How to Make it More Challenging:

• Find more difficult props!

How to Play:

Surely, we all remember the game hangman from our days in elementary school, right?  The idea is that one word comes up with a word or phrase (think Wheel of Fortune), then, the player tries to guess the word by choosing letters as clues to fill in the missing spaces.

The twist is that any incorrect guess earns another body part in the hangman’s noose.  It’s a great game to study spelling and phonics.  And, it’s easily adaptable to have a less morbid consequence for guessing the wrong letters.  For instance, you could remove parts from a fire truck (making it less effective) or remove flowers from a bouquet in a vase.

Learning Objectives:

• Spelling
• Phonics
• Vocabulary

How to Make it More Challenging:

• Expand to phrases
• Start off with fewer guesses available

How to Play:

Print out a map of the stars and have your kids pick out their favorite constellations.  Then, have them recreate their favorites on the driveway or sidewalk.

Learning Objectives:

• Astronomy

How to Make it More Challenging:

• Have them name the stars in the constellation too

How to Play:

Do you remember Twister?  The challenge is to place your hands and feet on the circles called out my the judge without letting any other body parts touch the ground.

You start out by creating a grid on the driveway of colored circles.  Each column will have the same color of circles, and each column should be about 12” from the closest column.

Then, the judge calls out “left hand on red”, “right foot on blue”, etc. until the contestants are thoroughly twisted up!

The great thing is that you can adjust the difficulty really easily by increasing or decreasing the spacing between the circles for different ages.

And, there’s plenty of chance for strategy as your kids learn to box out their competition and occupy the easiest circles to reach before their siblings do!

Learning Objectives:

• Color recognition
• Balance
• Listening
• Critical thinking

How to Make it More Challenging:

• Adjust the spacing between the circles to make reaching each circle more difficult

How to Play:

This is another indoor game adaptation.  If you don’t remember how to play connect four, we’ll go through the rules for you:

The objective is to get 4 of your color circles in a row, either vertically, horizontally, or on a 45 degree angle.

You can only place a circle above the base of the playing surface or above another circle.

With chalk, you just have a draw a square to serve as the playing surface and then decide which side is going to be the “bottom” or base that you start from.

From there, simple “stack” up your “discs” and try to get four in a row.

Learning Objectives:

• Strategy
• Counting
• Taking turns

How to Make it More Challenging:

• You could always do shapes instead of colored circles

How to Play:

This isn’t as much of a game as it is a fun activity, though you could take turns thinking of the best ideas and get a judge to score them.

The idea is simple:

Recreate scenes with people in them so that you can pose for silly pictures!

You could be riding an innertube down a huge waterfall, flying through the clouds like superman, or lifting off into the air under a huge bunch of balloons.

Learning Objectives:

• Creativity!

How to Make it More Challenging:

• Have your kids work together to decide how to recreate specific scenes from their favorite movies

How to Play:

This one blends chemistry and a touch of art for a delightfully messy learning experience.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Baking soda
• Vinegar
• Powdered chalk
• Plastic sandwich bags

You might recognize the vinegar and baking soda from junior high science fair volcano fame.  These have the additional benefit of the sudden pop and oozing of a beautiful colored eruption.

Here’s what you do:

• Put some chalk in a heavy-duty plastic bag and use a hammer to crush it into a powder.
• Scoop some powder out and add it to a sandwich bag along with a scoop of baking soda
• Partially seal the bag, leaving one side open to add the vinegar
• Quickly poor some vinegar in the bag (once you’re safely outside!) and seal it completely
• Toss it on the driveway and wait for the explosion!

What you can talk about:

• How the baking soda and vinegar react and release gas which causes the bag to swell and pop
• About Pascal’s law and how pressure inside the bag is even at every point
• Why the bag eventually fails and why the foamy fluid shoots out at the same spot that it fails.

Learning Objectives:

• Chemistry
• Science

How to Make it More Challenging:

• Challenge your kids to find the ideal combination of baking soda and vinegar for the best eruptions
• What happens if you use a stronger container like a freezer bag

Well that does it for this list.  That should be enough to keep those warm spring and summer days filled with great educational, outdoor activities.

I’d love to hear from all of you teachers and homeschool educators to see what other ideas you’ve had success with in the past.  Just leave a comment down below.