Playing outside with chalk is a great way to alleviate boredom. We’ve seen awesome chalk ideas for kids from chalk your walk happy messages to obstacle courses for people walking by. These chalk board games are awesome! Some chalk artists are taking things to the next level and creating entire board games in their driveways with chalk.
Chalk Board Games You Can Actually Play
This take on Chutes and Ladders in the driveway is just amazing and I’m in awe of the skills to turn blacktop into a board game.
Related: Liquid Spray Chalk and Painting with Chalk and Water
1. Large Chutes & Ladders Game Drawn in Chalk
To play the really big Chutes & Ladders game made in chalk, add a large dice if you have it (or small ones if you don’t), and the game will provide fresh air and exercise, as kids can hop from square to square. Why walk if you can jump anyhow?
If you’re artistically inclined, check out other chalk games you could create! Use the games you already own for inspiration.
2. Big Chalk Checkers Board on the Sidewalk
Make your own chalk checkers board game with paper plate checkers. An 8×8 board makes for yard checkers, in any size. Use paper plates, rocks, toys, whatever you have to make two colors of pieces.
3. Outdoor Chalk Twister Game
You can easily create a fun outdoor chalk Twister board for kids. Redraw your Twister board outside on the pavement to stretch out those muscles.
4. Big Sidewalk Chalk Dots & Boxes Game
A grid of dots can turn into a traditional game of dots and boxes, like the ones you find on restaurant menus. Draw a grid of dots on the pavement. Players take turns connecting two dots with a line, trying to complete a square. When a player completes a square, they write their initial inside and take another turn. The game ends when all the dots are connected, and the player with the most squares wins.
Related: Playing inside? Grab our dots and boxes printable!
5. Play Pictionary Outside with a Sidewalk Canvas
Pictionary cards can turn your entire driveway into a game. We’ve been playing it indoors, but a larger canvas sounds like a great idea.
6. Traditional Paper Games Go BIG with Chalk
Hangman and tic-tac-toe are old standbys, especially if you use reusable pieces for tic-tac-toe, before you run out of driveway space. Sidewalk chalk can add an exciting twist to traditional pencil and paper games, allowing children to play them in a larger and more interactive format outdoors. Here are some classic pencil and paper games that can be adapted for sidewalk chalk:
- Hopscotch: Draw a hopscotch grid on the ground with numbered squares. Players toss a small stone or beanbag onto the grid and then hop through it, picking up the stone on the way back. The game continues with players hopping through the grid, skipping the square with the stone.
- Tic-Tac-Toe: Draw a large tic-tac-toe grid on the pavement. Players take turns marking X’s and O’s in the squares until one player gets three in a row.
- Four Square: Create a large four square grid on the ground, dividing it into four equal sections. Each player stands in one of the squares. The player in the first square serves the ball by bouncing it in their square once and then hitting it into another player’s square. The game continues with players hitting the ball into each other’s squares until someone makes a mistake and is eliminated.
- Hangman: Draw a gallows and underscores representing the letters of a word on the pavement. One player thinks of a word and draws a blank space for each letter, indicating how many letters are in the word. The other players guess letters one at a time. If a guessed letter is in the word, the player who thought of the word writes it in the appropriate blank space(s). If the guessed letter is not in the word, the first player draws a body part on the gallows. The game continues until the word is guessed correctly or the hangman is completed.
- Word Search: Create a large grid and write random letters in it. Players search for words hidden within the grid, marking them with chalk when found.
We’re all looking through our game stashes now to see what other games could be enlarged into chalk versions for more chalk your walk creations. Anything to get the kids outside and alleviate some of the indoor boredom sounds like a win.
More Games & Fun from Kids activities Blog
Did we miss a fun chalk board game? Tell us in the comments below!
