No matter how much you spice your lessons up, kids can only sit still for so long before boredom kicks in. Give it an hour (and that’s on a good day!), and fidgeting and yawning will ensue.
Lucky for you, you have one ace up your sleeve: spray chalk games. They’re a great way to keep students engaged and get them moving at the same time. All you need is some removable aerosol chalk or homemade chalk powder.
Fun Spray Chalk Games to Keep Kids Engaged
Here are some of our go-to outdoor chalk activities. You can play these on most horizontal surfaces: asphalt, concrete, blacktop, and even grass. For even more spray chalk game ideas, check out our reusable stencils!
1. Hopscotch
An oldie but a goodie that improves essential locomotor skills like hopping and jumping. You can use the traditional hopscotch layout or get creative and draw the numbers in a circle, triangle, spiral, or firework pattern.
If you’re sick of washable chalk and don’t want to draw the design from scratch each time, consider investing in our reusable hopscotch stencil for a more permanent solution.
2. Follow the Line
This one is as easy as easy chalk ideas get. It only takes one chalk paint color, and you don’t even need to draw straight lines! Just spray a long-ish line that loops and twists around itself, mark the finish point with an “X”, and watch your kiddos wind around until their heads start spinning.
3. Four Square
The classic sidewalk chalk game is great for developing physical skills such as aiming, throwing, and striking. Draw a four-square court and have one kid stand in each square. The player in square four bounces a ball in their square and throws it toward one of the other squares. The receiving player must bounce the ball in their square and send it to another one before it bounces again. If anyone misses a square or the ball bounces twice, they are out.
4. Alphabet Hop
Spray 26 squares, circles, or other shapes on the ground like our Alphabet Snake! Write one letter of the alphabet in each. Then, start calling out letters and have the kids hop or jump from one shape to another. If your kiddos can already spell, call out entire words.
5. Math Target Practice
You’ll need chalk spray and a water balloon for each kid. If the weather is on the chilly side, fill the balloons with warm water. Draw single or double-digit numbers on the ground, depending on how advanced your kiddos are. Then, call out an addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division problem for each kid. They must shout out the answer and throw a water balloon at the number.
6. Animal Hide and Seek
Chalk, animals, footprints, and hide and seek – this game has it all! To start, you’ll need an assortment of animal toys. Plastic or wooden figurines or stuffed animals will do the trick.
Next, spray the animal footprints on the ground and hide the toys around the playground or schoolyard. The kids must search for the animals. As they find each one, they must place it on the footprint that best matches the footprint of the animal they just found. As an added step, you could have your kiddos call out the sound the animal makes and spell out the name of the animal!
7. Sight Word Search
Sight words don’t follow standard spelling rules, so most students learn them by sight. This spray chalk game helps kids practice identifying sight words using movement. In addition to chalk, you’ll need notecards and a marker.
Come up with ten to 20 sight words and write one on each notecard. Using spray chalk, draw circles on the ground and write a sight word inside each. Next, draw a start line three to four feet away from the circles and place the cards in a stack near the line.
Allow each player to review the circles. Read the words out loud and have the child repeat them. Then, ask the kid to pick up the card on top of the stack. They must read the word aloud, race to the corresponding circle, place the card inside, and run back to the start line. Repeat this with all cards.
8. Listen, Count, and Spray
For this one, you’ll need some cool sidewalk chalk spray and a squirt bottle with water. In addition to counting practice, this activity promotes fine motor such as gripping and pushing the sprayer.
To start, pick a number set and write the digits on the ground randomly. Then, have each player listen to how many times you clap and spray the matching number in chalk.
9. Disappearing Number Line
For more advanced math students, draw a number line from zero to ten in spray chalk. Call out a clue for each student (“one less than ten” or “two more than three”) and have them spray the correct answer using spray bottles.
10. Pogo Dots
Do your kiddos have a pogo stick sitting in the garage? Break it out and have them play this game!
Get them warmed up by spraying or drawing chalk circles on the ground that are pretty close together. Have your child jump from one spot to another. Keep it simple at first so they can get their bearings, and then ramp it up in the next “round”.
For the next round, draw the circles on the ground a bit further apart and create a design – maybe a “yellow brick road” they go down or even something like an elephant. Sort of like in the “connect the dots” game, they’ll jump from each circle to the next to outline the full drawing!
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