Sidewalk Chalk to Encourage Reading/Development

Reading doesn’t always require a “book”. Incorporating play is always a great way to learn, so try out some of these sidewalk chalk games. You can get a new reader reading. For a pre-reader, this can build vocabulary and help them learn to identify colors, shapes, and letters.

IMPORTANT: Make it FUN. Don’t make it seem like work. Kids do their best “work” while playing. If your child isn’t interested, let them lead the game their way. Try different things!

What you need: Sidewalk chalk, preferably of many colors. A bean bag or other similar object that you can toss and that doesn’t bounce. In a pinch, you can fill a balloon or a small Ziplock bag with sand, sugar, or salt.
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Pre-Reader Game Ideas:

• Play copy-cat: Draw a letter slowly; ask your child to copy your actions with their chalk.
• Draw letters of the alphabet on the sidewalk or driveway. Call out a letter and throw a bean bag to that letter.
  • If your child is VERY new to letters, start out with only a few letters to build confidence. Put them in alphabetical order. Help your child identify them and play along too. “Mommy is going to throw the bag to the letter A. Let’s see if I can do it!”
  • If your child is more advanced, draw the full alphabet in random order.
• If your child is ready for easy sight words, draw those words on the sidewalk. Have your child toss a bean bag to them.
• Use the bean bag toss game to identify shapes, numbers, or colors. For example, you can draw different shapes in different colors. “Throw your bean bag to the yellow triangle.”
• Write the names of colors in chalk. Use white chalk to write WHITE. Use yellow chalk to write the word YELLOW. Et cetera.

• Create a maze of letters. Put all the letters of the alphabet in your maze near one another, along with other letters. The child should hop in order from A to B to C to D, etc. Incorporate other action words (e.g., jump, hop) to build their vocabulary.

• Let your child draw freestyle. Talk to them about what they are drawing, while engaging them to speak too. “Oh, I see you are using green. Is that a cow? What does a cow say? Do you know what cows eat? Cows love to eat grass.”
• Have your child lay down and draw their outline. Let your child draw your outline, next. Make a self-portrait by drawing on hair, eyes, mouth, etc. Talk to your child as you both do this exercise. Talk about the colors and any shapes they make.
• Make it a scavenger hunt. For example, find a stick and place it on the number 3. Find a rock and place it on the letter A. 
• Have them practice letters of their name or writing their name. You can use a light colored chalk to make an outline or dotted line for them to follow.

• Play hopscotch with letters and numbers.
• Make a sidewalk chalk mosaic. Talk about the shapes and colors (because language skills!)

Reader Game Ideas:

• Many of the pre-reader activities can be used or modified for readers too.
• Draw letters of the alphabet on the sidewalk or driveway. Call out a letter and throw a bean bag to that letter. Do this exercise to build words. For example, “Let’s see who can build a word with their bean bags. I am going to try to spell cat.” Throw your bean bags and try to get them to land on C-A-T. “Who can be the first to get their bean bags to spell dog?”
• Draw age-appropriate words on the sidewalk, and have your reader throw bean bags to them as you can each one out.
• With spelling words from school, have your child write each letter with a different color of chalk.

• Make a comic book together. Draw several large boxes (or use painters tape to create boxes). In each box, have your child draw a scene. Underneath each scene write some captions.
• Ultimate hop-scotch: Add numbers and actions to hop scotch to make it even more challenging. Your child has to read the rules at each number to know how to get to the next number. For example, at the number 1 it might say “Hop on your left foot six times” to get to number 2. At number 2, they have to bear crawl to get to number 3. Here are some ideas for actions:
  • hop on one foot
  • hop on your left (or right) foot
  • bear crawl
  • balance beam
  • big jumps
  • little jumps
  • twirls
  • roll
  • touch your toes
  • clap
  • run
  • jump three times on one spot