Super Simple Chalk Activities for your Toddler this Spring Time
Spring is here!
If there is one thing we can be thankful for in this current climate, it is that the weather is on the up!
And whilst we must stay home, we can at least enjoy a little sunshine in our gardens 🙂
So what better way to keep your toddler occupied than with some awesome chalk games!
I LOVE chalk for so many reasons, but here’s just a few:
- The possibilities for fun activities are quite literally endless!
- It can be used in so many different ways by you and your toddler
- It’s cheap(!!) The cost of chalk is so minimal compared with other activities
- It is such an easy clean up!
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So grab yourself some chalk and let’s get into it!
Hands on Chalk Games for Toddlers
A great way to use chalk in the garden is to use it as an interactive base for some fun games for you and your toddler.Â
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- Garden Scavenger Hunt
Why not draw some squares or sections and have your toddler collect items from around the garden – you could make this a nature based activity as we did for ours, and collect things like leaves, twigs, stones and flower petals. You might want to do this based on colour and include other things, or maybe practice counting and find a set number of each thing – adapt it to whatever stage your toddler is at and have lots of fun running around the garden!Â
- Emotions
You could play an emotions game by drawing a few different faces and begin by asking your child how they are feeling today – you can then talk about the different emotions and when you might feel happy, sad or angry and encourage your child to stand on the faces and have a go at making some funny faces too!Â
- Roads
This is an absolute favourite of mine because it can be done in so many different ways! If you have a balance bike or a ride on toy, they you could create a chalk road for your toddler to follow – this is a great way to develop coordination and makes riding those cars that much more fun!!Â
- Bring out the toys
Like the road there are many different layouts you could draw to create a backdrop for fun play! Why not try creating a teddy bear’s picnic by drawing a blanket and some food! Or a train layout with stations and make some tunnels out of twigs. Use whatever toys your child loves and have a go at creating a chalk space for them to play! - Mark Making
You can’t really have chalk and not let your toddler have a go themselves! There are so many things you could encourage them to do – free play is always great but if you want some more structured activities to start them off with you could try drawing around things like hands, (or mummy or daddy on the floor!), draw around stones, leaves, frisbee – anything you can think of basically! They could colour in pebbles, colour the fence – preschoolers could have a go at writing some numbers or their name – whatever is most suitable for your child give it a go!
Simple Follow Along Chalk Games for Toddlers
Following instructions and listening is a big skill for little ones to learn. These games are designed to help toddlers practice these skills and have a go at following some instructions.
- Mazes
I think mazes are a fun little game for little ones who are just starting to figure out the world around them – You can have them walk through the maze or direct a car or any toy vehicle around – you could even get them to use a different coloured piece of chalk and draw their way through the maze.
(This was a little trickier to draw than I had expected and so a little tip to save you some time – draw squares getting bigger and bigger and then just rub out gaps with a wet cloth to create the maze – saves so much time!!) - Shape Jumping
This is such a fun game for little ones and it’s so simple to set up using shapes that your toddler is familiar with already (or a great way to teach them some new shapes too!) Just draw some shapes out on the ground and then shout out a shape for them to jump to – if you want something a little more challenging, you could do two shapes at a time (a bit like the game twister) either the same or different depending on the age of your toddler / preschooler. - Balance lines
This often looks simpler than it is, especially for small children, and that is what makes it such a great activity for toddlers. Create a start, and draw a line for them to follow – you could have straight lines, wavy lines, broken lines to hop on, or a combination of all of these! You could try jumping along the lines, skipping, hopping, walking slow, running fast – whatever works for you! You can make the line as long or as short as you want depending on how much energy your little one has!!
Chalk games to get your toddler moving!
Sometimes we just need to get our children outside and let them run and jump and skip and hop, and do all the things to burn some of that energy! Here are some suggestions as to how you can use chalk to do just that!
- Movement Trail
We have a path in our garden that we filled with prompts to move – this included numbers and various different instructions to encourage lots of movement of all of the body. This is a great activity if you have older children as well, they can race against each other by setting timers and helping little ones to read the prompts.
Here is a list of the prompts we used for this activity:
– 3 Hops
– 4 Star jumps
– Spin around
– 2 High jumps
– 5 Skips
– Touch your toes
– Clap 6 times
– Balance on one leg
– 3 Bunny hops
– Wave your hands in the air
– Almost there!
– Stamp your feet
– Stretch to the sky
– Swing arms around
– High Five! - Musical Chalk Games
Another great way to encourage movement is to draw chalk bases around the garden and play a simplified version of musical statues and have your toddler dance and every time the music stops you have to run to a chalk ‘base’Â simple, but so much fun!!
Ready, Set, Chalk!
So there you have it, lots of fun chalk activities perfect for entertaining toddlers!
I’d love to see what chalk activities you are up to now the sun is making an appearance – if you have any to share then please comment below or alternatively share on Instagram and tag me in your posts so that I can see them @mumscreativecupboard
Have fun!!
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Louisa x
