This summer, get outside with your students and get creative with chalk! This entertaining, affordable, and active item is a great learning tool as well. With these 5 activities you are sure to keep your students engaged while teaching them important skills along the way.
1. Hopscotch
In its original form, hopscotch groups together squares, typically numbered from 1 to 10, and challenges children to skip along the squares alternating between a one–foot hop and two–foot hops when marked as so. There are many ways to make hopscotch more challenging, including introducing a marker, which can be as simple as a rock. Students can throw the marker onto the hopscotch board and make a rule. Rules can be as simple as, “skip the square the marker landed on”, or as complex as, “pick the marker up and place in another square”. Allow students to be as creative and free-minded as they wish!
2. Obstacle Courses and Movement Mazes
Becoming popular in 2020, the obstacle course encourages students to take hopscotch a step further. Encourage your students to use their imagination to create a multi-step obstacle course similar to that of hopscotch. Some of our favorite additions to the obstacle course are:
- Hop like a bunny
- Spin
- Touch your toes
- Walk on your heels
- Hands to the sky
We also suggest you create these obstacles courses in shared areas like the bus line, recess area, sidewalk, or outdoor basketball course. Part of the fun is watching others enjoy it.
If you want to try a movement maze indoors check out these indoor options: Movement Mazes and Physical Distancing.
3. Anatomy
Chalk is a fantastic way to teach anatomy. Have your students pair up and trace each other as they lay on the ground – being sure to get individual legs and arms. Then, challenge them to find and draw anatomical features. You can make this as difficult or as easy as you wish. For younger students, you could call out eyes, ears, toes, nose, etc. For older students, you could do heart, stomach, ribs, etc.
4. Build a Board Game
Building a board game is a fun way to get your students to use their problem–solving skills and creativity. While the chalk can build the board, what other things can you find and use as cards, game pieces, wearable challenges, etc. Encourage your students to attempt to play the game as is. When they come across issues, they should use their problem-solving skills to come up with a solution.
5. Story Board
Build a 3–by–3 grid for a small group of your students and have them storyboard their favorite book, show, or movie. Remind them to pick out key parts of the story, for example, the climax, resolution, and exposition (or beginning, middle, and end). Also, ensure they include important influences along the way.
Including a chalk activity along with your curriculum is a terrific way to get students outside, active, and interested in the lesson. How do you introduce chalk to your students?
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