Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Sidewalk Chalk Painting

With all the Spring toys hitting the stores, I find myself gazing longingly at new packages of brightly colored chalk. I force myself to resist their sirens knowing that we have a whole bucket full of chalk at home.

Of course, that led me to stewing on how to use up all this chalk we already have. I mean, simple drawing is fine, but it's not gonna get me a fresh shiny box with the new *BRIGHTER* colors.

Inspiration struck: chalk + water = chalk paint

This not only provides more vibrant creations, but it uses up the old stuff really, really quickly.

I started out thinking Linus and I would work together to pulverize our chalk into dust then mix it with water, but quickly realized that using only toddler-safe tools would lead to an eternity of preparation.


Instead, we just splattered a little water on the sidewalk and then scribbled in the puddle. We also found dipping the chalk into a cup of water sped the process up nicely.

So once our method was perfected, we started painting.



Not only were the colors bolder but using paint brushes created sharper lines and more precise detailing. Of course, Linus just liked having excuse to pour water everywhere.


(This activity would also be great between the showers on a rainy Spring day.)


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love it when my kids do sidewalk chalk, but the sound of it scraping? The texture of chalk? The sheer chalkiness of it? Totally heebes me out!
My kids like to take turns riding on the back of a wagon/bicycle dragging the chalk in gigantic patterns on our driveway!

Gina F. said...

I love playing with sidewalk chalk with my daughter. My daughter loves the new 3-D sidewalk chalk they have now. You draw on the sidewalk with the chalk and put the 3-D glasses on. Very Cool!!

HAVE A FAB DAY!!!
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Miche said...

You are such a genius! We ran out of sidewalk chalk paint that we got as a gift and I've been putting off buying more just cause it is SO expensive. I am totally dipping the chalk in water this afternoon-what a great hot day activity, as well!