Tag Archives: outdoor activity

DIY Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Buddy’s always enjoyed drawing pictures with sidewalk chalk. Now that he’s a little older, I thought this summer was a great time to try a variation on traditional sidewalk chalk. So when I saw the idea for sidewalk chalk paint on The Kitchen Table’s Classroom’s blog, I was excited to try it.

The recipe calls for a 1:1 ratio of cornstarch to water, with food coloring added as needed. So we started with two tablespoons of cornstarch, a little food coloring, and then two tablespoons of water. Buddy tried to stir the mixture, but it was very firm. So we added more water until it was a nice liquid consistency. It was a fun little science experiment before we got to the art activity.

Once we were all ready to paint, we grabbed two paintbrushes and headed outside. We both had a blast painting on our driveway! After the paint dried, it really did look like sidewalk chalk. And when we were all done, it washed away as easily as sidewalk chalk too. It was a fun and easy activity, and I’m sure we’ll try it again next summer.

Do you have any other fun, outdoor activities for kids? Share your ideas in the comments section.

Nature Scavenger Hunt

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For Try Something New Thursday, I wanted to do a nature scavenger hunt. I loved scavenger hunts as a kid, and I thought Buddy would enjoy them too. There is an amazing free printable on Life With My Little’s blog (get it here). I printed it and laminated it during Buddy’s nap. Once I found a small dry erase marker, we were all ready to go.

Buddy saw the scavenger hunt sheet, and he immediately understood what to do. He “read” the list on his own. We needed to find a stick, a dandelion, a clover, a bug, and a cool rock. I love this particular scavenger hunt because it is short, has nice pictures, and everything is easy to find.

Buddy got into his push car, and we went to the park near our house. There is a walking path around a small pond, which I knew would be perfect for our hunt. Buddy studied our scavenger hunt list as I pushed him to the park.

Once we reached the park, Buddy got out of the car to find the items. As we found each item, he crossed out the picture with the dry erase marker. Buddy loved using the marker and carrying our scavenger hunt list!

We found a clover!

Crossing out pictures on the card.

Since we took our time finding the items, we were able to see many amazing things not on our list. We saw a rabbit, a squirrel, a heron, and several huge dragonflies! Buddy loves animals, and they made our walk extra fun. After we walked for a while, Buddy wanted to push the car on his own. It slowed us down a bit, but we saw many fun things as a result.