Whenever your child practices fine motor skills, they are also indirectly preparing their hand to write. Writing takes coordination and small fine movements that children develop over time!

To get outside AND practice fine motor movements, try drawing with chalk on your driveway or sidewalks. Here are a few additional ideas for learning opportunities with chalk.

Thick Chalk for Young Children

For children who are just working to grasp markers or crayons to scribble, start out with thick chalk. It will be easier to hold and less likely to break.

At this young age, enjoy big scribbling movements outdoors that wouldn’t be possible on paper. Use new vocabulary like swirls, zig-zags, or waves. Practice color recognition by asking your child to “step on” or “jump over” objects of certain colors. For example, “Jump over the blue line!”

Thin Chalk for Older Children

As your child gets more comfortable drawing and writing with thin tip pencils or markers, upgrade to thin chalk. Encourage holding the chalk the same way you might hold a pencil to get even more fine motor practice.

Next, get creative with drawing activities! Follow your child’s interests to make chalk games out of shape recognition (Can you step on the square?), letter sounds (Run to the ffff sound!) and problem solving (We’re running out of room, how can we complete the hopscotch board?).

Enjoy building fine motor skills and spending time as a family outdoors this summer with chalk! Share some of your ideas with us in Primary Chat or on Instagram @primarycommunity. We’d love to see your chalk inspirations!

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