Written by Monthly Contributor, Jenn from The Purposeful Mom.

Last year, my daughter received a HUGE box of sidewalk chalk for her birthday! It’s become one of our favorite things to use when it’s nice enough to be outdoors. We’ve made chalk streets, painted with it and just used it to draw lots of pretty pictures!

Recently I took a step up and made some sidewalk chalk “stencils” with my 7 and 4 year old. It’s a very simple activity and it works as a good review of shapes for the littler ones as well.

Supplies:

• Round cans in different sizes (like a canned food item from the pantry)
• Rectangular cereal or other box
• Square CD case
• Triangle shaped item (we just drew our own)
• Scissors
• Pencils
• File folders or cardstock

Instructions:

1) Trace (and allow your kids to trace) the different shaped items onto the open file folders or cardstock. My husband had some extra file folders at work so that’s what we used. Make sure you leave some room around the outside of each tracing area because you’ll need to cut around them.

(This is what the 2 year old did while we traced–stickers!)

2) Cut out the inside and around the outside of each shape. This was a job for mom! You can see what they look like in the photos below.

3) Bring your stencils outside and have fun using your sidewalk chalk to create buildings and anything else that comes to mind!

You may also enjoy a fireworks chalk activity, perfect for the coming 4th of July holiday!

This post has been added to 101 Days of Summer Fun for kids!  Find more ideas to keep your kids busy this summer here.