Some of the ideas below will have to be "setup" by an adult. (Hey! These will keep us in good "physical" shape too!)
1. Many books for small children have mazes in them that you can draw on the pavement of a pretty large driveway or cul-de-sac where there is not frequent traffic. Leaf through some of their coloring and activity books to get ideas for these sorts of things! The smaller children love trying to find their way from the "start" to the "finish" of a maze!
2. Draw a simple design out of a "jumble" of curves. Now, put the numbers 1, 2, or 3 in each section. Give the children instructions to color the sections numbered 1 with blue chalk, the sections numbered 2 with pink chalk, and the sections numbered 3 with yellow chalk. See how well they can follow directions. (A variation on this can be to label sections with letters.)
3. For Preschoolers, make a pathway with circles for them to put each foot on, to follow a path. Make the path wind and curve and go in circles. Have a small "reward" for them at the end of the path. Maybe their favorite Teddy Bear is waiting for them, or a plate of their favorite cookies. Have fun with this one! (For a variation, you could play music and stop it, teaching them to stop when the music stops, and go when the music is turned back on.)
4. Practice drawing shapes! (For smaller kids) Draw a triangle, square, circle, rectangle, and trapezoid on the pavement and have them draw the same shape inside of the one that you drew. You will have to make them rather large to give them room to draw inside of yours. Make sure you go over the names of the shapes that they are drawing and count the sides. As well, take note of the number of sides that are "equal" or "not equal". (A variation for older kids is to name a shape, and again, let them draw it, BUT, you will be naming lots of geometrical shapes instead. :) This is harder than it sounds, especially when you get to the triangles, because there are many different "kinds" of triangles ie., right, equilateral, obtuse, isosceles etc.)
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