Summer Fun 2014 - Sidewalk Chalk Grid Drawing Puzzle Race

On a whim I printed out several grid drawing worksheets to use with the children in various ways throughout the summer, ideas are still peculating as to how exactly we'll use them.  My children haven't had much experience with grid drawing, so I started with a simple one - a chicken from Make Learning Fun.  And, since it's summer, and we've been on a real sidewalk chalk kick lately, I decided to turn our first drawing exercise into a game, with sidewalk chalk.

First, I drew and labeled a grid on our patio, allowing one foot per square.

Then, I flipped the worksheet over, and labeled it to match the sidewalk grid (backwards so it would be forwards on the picture side).

I cut the picture up, along the grid lines, and shuffled the pieces...

...before taking them outside, and calling my youngest two to join me for a puzzle drawing game.  After a quick explanation of how grid drawing works, how to tell if the paper squares were turned the right way (with the letter and number right side up on the back), and a review of how to match the letters and numbers on the paper squares to the chalk squares on the grid, I gave them each a different color of chalk, and a square...

...and they started drawing, racing to be the one to fill the most squares with lines in their color.

After they completed the drawing in a square, they flipped the paper, and placed it in a discard pile, before drawing another square. 

In the end, E (age 9) was faster with the pink chalk, than her little sister with the purple.  In her haste, she drew several squares incorrectly, or in completely wrong spots on the grid, though.  So, we decided after penalties received for erasing, and making for a messy picture, we could call it a tie.

Even with mistakes, and erasing, we ended up with a pretty good chicken - much to the girls' surprise and delight. They wanted to do another one, as soon as they were finished.