Driveway chalk games and court ideas, for the hours the hoop is not enough

The five-minute chalk court

Snap a chalk line under the backboard's face, measure 15 feet out for the free-throw line, draw the lane 12 feet wide back to the board, and swing a 6-foot string for the circle. That is the high-school key, in chalk, in five minutes, and it changes how kids use the hoop: free throws become free throws, the lane becomes a place, and the layout tells you before you buy paint whether the hoop is in the right spot. The full dimensions, including the 19-foot-9 arc and whether it fits, are in painting court lines.

Shooting games on chalk spots

• Around the World: five to seven chalk spots on an arc from baseline to baseline; make one at each spot in order, miss and start over (or take a chance and go back to the beginning).
• Knockout: a line at the free-throw line; two balls; if the player behind you scores first, you are out. Works with three or more.
• HORSE with chalk: the shooter chalks an X where they shot from; the follower has to shoot from the X. Ends the argument about where the shot was.
• Numbered spots: chalk 1 through 10 around the key; a parent calls numbers, the child shoots from them. Free-throw practice disguised as a game.
• Beat the clock: a chalk circle at the free-throw line, ten makes, timed; write the time on the driveway and beat it tomorrow.
• Layup lanes: two chalk lanes from the wings to the rim for footwork; right lane right hand, left lane left hand.
• Target boxes on the backboard side: chalk a small square on the slab where a bank shot should be taken from on each side.

Games that are not basketball

• Obstacle course: a chalk path with jumps, spins, hops and a dribble-through-the-cones section; Crayola's Chalk-A-Boomz set ships four stencils and chalk balls for exactly this.
• Hopscotch, the original driveway game; a stone and ten squares.
• Four square: a 16-foot square divided in four, one playground ball, and a rule set every family argues about.
• Chalk pickleball: a 20-by-44-foot court fits a two-car driveway; a portable net and paddles do the rest.
• Driveway hockey rink: two chalk goals and a crease at each end; sticks and a street-hockey ball.
• A giant board game: a spiral of numbered squares and a die from the closet.
• The mural: the 130-count bucket exists for the afternoon a six-year-old decides the whole slab is a canvas.

Which chalk, and getting it off

Sidewalk chalk is the thick, soft kind; blackboard chalk is too hard and too thin for concrete. Crayola's washable sidewalk chalk comes in 48- and 130-count boxes and the 48-count page describes an anti-roll shape that keeps sticks from rolling down inclined surfaces, which on a sloped driveway is the whole feature. The Chalk-A-Boomz set adds five throwable chalk balls and four stencils. All of it is described as washable; a garden hose takes it off, a scrub brush takes off the stubborn colors, and rain does most of the work anyway. Keep the bucket dry between sessions or the sticks crumble.