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; Tiger Tribe's Chalk It Up book is 43 pages of 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: chalk the lines, then add a portable net and paddles. Measure across the slab first — a regulation net is 22 feet wide, which is wider than many two-car driveways, so a half-court build is often the one that fits; best driveway pickleball sets has the six that are currently sold.
• 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.

Chalk is where a driveway games session starts and not usually where it ends. Best driveway games for families ranks six of them by the shape of slab each one needs — cornhole wants the length, a pickleball net wants the width, and bocce and ladder toss fit whatever you have.

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 64- and 130-count boxes, and the 64-count listing describes an anti-roll stick shape designed to stay put rather than roll away, which on a sloped driveway is the whole feature. Tiger Tribe's Chalk It Up set adds a 43-page book of driveway games to five chunky chalks. 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.