When it's nice outside and there are a few moments before dinner is ready, I take the kids outside with a small bucket of sidewalk chalk. In order to make the chalk more velvety, I add water.
Just soak chalk pieces in a bucket of water overnight or as long as you can before using. I also pour the water on the sidewalk to wet it and let the kids draw. Wet sidewalk chalk has a smoother texture and the colors are more vibrant than when used dry. We also found this suggestion from Scrumdilly-Do blog - add a cup of sugar to the soaking water to make the colors pop even more. We've never tried the sugar trick but it sounds interesting.
Image: Scrumdilly-Do blog

Comments (6)
Another alternative is rainy day chalk art. Dry chalk on newly wet sidewalks is even lovelier!
What a great idea!
My children started doing this on their own - dipping their chalk in leftover puddles etc. At first I wasn't sure about it (it wasn't the proper way to do sidewalk chalk : ) !) - but they like it SO much better so experimentation and creativity won me over!
My kids always leave their chalk in the rain, so they take care of this themselves. :p
oh, yes, i love this. we've made some wonderful creations this way!
it does make the colors more vibrant, but it makes the chalk disappear MUCH faster. thank goodness it's so cheap! ;)