Weekend Sip & Solve: Chalk It Up to Gratitude

3 days ago
2 min read

A multigenerational Black family and neighbours enjoying a chalk hopscotch game outdoors, with a child hopping while others draw a colourful chalk flower in a sunny courtyard.

Some Sundays call for a puzzle at the table. This one asks us to step outside, pick up a piece of chalk, and leave a little gratitude behind.

Chalk It Up to Gratitude is a simple neighbourhood game for children, parents, grandparents, friends, or anyone who wants to begin the new week by noticing something good. Chalk washes away. The moment does not have to.

What you need

A piece of sidewalk chalk, a safe patch of pavement, and one or more people willing to play. If a hopscotch is already drawn, even better.

How to play Gratitude Hopscotch

Draw a traditional hopscotch grid and number the squares. Before hopping, give each square a gratitude prompt. You can write the prompt inside the square or let someone call it out as the player lands.

Name a person you are grateful for.
Name something that made you laugh.
Name a place where you feel peaceful.
Name something your body helped you do this week.
Name a lesson someone older taught you.
Name something small that made life easier.
Name something you are looking forward to.
Name something beautiful you noticed.
Name one thing you would like to carry into the new week.
Finish with: “Today, I am grateful for…”

Make it a neighbourhood game

Leave a few pieces of chalk nearby and invite the next person to add a flower, a heart, a word, or another gratitude prompt. Children can challenge adults. Grandparents can challenge grandchildren. Neighbours who usually only wave can stop for a minute and talk.

There is no score to keep and nobody has to perform gratitude perfectly. The game is simply an excuse to move, remember, laugh, talk, and make a little temporary art together.

A Grandma Knows Best twist

Before everyone leaves, each person adds one word somewhere beside the hopscotch that they hope the neighbourhood carries into the coming week: kindness, rest, courage, patience, laughter, community, hope — or whatever word belongs there.

Then take a look at what you made together. By the next rain it may be gone. That is part of the beauty of chalk: we can make something lovely without needing to own the pavement forever.