Games to Play on a Chalkboard

A chalkboard may bring to mind lectures and long days in a classroom, but it can also be used for fun. Many games that can be played with paper and pencil can also be played on a chalkboard, such as hangman, tic tac toe and dots. Two or more people can play chalkboard games at a time. Some of the games will work for an entire class or party experience, as well.

This game works the same way as the classic paper version. At the chalkboard, think of a word and draw a blank line for as many letters the word contains. For instance, if the word is "horse," draw out _ ___ _. Draw a hangman's post (a large "7" will do) and allow another person to guess the word, one letter at a time. Each time they get a letter wrong, you draw another part of a stick figure being hanged, until the entire body is drawn. If the other player guesses the word before the stick man is hanged, he wins. Players switch places and play another round.

This old paper-and-pencil classic works well on a chalkboard. Two players play at a time, but you can have multiple games going on one large chalkboard. Just draw a double horizontal line, double vertical line board for each game. One player plays as an "X" and the other as an "O," until someone wins the game by having three characters in a line.

Dots is another classic game. You can play with two players, or more if you have a large chalkboard. Fill up your play area with equally-spaced dots in rows and lines. All the dots should line up so, if connected, they would make squares. Each player in turn draws a line connecting one dot to another. When a player completes a box, she writes her name in the box and gets to draw one more line. When the playfield is full, whoever has the most boxes wins.

This game is a lot like a popular board game. One player thinks up a theme, such as a movie title or particular famous person, or a non-playing person can whisper a theme to the first player. The first player then draws an interpretation of the theme on the chalkboard without writing words while others in the room guess the theme. Whomever guesses wins the round. You can also divide the room up into teams and award points for correct guesses.