Sidewalk Games

SNAIL'S PACE
Draw a large spiral shaped like a snail's shell on the ground. Make a circle in the center and label it "Home." Divide the rest of the spiral into a dozen spaces.

To start, the first player must hop on one foot, landing in each space, all the way to the Home circle, where she can land on both feet before turning and hopping back out. If she completes the feat without stepping on a line, she can write her initials in the space of her choice. No other player can land there for the rest of the game.

The next person in line then tries her luck at hopping to and from the center, skipping over the initialed space. If she succeeds, she earns a square. Play continues in this manner until no one is able to reach Home. Whoever has earned the most spaces wins.

SKELLZIES
Simple days call for simple games like skellzies. Ray and Dennis Vignola, authors of NEW YORK CITY STREET GAMES, play it like this:

Draw the field, fitting it within a sidewalk square or similar area.

Starting from behind box two, players place caps on the ground and, using their index or middle fingers, take turns flicking them into the numbered squares, beginning with box one. Upon making "onesies," players go again, shooting for "twosies" and so on, until they miss.

Hitting another player's cap allows you to place your own cap in the box you were shooting for (except when shooting for "ninesies"). If you land in Poison (marked by skulls), you lose three turns, unless someone hits you out, or you land on one of the four diagonal lines.

After ninesies, players shoot the numbers in descending order. Once across the start line, players become Poison. Each tries to hit the others, knocking them out of the game. For them, landing in Poison now has no effect. The last player left is the winner.

TIC-TAC-TOSS
Younger kids will get a kick out of this pebble-tossing variation of tic-tac-toe. Draw a large box on the pavement and a tic-tac-toe grid inside it. The first player tries to toss a pebble or a coin into one of the squares. If he succeeds, he marks the space with an X. A marker that lands on any of the lines is considered a miss. Then, the other player tries to earn a square, marking his win with an O. The first to fill three squares in a row wins.