Make Your Own Garden Tic Tac Toe

We love being outside with the sun on our face and the wind in our hair, especially on some lovely summer days. We also love playing games. We have plenty of ball games to keep us amused, but how about a board game for the great outdoors?

When my children asked if they could paint stones, I thought it was a fantastic way we could make our own garden tic tac toe.

Garden Tic Tac Toe

To make a Garden Tic Tac Toe you’ll need:

  • 10 Stones
  • Paint
  • Paintbrushes
  • Varnish
  • Permanent marker
  • Sticks
  • String

It really is very simple to make, here’s how we did it…

We decided we needed two different pictures to paint on the stones. We have a bit of an obsession at the moment for butterflies, ever since we grew our own, so one set of stones were to be butterflies and the other set were caterpillars.

I drew the butterflies and caterpillars on the stones in permanent marker and they painted them.

Once they were dry, we varnished them, so the paint would be protected outside.

While we were waiting for the varnish to dry, we headed into the woods to collect 4 sticks of roughly the same size.

We trimmed the sticks to the same length, then laid them in a grid formation and used string to secure them.

Then our game began…

Garden Tic Tac Toe

I had to teach Pinky and Boo how to play Tic Tac Toe. Once, they got the idea they played together for ages. I did sit with them, prompting them to think before they decided on their next move and suggesting to look at where the other player may get 3 in a row etc. They gave Grandad a game and even beat him!

It turned out to be a fantastic game for learning, thinking, problem solving and strategies.

They really did enjoy this Tic Tac Toe and I think it was loved even more because it was physical, it was outside and they made it themselves out of stuff we found. I am looking forward to playing this a lot more over the summer…lets see who wins!

12 thoughts on “Make Your Own Garden Tic Tac Toe”

  1. This is awesome lovely! I can’t wait until we are able to do some neat and tidy painting, we’re still at slap in on the page stage!

  2. This is incredible! I absolutely love your blog by the way. You are so creative. And these stones are beautiful. I love playing tic-tac-toe but this is an even better way to play it. I bet your little ones loved it.

  3. Ooh this looks fun! This would be a great theme for a nature walk (collecting stones and sticks) and could even be finished up indoors in case of poor weather, or as they call it in Scotland: summer.

  4. This is really beautiful 🙂 , this idea has been on my to make list on pinterest for a while, but I was going to make it. Never really though about Monkey doing it! I will wait now until he’s got a bit neater and then we can make it together.

  5. I love your tic tac toe stones and board, they will love it even more because they helped to find things to make it and paint the stones. I never thought about showing O how to play noughts and crosses yet, maybe another game to introduce, he loves board games, so I imagine he would love this too.

  6. What a great idea, we’ve made our own Tic-Tac-Toe with ladybird and bumblebee stones in our fairy garden and the guests love it. It’s great to see Pinky and Boo playing so nicely together too. Well done to them for beating Grandad, they’ll be masters of it by the end of the summer.

  7. I love love love this I used to paint stones when I was younger and love it to make a game out of it is a great idea – must give this a try.

  8. This is great! My kids are 9 and 5 and are just beginning to play against each other with tic tac toe. I love this idea especially since we have lots of stones and sticks to use!

  9. Great idea! We have done it with stones and shells before at the beach but painting them at home makes it a bit more long lasting! I’ll be giving this a go!

  10. What a lovely idea. I used to paint pebbles as a child but had completely forgotten until now! It’s a great game and so much better that you made it yourselves.

  11. What a great idea! We have collect some stones on our visit from the Isle of Wight ages ago but I was stumbling at what to do with them. I think my boy will like this very much.

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