Category: Cars

DIY Road Map

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It’s been a while since Veronika showed interest in her toy cars. So hoping to spur some play with them, today we made a whole town for her to drive cars through!

To start, I unrolled a long sheet of butcher paper on the ground, taping it at the corners. (Note: I’ve also seen this activity done on a table with a white board top, in which you can use dry-erase markers and wipe clean when finished). Veronika was delighted as we piled cars onto the paper to populate our town!

I started with a long black line for the main road, and showed her examples of buildings we could draw, including a few simple houses. Before I even prompted her, she drove a purple car to the purple house…

…and a green car to the green one!

We added buildings based on the other vehicles in our bin, including a school for the bus and a fire station for the fire trucks. At this point, you can encourage preschoolers or older kids to draw their own favorite buildings or destinations.

Next Veronika wanted to walk along the road. There was a giant in town!

Then she requested a beach, jsut like the one we visit in real life. That’s the brilliance behind the DIY road map, because kids can add their own favorites to this make-believe world. We also needed a construction site full of “dirt” (yellow and black marker) for her dump truck and digger.

Don’t forget to throw in a little learning about road safety. To wit, we had an octagonal stop sign at our town’s main intersection.

Once the drawing and creating is complete, a giant road like this can lead to imaginative play all day. Big brother Travis even got down to play with cars, which he hasn’t done in ages.

Box Flap Car Bridges

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Leftover flaps from Christmas packages were the perfect way to mix up Veronika’s car play today!

For set up, I simply pulled out an assortment of box flaps I’d saved, having cut the longest ones from packages we received in the run-up to the holiday. Ideally I would have liked to prop all of these flaps on top of still more cardboard boxes, but I only had one box left that was tall enough. In a pinch, chairs from our craft table could be additional supports for the ramps and brdiges.

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Anywhere I needed to attach two box flaps together, I clipped them with a clothespin. Veronika loved helping out as we set up this configuration, which turned into a neat triangle of bridges. I placed her directly in the center of all the flaps and then let a few cars loose along the ramps. She got the idea right away!

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The bridges are great for kids to experiment with, getting a little STEM lesson in the process. Anywhere they sag in a downhill, cars will roll with the force of gravity. Anywhere with an ascent, kids will have to push up.

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Veronika narrowly saved this car from disaster!

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She loved pushing cars along, zooming them down, and occasionally tossing them right off the ramps.

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In addition, the “fort” itself was a delight, especially once she discovered that she could crawl under the box flaps or back in all by herself, without me needing to lift her out.

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What a super fun way to recycle boxes and fit in car play.

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Winter Road

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What do you do when the kids want to play in the snow but you only have a thin, icy layer that’s not great for making snowmen? Make a road, instead!

I did this the easiest way ever, not even a shovel required. Instead, I took a few old markers and drew the outline of a road directly onto the snow.

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Now all the kids had to do was drive along the track.

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We added a few cross streets and curves to our road, and even a little stop sign for an early lesson on road safety.

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I had mostly intended the track for Veronika, but it turned out that big brother Travis loved driving the cars, too.

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Construction vehicles were particularly fun, like our bulldozer and dump truck which could scoop up snow or be filled with it.

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The icy wind drove us indoors fairly quickly, but at least we got in a little creative snow play!

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Cardboard Box Ramps

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Here’s a great use for the box from your latest package delivery, before you send it the way of the recycle bin!

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We received a large box in the mail and I knew it would be perfect for this activity. I cut off the side flaps, and then used duct tape to attach them to the insides of the box at angles. I had originally thought I might hot glue them, but duct tape seemed to work better to achieve the right angle. Veronika loved “helping” by adding some extra duct tape on top.

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Before taping on, cut a hole into each “ramp” so objects can fall from one ramp to the next. I also cut a hole in the top of the box as the starting point.

Time to see if the ramps worked! Veronika loved dropping a golf ball through the hole on top. Sometimes it rolled perfectly from one ramp to the next!

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Other times it rolled off the sides, but this didn’t dampen Veronika’s fun. You might consider some sort of buffer, though, (perhaps made from additional duct tape) to prevent this from happening. You could also place little jars at the bottom to catch the ball at the end of its run, if your child would enjoy that!

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After playing with the balls for a while, we decided to test toy cars.

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These didn’t work quite as well on the ramps, but it did turn the box into a fun little “garage” for a while.

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Parking Game

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Here’s a fancier spin on a cars and colors game I played with Veronika as she was just starting to learn her colors. Now that she knows them well, this version involved more of a craft, and had an imaginative component, too.

For each garage, you’ll need a thin cardboard box. Big cereal boxes are perfect, but Veronika loved the game so much that I had to raid the pantry for cracker boxes and oatmeal boxes to add to her little town.

For each parking garage, use a craft knife to cut an opening for toy cars to drive into. Use masking tape to close any loose flaps on the boxes.

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Cover each with a different color of construction paper. Originally I intended just to make a blue garage and red garage for her. “What color is it?” I asked, holding up the paper. “Blue!” she said with delight.

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I used double-sided tape to make quick work of covering each box instead of waiting for glue to dry.

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In short order, Veronika could drive in her cars.

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We sorted the toy cars by color, and I parked them relatively near the corresponding garage before asking prompts like, “Can the red cars drive into the red garage?”

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Sometimes I tried to trick her with a car pulling up to the “wrong” spot. She quickly spotted it each time!

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She had so much fun driving the cars in and then dumping them out, too.

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Pretty soon we had a whole little town. Between making the craft, playing with it, and returning to it over the course of a few hours, this made for a wonderful morning activity.

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Car Wash

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This is one of those activities that turned out to be just beautiful. I had originally intended the game for Veronika after a morning trip to have our real car inspected, but big brother Travis was eager to join in, too!

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We have a kid-sized Mustang that was perfect for the activity, but truly any kid “vehicle” would work, whether toddler ride-on toys, old tricycles, or bikes! Pull out the buckets, sponges, mild dish soap, and rags, and set your washers to work.

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Both kids immediately loved dipping little sponges in the bucket of soapy water and scrubbing gently all over the car.

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Travis focused on the exterior…

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…while Veronika liked cleaning the seats!

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When it was all soaped up, we rinsed with the hose. Then it was time to towel dry.

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And then of course we took the car for a spin!

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This was watery, soapy, sunshine-y summer magic at its best.

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Mud Games, Two Ways

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It’s no secret that toddlers love getting muddy, so today Veronika and I played with mud in two separate ways. The first was fake mud, and the second time was real!

For the fake version, we really were making ooblek, but I told her it was “mud” which she immediately loved. I dumped a box of cornstarch into a craft tray, then added 2 cups water.

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Mix with your fingers until you have that strange ooblek state of matter that is somewhere between a liquid and a solid. For novelty, we added cars and trucks to the “muddy” construction site!

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Veronika loved zooming cars through it. We also discovered that the tires would stick if you let them sit in one place for a few minutes.

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It was fun to watch the ooblek dribble and drizzle over the vehicles.

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I then added a little food coloring, which she swirled around by driving the truck wheels through it.

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And scooping it up!

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Next it was time for real mud. We mixed up a little potting soil and water on a plastic plate until we had a thick mud.

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Press your little one’s hand into the center of the plate (I recommend having water nearby for a quick rinse), then leave in the sun to dry.

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Obviously these prints are neither permanent nor as apparent as versions in clay or plaster of Paris, but they sure are fun.

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Pretend Car Wash

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Veronika’s favorite cartoon right now features a tractor that gets muddy and dirty. With just a few craft supplies, we could replicate the idea right in the kitchen!

I drew car shapes on craft foam (using a very simple profile of a car since that was easier than a tractor), and cut them out.

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I then gave Veronika the “cars” along with a few sponges, and a shallow basin filled with warm soapy water. Note: I used baby shampoo, to avoid tears if she rubbed at her eyes, but dish soap would work, too.

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Place everything on a towel to nix the possibility of slippery spills and to make clean-up a cinch. Then I showed Veronika how to scribble over the cars with marker. “Oh no!” I said in pretend dismay. “The cars are getting muddy! They’re covered in dirt.”

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She parroted right along, catching on to the game and coloring “dirt” over the cars.

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Now it was time for a car wash! Show your toddler how to dip a sponge in the soapy water and then scrub on the craft foam. The washable markers come right off, even without much scrubbing, so Veronika was soon rewarded with squeaky clean cars.

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And then of course she wanted a repeat!

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You can also anticipate lots of fun simply squeezing water out of the sponges, splashing cars through the soapy water, and playing with the car shapes after you’ve toweled them dry.

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Cars and Colors

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Veronika loves to drive around her little cars, so today I turned it into a color game. Each car had a corresponding “garage” of the same color to drive into.

Okay, so these weren’t really garages, just flat pieces of construction paper. But Veronika immediately took to vrooming the cars onto them.

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I started out making things very easy for her, just two different color cars and their corresponding paper. “Can you drive the orange car onto the orange paper?” I asked her.

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Success! So we made it harder. I added a third color, and then a fourth, and so on.

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Each time she vroomed the right car. Some of this might have been coincidence of course, since I laid down the correct piece of paper directly in front of her. But it’s all about reinforcement and repetition at this age!

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Throughout the day, I kept up the line of “Can you…?” questioning with regards to color. “Can you hand me the green car?” I asked her.

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“Can you pull on the red ribbon?”

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“Can you point to the yellow sticker?”

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This is such an easy way to reinforce colors throughout the day. You can even make it more of a Simon Says game: “If you’re wearing pink, clap your hands!”

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Want more color learning ideas? Try picking a color of the day the next time you take a trip out of the house.

Bubble Wrap Roads and Runways

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Having recently made a tape road, today’s giant road for Veronika was made out of bubble wrap instead! First, I taped a long rectangle of bubble wrap to the kitchen floor, securing it with painter’s tape.

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I encouraged Veronika to stomp on it with her feet to pop the bubbles, but she doesn’t weigh quite enough. Thinking quickly, we pulled out her heavy doll carriage.

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Now she got to enjoy hearing that pop pop pop! She zoomed the carriage back and forth a few times.

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Since we had moved on to vehicles, I pulled out additional cars and trucks for her to roll over the bubble road.

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Then, to add to her “city”, I cut a cardboard box into several pieces so we could make it into more of a parking garage, including a ramp along one side.

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She loved vrooming her cars off the road and into this garage. The empty roll from the painter’s tape made a great tunnel!

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If you want to get really creative, add additional boxes and have the bubble wrap road go right up and over them!

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When the car play was done, we went back to using the bubble wrap as a runway for our bodies. I showed Veronika how to crawl on it, and her little knees were rewarded with bubble pops.

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Next she sat down and tried popping individual bubbles with her fingertips. This is great for muscle strengthening!

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Big brother Travis wanted a turn running along our runway, too!

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I taped down a second rectangle, thinking the kids might want to race side by side. If your kids are close in age, you could even turn this into a competition to see who pops all their bubbles first, or whose runway is the loudest.

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However you play, bubble wrap is a great way to get out some energy inside!

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