When kids are occupied in the car, they’re a lot less likely to cause trouble. Here’s a fun car activity for your children that you can make right at home. It can be played over and over, and promotes reading, visual acuity, and helps the child categorize objects in the environment.
Items you’ll need: (You can find most everything at Walmart, Target, Staples, Office Depot, etc.)
1. Stiff construction paper (the stiffer scrapbooking paper works very well).
2. Pictures and labels of things children can spot on the drive. You can draw them, print graphics from a software program, or take snapshots. Use your imagination. I’ve printed graphics and labeled them on my computer.
3. Scissors and glue stick to cut and arrange the pictures.
4. Dry erase markers for game playing.
5. Sticky-backed velcro strips, for affixing the dry-erase pen to the card.
What to do:
1. Cut and arrange the pictures so that there are sixteen per card, in rows of four. I decided to made three cards with no matches on any of them. This way there are 48 unique pictures, so that a child could sit and go through all the cards, playing alone. I tried to carefully place pictures in rows so that hard objects and easy ones were in the same row. I also made sure each card had an animal, an emergency vehicle, objects from nature, etc. to make them as even as possible. (You could simplify the graphics by writing only the words in the spaces, if your child can read. Or make only sixteen images, copy them three times, and mix them on each card.)
If you’d like a copy of these images with labeling I’ve used, send me a message and I’ll arrange to mail them to you. You’d have to cut them out and paste them of course. I’d only send the images I’ve saved on three sheets of paper.
2. Use scraps to cut “lines” to mark the spaces. I like the look of it when they’re imperfect. Mine came out a little curved, and when you criss cross them it looks intentional.
3. Glue everything in place. I also used a second, larger square to strengthen the card and give it a color border.
4. Get the cards laminated (a MUST).
5. Wrap sticky velcro around a dry-erase marker and the opposite strip on the edge of the board, to keep pen and card together.
How the game works:
These cards can be used in competition with other passengers, to see who can get bingo first. Or, for longer trips, you can see who marks off their entire card first. A child can also play it alone, simply marking off the items as she sees them. Use dry erase markers to make an “X” on the pictures. It wipes right off. The back of the card can be used for drawing or doodling. If the markers are a problem for your child, try stickers, colorform circles, or affix velcro to little laminated markers.
Additional Ideas:
In addition to bingo card games, you could use a little creativity and make tic-tac-toe boards, a hangman, an empty “zoo” for drawing animals, and all kinds of in-car games for your kids.
Kristyn Crow is the author of this blog. Visit her website by clicking here.