A Garage for Every Car
What you need
- four toy cars and trucks in different sizes, each too big to fit through a toilet roll tube
- building blocks
How to do it
- Line the vehicles up from smallest to biggest and ask your child which one needs the biggest garage.
- Let them build a garage for each one out of blocks: a wall on each side and a flat block for the roof.
- Drive each vehicle in. Too tight? Make it bigger. Lots of room? Try a smaller car in there.
- Once every car has a garage, lay a road of long blocks between them and drive round the town.
Why it matters
A garage only works if the car fits, so they test it with the car itself, and a wall that's too close means pulling it down and building again.
What they're learning
- Size by eye
- Looking at the truck, then the gap, and building to match.
- Walls and a roof
- Two blocks stood up and a flat one laid across the top.
- Parking carefully
- Driving each car in without knocking a wall.
What to look for
Notice them holding a car up to the gap to check before they build.
A tip
Big wooden or plastic blocks are easiest. A cardboard box makes a good bus depot for the biggest truck.
Make it easier or harder
Easier: build two garages, one big and one small, for two very different vehicles
Harder: ask them to build a garage first, then guess which vehicle it fits
