Toy Car Road Map

What you need

• a long roll of paper, or a few big sheets taped together
• crayons
• toy cars, each too big to fit through a toilet roll tube
• a few small boxes for buildings

How to do it

1. Roll the paper out on the floor and draw one long road down the middle, then hand the crayons to your child and the friend who has come to play.
2. Ask them what their town needs, a park, a shop, a house for each of them, and let them draw it in along the road.
3. Stand the small boxes on the paper as buildings and give out the cars.
4. Ask where each car is off to today. Do they turn at the shop or drive to the end? Let the trips decide what gets drawn next.

Why it matters

Whatever one child draws gives the other a new place to drive to, so the town ends up full of both their ideas.

What they're learning

Drawing a map

Lines on paper that stand for roads they can drive along.

Joining in an idea

Driving to the park the other child has just drawn.

Telling a trip

Saying where the car is going and what happens on the way.

What to look for

Notice them driving to something the other child drew.

A tip

Tape the paper corners down so it doesn't slide when they drive.

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