Challenge the child to line up the cars appropriately to slide through the tunnel. Adjustable the set up for an easier challenge. Have the kids involved in the set up for extra fun!
Set up Time: 10 minutes
Directions
- Secure toilet paper rolls (or cut paper towel rolls in half) with packing tape on a large piece of cardboard in the bottom 2/3
- Draw or paint a road to the tunnel
- Secure the top of the ramp to a glass door/window and the bottom to the floor with packing tape
- Have the child slide toy cars down the ramp and attempt to make it through the tunnel
Tips
For an easier challenge, flip the ramp to have the tunnels at the top
Materials
- Paper towel tubes
- Black paint, yellow paint
- Large piece of cardboard
- Packing tape
Learning Through Play
Cognitive: Problem Solving – This is a great way for children to explore the ways that speed increases or decreases at different angles. Invite them to observe the speed or distance that cars travel across the room! Add obstacles or other objects that might steer or block the cars.
Social-Emotional: Empowerment – We love ramps and cars! As children play with these materials they get to explore the ways wheels move, understand early physics, and they get to move their bodies! This is all so much more empowering than worksheets or forcing children to sit down all morning.
School Readiness: Spatial Learning – Talk about where the cars travel. They travel down, across the room, spin around, into tunnels, and more. Give children rich spatial language to describe their play by modeling it for them or by inviting them to make predictions. For example, caregivers can say “Where do you think the car will go?”
See this activity in the Rayz Kidz app along with the other activities in the theme “Cars”. Rayz Kidz is your trusted source for play-based activities featuring over 100 themes and 500+ hands-on activities and clear descriptions of the beautiful learning that is happening through play.
