Cars on the Cone Road

Each child is a car with a hoop for a steering wheel, driving along a road marked by two rows of cones, with curves, a traffic circle and a garage. Children warm up by moving at different speeds and practice simple road-safety rules.

How to play

1. Before starting, the teacher marks a wide, winding road with cones, a cone traffic circle in the middle and a garage in one corner; each child takes a hoop and holds it like a steering wheel (1 min).
2. Start your engines with a “vroom” and drive slowly along the road, staying inside the cones (1 min).
3. The teacher is the traffic light: arms up for green (go), arms out for yellow (slow down), hands together for red (stop) (2 min).
4. Open the traffic circle: everyone drives around it the same way and exits on the street the teacher names (1 min).
5. Speed up a little on the straightaway and slow down for the curves (1 min).
6. Back into the garage very slowly, turn off the engine and set the steering wheel on the ground (1 min).

Rules

• My car stays inside the cones.
• In the traffic circle, we all go the same way.
• If there's a car in front of me, I brake: cars don't crash.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: a child using a wheelchair is the bus, the road is wide enough for them, and others yield to the bus in the traffic circle.
• Autism: let them see the course before starting and drive it once holding the teacher's hand.
• Visual impairment: also mark the road with a rope on the floor to follow with their feet, plus a co-pilot buddy alongside.

Learning goals

• Control speed: start, speed up, slow down and stop.
• Follow one direction of traffic and the traffic-light signals.
• Warm up the body gradually.

Equipment for a class of 25

• Cones: 30
• Hoops: 25

Teacher tip

Set up the road before the children arrive. The usual snag is a traffic jam in the circle: send cars in four at a time the first few rounds.

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