Little Cars Road Trip

A chalk road with curves, a traffic circle and a tunnel is drawn on the playground. Each child drives a little car with a hoop as the steering wheel and obeys the teacher's traffic light. They work on locomotor skills, direction and attention.

How to play

1. Before class, draw a wide chalk road with curves and a traffic circle; add a cone zigzag (the mountain), the tunnel (the road tunnel) and a parking lot.
2. Give each child a hoop: it's the steering wheel. Show the traffic light with cardstock: green, drive; yellow, slow; red, brake and stop (2 min).
3. Everyone pulls out of the parking lot and drives along the road without leaving the lines, going "vroom" (3 min).
4. Hold up the cards at random. On red, they brake and freeze; on yellow, they drive in slow motion (3 min).
5. Add the obstacles: on the mountain, zigzag between cones; at the tunnel, they leave the steering wheel at the entrance, crawl through and pick it up on the way out (4 min).
6. To finish, "Everybody to the parking lot!": they park inside their hoop, turn off the engine and breathe slowly (3 min).

Rules

• Drive on the right side of the road, all in the same direction.
• On red, the car stops completely.
• Cars don't crash: leave space.
• One at a time in the tunnel.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: in a wheelchair, the hoop rests on the lap, the road is wide enough and the tunnel is driven around.
• Hearing impairment: the traffic light is already visual; make the cards big and easy to see.
• More skilled: a narrow one-line lane; less skilled: a very wide road with an adult as copilot.

Learning goals

• Travel along a drawn path.
• React to visual color signals.
• Move safely near others.

Equipment for a class of 25

• hoops: 20
• chalk: 4
• cones: 6
• fabric tunnel: 1
• cardstock: 3

Teacher tip

Draw the road before kids come outside. Stand in the middle of the traffic circle so everyone can see the traffic light.

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