Construction Paper Roads

When I saw these printable roads from Picklebums, I just knew I had to make something similar for Munchkin. He absolutely adores his toy cars and spends so much time playing with them. And although he has a small racetrack that he loves, he sometimes gets bored with it (he really only uses it because it has a ramp and he can crash all the cars together). Now he will have a set of roads that we can pull out whenever he wants. It'd be great to laminate these so they don't get ruined, but we'll see how long they last... Luckily they are easy to make and can be replaced basically for free (provided we don't run out of black construction paper).

All you need are a few sheets of black construction paper (or brown for dirt roads! we will be making some of those soon too), white crayons or chalk, and scissors. I didn't bother measuring anything, I just folded the paper wide enough for his cars to fit on. 

I cut short, medium and long straight roads and a few corner roads.

Then I drew some divider lines on both sides of the roads. The roads are not wide enough for two cars to pass each other, only one fits at a time. I did this purposely, because I only needed these to look like roads. Munchkin has this thing about lining cars up... I wasn't worried about his cars needing to pass each other, they drive in an orderly fashion. 

Once the roads were cut up, I let Munchkin and Bean help draw the lines (rather, add some road art).

Bean watched and waited while we drew on the divider lines.

As soon as the roads were all finished, I didn't even have to give any suggestions on how to set up the roads. Bean started lining the roads up around the border of the table. She searched through the pile until she found corner pieces and then connected them with straight roads. She liked that there were a couple different sizes and she had to look around for the right size that fits. She said it was a puzzle.

Munchkin watched her and then followed her lead.

He was so happy when he had connected a road that he had to sit back and admire his work.

Bean pretty much felt like a pro. Look how casual she is, haha.

Munchkin started lining up his cars on the road. Bean said they were parked so we could make more roads.

A few minutes later the roads were all built! Bean really enjoyed fitting the roads together and she drove the cars around for a bit. Munchkin didn't know how he felt about that...

So he started to line them up...

The construction trucks were brought over to play too.

And soon all the cars and trucks were lined up in two orderly lines. Bean did manage to drive a few cars around, despite the line up. I told her that this is what a road block looks like and it was ok for her to find a way around it. :)

They had to rearrange the roads several times before they found a set-up that they liked best. I am so glad that they really enjoyed playing with these roads and it will most likely become a favourite quite-time play activity from now on.

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