Kids circle the item on the board when they see it outside. (You can play it like a bingo game, or just a game to see who finds the items on the card. )
Roadside Bingo Card 1
Roadside Bingo Card 2
If you want to continue to reuse these cards, you can laminate them with those self-adhesive laminating papers (available at Staples, Office Depot, etc. ) Then you can write on them with dry erase markers (or if you have little kids or messy kids, you can use dry erase crayons. Crayola makes them. )
Lines and Dots Game
1. Print the template above, OR make your own game board, using a blank sheet of paper and fill a section of it (or the whole thing) with evenly spaced rows of dots about half an inch apart.
2. Start the game. Take turns drawing horizontal or vertical lines between adjacent dots connecting them together.
3. If you complete a full square, write your initial in the box and take another turn. If your line creates two boxes, then you get to put your initial in both of them. Some strategy will be involved to see if you can create more boxes than your opponent.
4. Continue playing until all the dots on the page are connected.
5. Count how many boxes each player has on the page. The player with the most boxes wins!
Here is a sample lines and dots game that is just getting started:
Tic Tac Toe
Roadtrip Scavenger Hunt
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Surprise packages
Prepare ahead with paper bags of items to be given out every 25, 50 or 75 miles -- marked on a map with the location, it takes a little bit of preparation to do this but it REALLY helps young children. In each bag put a wrapped item -- usually a small toy. Then in some of the surprise packages you can add juice or a snack, stickers and a piece of paper, or something pertaining to the trip that you can talk about.
Aluminum Foil modeling
Give everyone a sheet of aluminum foil. Have them mold it into anything they want: animal shapes, Frisbees, balls, jewelry, crowns, masks, headband, necklaces. Be creative.
Examples
Magna Doodle Drawing boards
Magna doodle boards. THey are mess free and even the littlest of kids can draw on them!
Magna doodle boards. THey are mess free and even the littlest of kids can draw on them!
Animal Sounds
Make animal sounds and let your children take turns naming the animals. If your children are able to do so, let them take turns making the animal sounds and have you guess the animal.
The Rainbow Game Call out a color and they have to find something that color. Make the older kids find five things while the 2 year old looks for one.
The Animal Game Play it sort of like 20 Questions. Take turns thinking of an animal and giving everyone else clues about it until they can guess it. "I'm thinking of an animal that has a long neck and eats leaves", or "I'm thinking of an animal with sharp teeth, a long tail and spots...". Tailor it to fit all ages of kids in your car.
The "Unusual" Game
Take turns coming up with wierd, wacky, and unusual things. Start off, for example, saying "What if you saw a fish driving a truck? THAT would be UNUSUAL! " "What if instead of gas, we pumped the car full of lemonade? THAT would be unUSUAL!"
I invented this game with my kids and they LOVE it. They love to participate and come up with their own wacky scenarios and end up laughing and laughing.
Treasure Bottle
Prepare this one ahead of time. Use a large soda bottle or a large clean peanut butter jar. Fill it no more than 2/3 full with uncooked rice or birdseed. Then put in about 20-25 small objects (safety pin, plastic bugs, button, M&M, nut, bolt, paper clip, penny, bead, piece of macaroni, tiny lego, and other misc. toy pieces or stuff that is probably rolling around in your kitchen junk drawer.) Keep a count of the items and write down the number of items on the outside of the bottle. Put the lid on tight (super-glue it if necessary). Let the kids take turns rolling the bottle around in their hands until they find them all. Kids of all ages love this game. You can make more than one treasure bottle so kids don't have to take turns - put different items in different bottles.
Prepare this one ahead of time. Use a large soda bottle or a large clean peanut butter jar. Fill it no more than 2/3 full with uncooked rice or birdseed. Then put in about 20-25 small objects (safety pin, plastic bugs, button, M&M, nut, bolt, paper clip, penny, bead, piece of macaroni, tiny lego, and other misc. toy pieces or stuff that is probably rolling around in your kitchen junk drawer.) Keep a count of the items and write down the number of items on the outside of the bottle. Put the lid on tight (super-glue it if necessary). Let the kids take turns rolling the bottle around in their hands until they find them all. Kids of all ages love this game. You can make more than one treasure bottle so kids don't have to take turns - put different items in different bottles. Sewing Cards
You can buy these or make your own by cutting out shapes from thin cardboard and using a hole puncher near the edge every inch or so. Then take a shoelace or a piece of yarn with some tape wrapped around one end and "sew" all the way around your shapes. Big kids might enjoy having a "Lace Race" and see who can sew their card the fastest, or who can make the most interesting sewing stitches.
Books on CD
Available for free at the library!
Virtual Hide and Seek Pick a place inside your house to hide, and imagine you are there. You can be any size, so you can hide in the silverware drawer, inside the toilet, in the dryer, wherever you can imagine! The others ask yes/no questions only, ie "are you in the kitchen" until they narrow it down to the room, area and then....find you! Kids love this game because it's so fun to hide in places you'd not really fit into.
The Alphabet Game Start with the letter "A" and find one on a sign, truck, building or license plate, say the word and then move on to the next letter. You can do this as a competition or together as a family for the younger beginning readers. The first one to get to the letter "Z" is the winner!
I Spy Look around and pick an object you can see either in the car or along the road. Then give others a clue such as, "I spy with my little eye... something green.", or "I spy with my little eye .. something brown and furry" Continue to give more clues until they can guess what it is.
Twenty Questions Think of an object, it can be anything as long as it is general. The first question the players will ask is: "Is it classified as Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral", or you can do "Person, Place or Thing". The players can then ask anything they want about the object as long as you are able to answer "yes" or "no" to their question. They try to ask questions that will help them narrow down their ideas until they are able to guess the object. If they can do it in less than 20 questions, they win!
Roll of Tape Tape is irresistable to kids! Give them a roll and let them go crazy. If you're really lucky, some of it ends up zipping their lips shut for fun (sounds almost too good to be true!).
Extra Cool Coloring Pages (especially for kindergartners and up)
Mandala Coloring pages (intricate patterns)
Coloring pages of real works of art by famous artists
Coloring pages of historical U.S. places and symbols, U.S. Presidents, and U.S. historical events
Joan Walsh Anglund Coloring Pages
- Boy pushing girl on swing
- boy and girl in rowboat
- blowing bubbles
- little girl with flower
- flying kites
- under an umbrella
Twenty Questions Think of an object, it can be anything as long as it is general. The first question the players will ask is: "Is it classified as Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral", or you can do "Person, Place or Thing". The players can then ask anything they want about the object as long as you are able to answer "yes" or "no" to their question. They try to ask questions that will help them narrow down their ideas until they are able to guess the object. If they can do it in less than 20 questions, they win!
Roll of Tape Tape is irresistable to kids! Give them a roll and let them go crazy. If you're really lucky, some of it ends up zipping their lips shut for fun (sounds almost too good to be true!).
Extra Cool Coloring Pages (especially for kindergartners and up)
Mandala Coloring pages (intricate patterns)
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Coloring pages of real works of art by famous artists
Coloring pages of historical U.S. places and symbols, U.S. Presidents, and U.S. historical events
Joan Walsh Anglund Coloring Pages
- Boy pushing girl on swing
- boy and girl in rowboat
- blowing bubbles
- little girl with flower
- flying kites
- under an umbrella
Intricate princess (non-Disney) pages
Great Websites with travel games for kids
