Do you ever need a quick activity to whip out before you make dinner? Or something to help you make it through a looong afternoon?
This easy cardboard car ramp activity is for you!
Bonus points if you have a bunch of cardboard Amazon boxes lying around or some paper towel tubes! Add some painters tape and grab your favorite matchbox cars and you’re in business!
We set up our cardboard ramps a few weeks ago when my oldest two kids were at camp and the little kids wanted something special to do. They were SO PROUD of their creations and when the big kids got home they had to jump in and participate too!
This cardboard ramp activity is fun for all ages -- even I had fun designing some tunnels!
What do I need to get started with making some ramps & tunnels?
Materials Needed for Cardboard Ramps & Tunnels:
- Cardboard boxes
- Cars
- Chairs
- Painters tape
- Paper towel tubes
- Scissors
We love collecting all sorts of different toy cars to play with! Here are a few of our favorites to use with ramps and tunnels:
This post contains Amazon links.
How to get started with cardboard ramps:
- To get started, cut the cardboard into strips of different sizes and then use tape to make them into longer ramps as you piece the cardboard together, if needed.
- Use cardboard tubes to make tunnels on a slant or you can even fold up cardboard to make tunnels. Secure them into place using tape.
- Connect the tunnels to the tops and seats of chairs using tape. Encourage kids to be creative with where they start and end the tunnels.
- Experiment! Not every idea will work, but let your kids try out different ways to build the ramps and help them.
- Once some ramps are secured, try out cars on them. Keep adding more and more ramps until you feel your creation is complete.
What sort of learning is happening during this activity?
Just like with our pom pom wall, this activity is a great one to teach kids about cause and effect and different science concepts like force and gravity.
Trying out different heights and lengths of ramps allows kids to make hypotheses (educated guesses) about what will happen… and then watch and see. This activity is full of opportunities to problem solve as well! Failure allows kids to learn, and activities like these that allow kids to experiment, teach them about success and failure in simple non threatening and low stress ways.
Do you have more cardboard around your house? Here are a few other fun ways to use cardboard to learn and create:
- Make a cardboard box school bus
- Paint a cardboard box with water
- Make a butterfly out of cardboard scraps
- Let your toddler paint in a cardboard box
- Make a baby sensory play area
Do you have kids who love cars and other types of vehicles?
You might have fun checking out some of our favorite vehicle themed children's books! You can peak at several in the photo below, and you can also find even more in this post featuring our favorite books about vehicles for toddlers.
Do you have any favorite books or vehicle themed activities that we should add? Tell us in the comments!
This looks great fun. We always seem to have loads of boxes hanging around, I'll definitely have to try it with my boy.
Cait @ Of Needles and Noodles