The ideas went from saving a ridiculous amount of TP rolls and other recycled materials to create car parts to just purchasing some craft supplies the kids could color and paint. We'll save the recycled crafts for smaller groups. So the idea came to life as follows:
The kids loved making this every step of the way! Coloring the cars and rolling them around on their mini track was a great reward for all their hard work!
Here's some supplies to gather:
canvas-any size depending how big you want it or cardboard
mini wooden car green acrylic paint
black acrylic paint
white acrylic paint
paint brushes-wide and thin
Sharpie or sharpie paint pens
Moss (optional)
Pom Poms
Buttons
Toilet paper rolls
Anything you can find around the house or studio Elmer's glue or hot glue gun
Since we have a limited amount of time we did this in two sessions. We painted the canvas green and colored the cars first. You could leave off the green paint if you're using moss.
Car coloring was their favorite part of the creating process.
Next we painted the road with black paint. One thing that I wish we had a little more time to do was add white dashes to separate lanes. It definitely looks more like a road or track with the white dashes. Just use a thin paint brush and some white paint.
Last, just add glue! In our whirlwind crafting sessions, we usually just scribble the glue around the board for the kids and let them add all their stuff. This could be a great glue training opportunity, though. I realized after doing a few groups that it was better to pull the moss apart pre craft time. Otherwise, the kids were picking up giant globs, sticking it in one spot and then asking for more.
That's it! Once everything was assembled, they got to play with their cars and this kept them busy for a while even back in their own classroom. We had to let the boards dry so those take a little longer to be ready for playtime so I recommend using hot glue if that's an option. It was absolutely the best seeing how excited they were to be able to play with their creation!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Please comment below with your feedback and #thelittleartbus on social media if you get to make your own!
The kids loved making this every step of the way! Coloring the cars and rolling them around on their mini track was a great reward for all their hard work!
Here's some supplies to gather:
canvas-any size depending how big you want it or cardboard
mini wooden car green acrylic paint
black acrylic paint
white acrylic paint
paint brushes-wide and thin
Sharpie or sharpie paint pens
Moss (optional)
Pom Poms
Buttons
Toilet paper rolls
Anything you can find around the house or studio Elmer's glue or hot glue gun
Since we have a limited amount of time we did this in two sessions. We painted the canvas green and colored the cars first. You could leave off the green paint if you're using moss.
Car coloring was their favorite part of the creating process.
Next we painted the road with black paint. One thing that I wish we had a little more time to do was add white dashes to separate lanes. It definitely looks more like a road or track with the white dashes. Just use a thin paint brush and some white paint.
Last, just add glue! In our whirlwind crafting sessions, we usually just scribble the glue around the board for the kids and let them add all their stuff. This could be a great glue training opportunity, though. I realized after doing a few groups that it was better to pull the moss apart pre craft time. Otherwise, the kids were picking up giant globs, sticking it in one spot and then asking for more.
That's it! Once everything was assembled, they got to play with their cars and this kept them busy for a while even back in their own classroom. We had to let the boards dry so those take a little longer to be ready for playtime so I recommend using hot glue if that's an option. It was absolutely the best seeing how excited they were to be able to play with their creation!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Please comment below with your feedback and #thelittleartbus on social media if you get to make your own!
